Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl commercial introduced the Macintosh computer to a mass television audience.
Directed by Ridley Scott, the advertisement depicted a dystopian auditorium and a runner destroying a giant screen. Its message presented the Macintosh as a challenge to conformity and was inspired by themes associated with George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The commercial aired during Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984.
The advertisement did not show a conventional product demonstration and used very little technical detail. Instead, it created a memorable cultural launch for Apple’s new personal computer. The Macintosh itself was unveiled two days later, on January 24, 1984.
IBM was the major rival evoked by many interpretations of the commercial, but IBM did not produce it. Microsoft and Commodore were also computer companies, not the retailer and technology brand behind this famous advertisement.