The Macintosh was introduced during Apple's famous 1984 Super Bowl commercial directed by Ridley Scott.
The advertisement, commonly called “1984,” aired during Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984. It presented Apple as a challenger to conformity and ended by announcing the Macintosh, Apple's new personal computer with a graphical user interface and mouse.
The Macintosh 128K went on sale two days later, on January 24, 1984. Unlike the Apple II line, it was designed around graphical interaction rather than requiring users to rely primarily on typed commands. Its compact all-in-one case also became an important part of Apple's product identity.
The commercial was inspired by George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, but it did not name IBM directly. The Macintosh launch is often remembered as a landmark in technology advertising, even though early sales were modest compared with Apple's later successes.