Coca-Cola (1979)
This Coca-Cola advert was iconic at the time and it also spurred countless parodies over the years. The commercial stars Joe Greene (who is regarded as being “mean”) who is accepting a bottle of, you guessed it, coke, from a young fan. The former Pittsburgh Steelers player drinks his beverage before throwing the boy his jersey and delivering the campaign’s slogan: “Hey Kid, Catch!”
The catchphrase became the title of the advert and the agency which created the advert, McCann Erickson, had won a Clio Award for it the same year.
Apple (1984)
Based on George Orwell’s dystopian novel with the same name as the year in which it was aired(1984), the commercial includes a lot of the themes and makes direct references to the book. The advert was so much so like part of the book that George Orwell’s estate deemed it to be copyright infringement and sent a cease-and-desist to the big tech company a few months after the commercial aired. Yet, the Apple advert has done its job to turn everyone’s eyes on their new product.
The heroine of the ad, played by athlete Anya Major, hurls a hammer at a version of Big Brother which brings about his demise. A voice-over concludes the commercial relying on the message that “On January 24, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984,”. It was the start of Apple’s technological empire, we just did not know back then just how big the company would get!
Nike (1992)
This 60-second commercial may not seem like much at first, but when you look into its history it becomes very significant as the short commercial ended up being the inspiration for the partially animated 1996 movie Space Jam. The commercial stars Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny, who are seen wearing the new Nike Air Jordan VII as they defeat a group of competing players who were tormenting the hare before that. It was directed by record-breaking ad genius Joe Pytka, who then followed up by directing the movie as well.
