The “1984” Macintosh Ad: Cinematic Icons and Constitutive Rhetoric in the Launch of a New Machine

Sarah Stein

61 citations0/0 files storedQuarterly Journal of Speech

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Rhetoric and Communication Studies Linguistics and Discourse Analysis Media, Gender, and Advertising

Abstract

The “1984” Macintosh ad was broadcast only once in 1984 to launch a personal computer that could easily be used by non‐expert consumers, but the ad has remained in the public eye via numerous television and advertising award ceremonies. Applying a theory of constitutive rhetoric with analysis of the ideological codes and cinematic narratives that construct the ad, this essay explores the integral role ads play in the cultural discourse of new technologies. Ultimately, the ad's rhetoric of freedom and revolution is used to constitute consumers, not rebels, leaving intact capitalism's ideological investment in the technological realization of social progress.

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References

1978Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison 1996Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison.1997Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet 2007The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction 1992Make Room for TV 1981"Discipline and punish. The birth of the prison", Michel Foucault, New York 1979 : [recenzja] / Jacek Sobczak.1985Advertising the American Dream 1993Window Shopping

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