Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl commercial was titled “1984.” Directed by Ridley Scott, the advertisement introduced the Macintosh computer through imagery inspired by George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The commercial showed a woman running into a theater and destroying a giant screen displaying a conformist speaker. Its closing message presented the Macintosh as a tool that could help prevent a future dominated by technological conformity.
Apple broadcast the commercial during Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984. Although it aired only once nationally in the Super Bowl, it received enormous publicity and became a landmark in technology advertising.
The advertisement is often confused with Apple’s later “Think Different” campaign. “1984” was the title of the Macintosh launch commercial; “Think Different” began in 1997.