The Macintosh was introduced in early 1984 with an epic Super Bowl ad, “1984.” The Macintosh Office was introduced in early 1985 with a not-so-epic Super Bowl ad, “Lemmings.”
Like much of the Mac’s introduction, “1984” was a rousing success. Like much of the Macintosh Office’s introduction, “Lemmings” wasn’t.
“1984” opens with Big Brother (of “1984” fame) droning on to an army of brainwashed followers, who are “freed” by a sledgehammer-throwing female athlete in a Macintosh t-shirt. “Lemmings” opens with a stream of blindfolded office workers walking off a cliff, with the last one taking off his blindfold just in time to “look into” the Macintosh Office.
“Lemmings” was viewed as a failure because it insulted the very customers it was trying to sell the Macintosh Office to: business people. The Macintosh Office introduction was also viewed as less than successful because all it really was to start with was a Macintosh and a LaserWriter.
In hindsight, however, a few networked Macs and a LaserWriter, together with Apple’s trademark ease of use, was all that was really needed. The resulting Desktop Publishing Revolution brought Macs, LaserWriters, AppleTalk networks and eventually even AppleShare servers into many of the businesses the Macintosh Office campaign targeted.
Over time, Apple would leverage the initial components and ease of use of the Macintosh Office into an entire division focused on “Enterprise.” But that’s a subject for a Future set of posts.