8 Tech Ads That Became Pop Culture Icons: In Photos

There’s literally no tech advertisement that is more iconic than Steve Jobs’ famous 1984 ad for the Macintosh PC. Of all tech ads, the Apple 1984 ad set precedent and created furore and hype like never before. Featuring Ridley Scott as its director, the 1984 ad also catapulted tech ads to pop culture fame, which in the following years would lead to fellow tech giants spending advertising dollars too.

Arguably not as widely viewed and hyped, the Reunion ad from Google in India still touched hearts for the emotions it brought along. We all know of how synonymous Google’s search and maps have been in our life, and it is this that the company used to show the golden thread that connects technology to everyday life. This Partition-driven ad, featuring both sides of India and Pakistan’s border, is touching to say the least.

In 2013, Samsung purchased a Super Bowl slot to market its flagship Galaxy smartphones, roping in Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd and even a special appearance by LeBron James for the same. The ad was highly entertaining at the very least, and showcased the star power that Samsung had begun to command in the big league of tech. It was early days for Android as a premium experience, but cemented Samsung as one of its foremost players.

Every Indian glued to a TV set through the ‘00s would have, at some point, hummed along to the Moto Rokr jingle featuring Abhishek Bachchan. It was also one of the first times when a Bollywood figure featured in a tech ad back in the day, and came back in Motorola’s heyday when not just the Moto Razr, but even super sleek phones such as the Moto Slvr and Moto Rokr captured an entire young generation’s fancy.

The Windows vs Mac ads, which are yet again catching headlines, started way back with classic digs that Apple took to its cross-state neighbours. Featuring Josh Hodgman as the banker-like Windows and Justin Long as the relatable, everyday cool dude neighbour, Mac won its place by stating how it’s simply better at “life stuff”. Since then, Apple’s gone ahead and established its place as a lifestyle brand. To be fair, Windows hasn’t exactly done too bad for itself, either.

Another India special ad on this list, there’s literally very few in the country who grew up in the 2000s and did not at least see the Nokia 1100 for once. This ad spot by the company was among the first to showcase a phone that it marketed as “made for India”. It had all the stereotypes – catchy Punjabi beats, an over-the-top truck and the use of a portable torchlight, a feature that the Nokia 1100 would later be fondly remembered for.

Yahoo was once the king of the internet, and the entire game of search engines was its own. Before it really lost out the email and search game to Google, Yahoo had this excellent ad showcasing the consequences of spam email. The ad became quite famous for the hilariously English undertone that it had, as well as the iconic, signature “Yahoo!” callout. The use of “Lady Boy” also stuck, which is exactly what Yahoo wanted.

Back in the ‘70s, Xerox was a leading player in the tech space, and its Monk ad can somewhat be attributed as the first by a Silicon Valley company to carry this much spunk. Showcasing the abilities of Xerox’s latest copier, including a “ridiculously fast” copy speed of two pages per second, the ad labelled the performance of the copier as a near miracle, going some way in turning the brand’s name from a noun to a verb. That’s as iconic as you can expect an ad to be.