Famed Mac Ad Came True
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Tom Boellstorf, Bay Area gay activist and editor of Tema, a Soukt gay publication, uses his Mac in Moscow. Famed Mac ad came true bachev has a Macintosh, as does Union," says Roger Macdonald of Apple computer Russian Federation President Bo- San Francisco's Interlegal Net- ris Yeltsin. Other Soviet Mac users work. Macdonald was responsible did eventuallv help include Abel Aganbegyan, former for selecting and outfitting Macin- senior economic adviser to Gorba- toshes and laser printers for Yel- smash 'Big Brother' chev, and Evgenii Velikov, another tsin and Aganbegyan. top Gorbachev aide and a fellow "We always believed once you By Carla Marinucci board member with Apple Chair- have enough of a (computer) net- OF THE EXAMINER STAFF man John Sculley on the Interna- work. .. you could no longer re- EVEN YEARS ago, Ap- tional Foundation for the Survival verse the democratic process," says ple Computer Inc. and Development of Humanity. Henry Dakin, whose namesake stunned the ad world "The Mac has been at the lead- Dakin Inc. is in South San Francis- with a futuristic commer- ing edge of some profound socio- cial called "1984." which political movements in the Soviet [ See VERTISING, C-5 ] introduced the ~acintoshtothe world. The spot showed a runner with a sledgehammer smashing a drab world ruled by "Big Brother." It carried one enduring message: the power of information. This year, the prophetic com- mercial became reality, in the Sovi- et Union. Those who played key roles in ' the Soviet revolution of 1991 say that, indeed, it was the Mac - in private homes, offices and tiny desktop publishing enterprises - that served as the technological sledgehammer to help smash the coup efforts and spread word of a democratic resistance. Soviet President Mikhail Gor- Apple's legendary "1984" Macintosh ad: How prophetic it proved to be! SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER ADVERTISING from C-1 publishing capabilities are pro- Union. Its related organization, The work - on equipment donat- viet thinkers and its Macintosh to found, even in the hands of a nov- Postfacturn, is one of the Soviet ed by the Gay and Lesbian Human gain a competitive edge in the fu- I Legendary Mac ice. .and you can print in Cyrillic Union's largest independent news Rights Commission of San Fran- ture. ad came true magnificently." se~ces. cisco just two weeks before the Macdonald says it is would be ~monggroups that used ~acs The groups, headed by Nina Be- coup ,- continued covertly even as appropriate, first, for the company / co and who donated thousands of during the coup are: lyaeva, compiled information from independent publications were de- to reassess its advertising to trum- I dollars in Macintoshes and related b Foundation for Social Inno- Yeltsin's camp inside the Russian clared illegal. pet its role toward change in the equipment to democratic groups in vations, a nonprofit group outfit- Parliament building. They used b Moscow News, whose print- Soviet Union. Unlike Pepsi, which the Soviet Union. "This was the ted in part by Dakin with 10 Macs Macs, connected with San Francis- ing presses were closed during the used the demise of the Berlin Wall first real test we had of it." throughout its offices in 17 Soviet co offices through E-mail, fax and coup. It used Macs, also donated by for advertising purposes, Apple's modem, to distribute coup infor- 1 The intriguing question now: cities. The group networked infor- Dakin, to compose an emergency role in the Soviet democratic mation to U.S. and international newspaper handed out on the movement "was very substantial, I How much will Apple use its mar- mation by Mac via electronic mail, fax and modem throughout the news organizations and then to streets during the coup. very real," he says. (Company offi- keting expertise, advertising and Radio Liberty - heard by millions goodwill for public relations to U.S.S.R. and published informa- b Sov-Am Teleport, the San cials say they haven't considered worldwide, including the captive Francisco group that has provided any advertising related to the Au- maintain its Soviet edge? tion on nonviolent resistance dur- President Gorbachev. ing the August crisis. a major electronic communications gust events.) While there are "vastly more" b Tema, a Soviet gay publica- link between the U.S.S.R. and the Macdonald has already ap- IBM PCs,andclones in the Soviet 'We looked upon it as a window tion headed by Roman Kalinan, West. It used Macs in both Mos- proached company officialsto also Union in business enterprises, to the world," says Nellie Gregori- 24, of Moscow, and assisted by cow and San Francisco to trade in- consider donations and sales agree- Macintoshes are favored by "inno- an of the FSI Moscow office, "es- Tom Boellstorf, a 22-year-old ac- formation between Mac users. ments with key Soviet groups and vators and leaders of social move- pecially during those three days tivist from the Bay Area. The two Glasnet, another major communi- nonprofits on the leading edge of ments. .. because they are thebe- when we were isolated from every- collected information at the Rus- cations link for nonprofit organiza- change. all and end-all in user friendliness," thing." sian Parliament building, entered tions, also used Macs for similar "When you plant the seeds for says Macdonald, a specialist in So- b Interlegal Research Center, a it in their home Macintosh LC, purposes. intellectual freedom and innova- viet ~oliticaland technological is- printed it out and distributed it "to group of independent lawyers and . With all that activity, observers tion, those seeds can't help but sues. "You can teach yourself how journalists dedicated to the devel- people in the streets and even sol- say, now it may be a perfect time have a great crop of rewards," says to use it. The database and desktop opment of democracy in the Soviet diem in the tanks," said Boellstorf. for Apple to nurture the relation- Macdonald. "Apple understood - I ships between some of the top So- this when they hooked up a genera- .