Macintosh Ad

The 1984 ad for Macintosh is arguably the best commercial ever made. Created by TBWA\Chiat\Day, it played only once during the super bowl. So what makes it stand out so much?
This ad symbolizes breaking free of oppression. In the 1980s amidst the cold war, big brother was a word with an oppressive connotation to it. The term, “big brother is watching you”, was thrown around here and there. These were real issues back then just like the war in Iraq is today.
It delivers a powerful message. Something along the lines of, “IBM is big brother, and big brother is bad. Break away from big brother, buy a Macintosh!”
This is a perfect example of how advertisers use intertextuality to pack layers of meaning in a message, to evoke the viewer’s past experiences and customize the meaning to each distinct person. Intertextuality can be used in two ways.
Horizontally; this is when you link old and new cultural texts within a single genre combine to make meaning.
This commercial uses the other… You guessed it..
Vertical intertextuality!
There is a connection between this commercial for computers and cultural phenomena such as big brother, and the cold war the link is in a totally different genre.
There is a lot of tertiary text regarding this ad. It has won countless number one awards including the US TV guide’s top 50. So my perception of it may be a little distorted from hearing about it in many of my classes.

The best example of intertextuality(in this case horizontal) is the new commercial I saw on the internet that borrows everything from this very famous commercial to promote a politician.