Sonos’ latest ad ‘borrows’ from classic Apple commercial

By

Screen Shot 2017-02-13 at 13.00.01
Strangely familiar.
Photo: Sonos

Apple’s iconic “1984” Macintosh ad, directed by Ridley Scott, debuted 33 years ago last month, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still being ripped off by other tech companies.

The latest culprit is Sonos, which just debuted a new 90-second commercial in which a rebel with a cause (and apparently enough money to throw around perfectly good speakers) hurls a hammer… err, we mean Sonos speaker through the windows of her neighbors, who have the audacity to be enjoying a music-free evening.

Fight the power!

To be fair, with the slow motion spinning and shattering glass,  this isn’t a Xiaomi-style Apple ripoff, so much as it is a homage. Still, given how iconic the Apple spot is, and the fact that this ad pretty much just repeats its beats without in any way subverting them, it doesn’t come across as the most original ad of 2017.

Apple’s far from a stranger when it comes to other tech companies borrowing from its formula. The minimalist white backdrop and sincere-sounding British disembodied voice ads are pretty much a genre unto themselves these days. Meanwhile, last year cloud-based team collaboration chatroom Slack “paid homage” to Apple’s audacious 1981 newspaper ad welcoming IBM to the personal computer industry, by doing the same to Microsoft.

We guess that’s the terrible fate of companies with so many iconic commercials. Now if someone would just borrow from Apple’s disastrous 1985-era “Lemmings” ad

Here’s the original Mac ad again if you don’t remember it:

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.