 |
“What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” said Donald Trump to the Veterans of Foreign Wars during its national convention in Kansas City last year.
That gem set off a stampede to bookstores across the US as Americans cleared the shelves of George Orwell’s classic, “1984.”
In his review of Dorian Lynskey’s “The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell’s 1984,” for The Atlantic, staff writer George Packer notes that the nation “staggers under the daily load of doublethink pouring from Trump,” an outpouring that is amplified by his GOP enablers, Fox News mouthpiece and fanatical supporters.
But the role of “Big Brother” is reserved for Apple, while Facebook and Google take the part of the Ministry of Truth.
Or as Lynskey wrote: “By definition, a country in which you are free to read 1984 is not the country described in 1984.”
Instead, Americans voluntarily succumbed to the lure of Big Brother by agreeing to nonstop surveillance by the mini-telescreens (e.g., iPhones) that they carry everywhere and tell everything to—without any pressure from the state.
"The state of mind the the Party enforces through terror in 1984, where truth becomes so unstable that it ceases to exist, we now induce in ourselves," wrote Packer.
The irony of the situation: Apple once perceived itself as the liberator from Big Brother conformity, which was represented by IBM as its PC clones.
Apple kicked off 1984 with its powerful Super Bowl “Big Brother” ad for The Mac, which was watched by 96M people.
A female athlete, representing The Mac, threw a sledgehammer into a giant telescreen that featured a shouting man who personified Big Brother of Orwell’s book.
To the astonishment of the audience of IBM-like gray zombies, the telescreen exploded. Apple’s message: “You’ll see why 1984, won’t be like 1984.”
Apple needs to update that marketing pitch to “You see why 2019 is like 1984.”
Big Brother is indeed watching, thanks to the iPhone and to the horror of the star of Apple’s classic Super Bowl ad.
The Emirates NBA Cup is a stain on the reputation of the National Basketball Assn. Commissioner Adam Silver should cut ties wih human rights-abusing United Arab Emirates... Trump hit an all-time low with his Truth Social post about Rob Reiner's murder... Pay attention, sceptics. Climate change cuts US income by 12 percent, says new report.
Publicis Groupe celebrates its second century of operation with "A Lion Never Gives Up" film marking its history with a mix of live action footage and AI from material in its archives... Precision and Tunni develop "The Manosphere Index" guide for marketers to reach the fellas... Trump's affordability advice comes up short.
If you count the nonsense that Trump posts on Truth Social throughout the evening and early morning hours, he may be the hardest working president-ever... Happier days are here for adland as WPP Media upgrades 2025 ad spending forecasts... Martin Sorrell says Omnicom/Interpublic merger fulfills OMC CEO John Wren's desire to retire as the top dog in advertising.
New York Mets have been PR gold for majority owner Steve Cohen, who has snared one of NYC's gambling casino licenses... "Dozy Don" should escape the gilded confines off the Oval Office, which has become an old-age home for the 79-year-old president... Shocking revelation: Extreme weather poses threat to the perceived value of a home, says real estate maven.
Omnicom CEO John Wren isn’t exactly spreading cheer this holiday season as he works to cull another 4,000 people from the payroll in the wake of the Interpublic takeover... Donald Trump would have denied scamming his one-time personal lawyer and PR front man Roy Cohn, who taught him well....Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth enlists "Franklin the Turtle" in his tough-guy campaign to vaporize alleged drug boats.
