April 18, 1996: Apple unveils an enormous $15 million promotional tie-in for the Mission: Not possible film starring Tom Cruise.
Designed to advertise the PowerBook, which Cruise makes use of within the spy flick, the advertising and marketing marketing campaign comes at a very unhealthy time. Trying to climb again into the black after reporting its largest quarterly loss ever, Apple is in the midst of attempting to carry out its very personal unattainable mission. And that’s simply the beginning of the issues.
Mission: Not possible PowerBook promo
1996 stands as in all probability the nadir of Apple’s nasty ’90s. Simply a few weeks earlier than the Mission: Not possible marketing campaign, Apple reported a quarterly lack of $740 million. The surprising scale of the loss — with greater than half coming from $1 billion in unsold merchandise — revealed an organization in far worse form than beforehand thought.
The Mission: Not possible deal was an try to imbue Apple with some much-needed cool.
As a part of the costly marketing campaign, Apple launched a “Mission: Not possible — The Internet Journey” web site, an early instance of on-line film promoting. (You possibly can nonetheless see Apple’s Mission: Not possible web site, though the sport sadly not works.)
Apple product placement in Mission: Not possible
Screenshot: Apple
The deal additionally ensured that the PowerBook 5300c received display time within the film. Sadly, Apple and Paramount Photos signed the deal so late that Cupertino received no enter on the script’s tech components.
Because of this, the Mac proven within the film makes use of a command-line interface as an alternative of Mac OS. That made it look method behind the Home windows 95 working system then operating on PCs.
Even worse, when a very robust job turns up later within the film, the Mission: Not possible group’s resident pc knowledgeable advises the usage of nonexistent “Considering Machines laptops.”
Apparently, solely these fictional computer systems may get the job carried out. Ouch!
PowerBook 5300: On-screen and on fireplace, however not on retailer cabinets
A remaining drawback with Apple’s Mission: Not possible marketing campaign: The PowerBook 5300 wasn’t really available for purchase when the film hit theaters. Quickly after the primary 1,000 PowerBook 5300 models shipped to sellers round the US, information broke that two manufacturing models caught fireplace — one on the dwelling of an Apple programmer, the opposite at Apple’s manufacturing unit in China.
“The primary hallmark for Apple is ease of use,” wrote Pieter Hartsook, editor of The Hartsook Letter, on the time. “In case your machine doesn’t work, it’s not straightforward to make use of.”
Apple issued a recall on the 100 PowerBook 5300s already bought, changing the computer systems with one other mannequin. Sadly, the replacements packed solely two-thirds the onerous drive capability of their predecessors. That pressured Apple to decrease the value of the laptop computer by $100.
Because of this, moviegoers who noticed the PowerBook 5300 plastered on the silver display couldn’t purchase the pc. Not that many individuals may afford the dear machines: The top-end PowerBook 5300ce got here with a $6,500 price ticket, making it the costliest Apple laptop computer ever. (Adjusted for inflation, that’s round $12,500 immediately.)
One way or the other, Apple pulls off the unattainable
The Mission: Not possible deal definitely didn’t work out the way in which Apple deliberate. Nevertheless, 1996 marked the start of a significant turnaround for the corporate. Earlier than lengthy, Cupertino deserted its disastrous clone Mac idea, loved a number of surprisingly huge hits, and — most importantly of all — introduced Steve Jobs again into the fold with the NeXT acquisition.
Now that’s a Hollywood ending!
