Before Tinder, the Dating Game

The Dating Game was an ABC television show that aired from late 1965 through mid 1973. It was hosted by Jim Lange. Most of us who worked on the original Mac team were born in the 1950s or very early 1960s. As such we were very familiar with this show.

The format was simple, but contagious. Three eligible bachelor men sat side-by-side on stools, facing the audience (see photo below of the set design). A wall separated them from the beautiful bachelorette who would ask questions to each bachelor. Based on their answers, she would pick one to be her date. 

This would create the “big reveal” when the selected bachelor would come around the wall and greet his new date. I always expected the bachelorette to scream and run the opposite direction, but it never happened. The show used music by Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass, with the song Spanish Flea being very popular (you’d know instantly if you heard it).

In the fall of 1983 we were putting together the pieces for the Mac launch, scheduled for January 24, 1984. Our marketing plans and launch strategy were now influenced by the George Lucas / Star Wars newspaper article (see Mac Story #10: A Newspaper Clipping Saves the Day).

One of the upcoming very important pre-launch events was the annual Apple Sales Meeting in Hawaii. Sales personnel from throughout the world would be attending. They would receive product updates for the Apple II, the Apple III and the Lisa. And we would have a time slot allocated for the introduction of the Mac. 

Neither the Apple III nor the Lisa had caught fire in the market, notwithstanding exciting internal launches in prior years. And the Apple II was getting a bit old in the tooth. We had to overcome any skepticism from the sales force regarding the potential of the Mac. Our desire was not only to overcome their skepticism, but to blow their minds.

Two simple ideas emerged:

1. Steve would do a dramatic set-up for the (now famous) 1984 TV Commercial and then show the commercial on a huge screen in the hotel ball room. The commercial was finished, and we were waiting to show it during the 1984 Super Bowl. Let’s test-drive it with our sales force. They’ll either love it or hate it.

2. We would use the old Dating Game TV format as a way of showing that the top software developers in the world were not only excited by the Mac, but were developing important applications for it. Could we get Bill Gates (Microsoft), Mitch Kapor (Lotus) and Fred Gibbons (Software Publishing Company) to be our three bachelor contestants, with Steve Jobs as our bachelorette? And could we license the format and the music from ABC?

Arranging the 1984 commercial was easy. And it was super successful. The sales crowd went berserk after seeing it. In reality it was a very low bar. It was like feeding raw meat to hungry lions.

Getting the Dating Game pulled together was a lot more complex. And, unknown to the sales force, the sales executives, the meeting planners, and the “three bachelors”, this was not just a fun, creative sales conference skit. We had an important hidden agenda that would have great impact on our first year marketing efforts. We had to get this right.

What was up our sleeve? 

If we could get Bill, Mitch and Fred all to agree to come, then we would package them as super-enthused public spokesmen for the Mac. This would greatly influence the large second tier of software developers across America and Europe. And it might open the door into the Fortune 500. But we knew that they wouldn’t and couldn’t agree to do this upfront. They had to maintain their impartiality and objectivity vis-à-vis the IBM PC marketplace. 

Once they arrived in Hawaii for the skit, we would make sure this was a fun event for them. We were young, we all knew each other, and we would do our best to alleviate any discomfort. But we would insist on dressing them in Mac shirts, hopefully without any protests. And then we would take quality photos of the three of them smiling that we could use for posters and other marketing materials. (And if memory serves me correct, we had each of them sign a release.) 

We also would carefully craft the questions that our “bachelorette” Steve Jobs would ask the contestants. The questions would seem, on the surface, to be spontaneous, upbeat and light-hearted. But the goal was that the bachelors, each hoping to win the date, would inadvertently stumble over each other trying to give the best answers. In so doing, they would lose their objectivity and dramatically expand their vocal support for the Mac – far beyond what they ever expected to do. And the loud cheering and laughter from the sales force would also encourage this. We also knew that each of these men was naturally competitive – they liked to win in everything they did.

I recall that there was a small amount of tension by one or more of the three contestants once they sniffed out what was really happening. Somehow or another we resolved their concerns and the Dating Game commenced in front of a very large hotel ball room full of enthusiastic Apple sales people.

And guess what? It worked like a charm. The Dating Game contestants became the Macintosh Poster Boys! (see photo below of Bill, Mitch and Fred) And posters, like the one in the photo below, showed up in all computer stores. 

The quotes that we put on the poster, as a way of establishing the Mac as a new industry standard, were:

Bill Gates: “To create a new standard takes something that’s not just a little bit different. It takes something that’s really new, and captures people’s imaginations. Macintosh meets that standard.”

Fred Gibbons, President of Software Publishing Company: “…if you were to put machine “X” on a table and a Macintosh on the table beside it, and then put pfs software (his main product) on both machines … like a taste test … we think Macintosh’s benefits would be pretty obvious.”

And Mitch Kapor, President of Lotus Development Corp: “Macintosh is much more natural, intuitive and in line with how people think and work…this is going to change the way people think about personal computers. Macintosh sets a whole new standard and we want our products to take advantage of this.”

At that time these were dramatic words from the three most visible, most credible leaders in the personal computer software industry. Almost 100% of their revenue and income came from software running on IBM PCs and look-alike clones. We couldn’t ask for anything better than this.

These “best answers” became very valuable public endorsements for the Mac that we then used in our launch and follow-on advertising, public relations, and dealer training. It was part of our highly integrated effort to establish a groundswell of credibility right out of the gate – creating the impression that the Mac was already an industry standard.

Thanks Bill, Fred and Mitch – it was a blast!! Aloha!!

Later edit: Here's a YouTube shortened version of the 1983 Mac Dating Game - https://youtu.be/InPIGu-bdwM