On January 22, 1984, 96 million Americans watched what many still consider the most iconic advertisement ever created. During the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, Apple aired sixty seconds that would redefine not just how companies sold products, but what advertising could be.
The commercial, directed by Ridley Scott fresh off Blade Runner and Alien, never showed the Macintosh computer it was selling. Instead, viewers witnessed a dystopian nightmare: gray-skinned workers in identical uniforms marching in lockstep through industrial corridors, their vacant faces illuminated by a massive screen. On that screen, a Big Brother figure droned propaganda about “information purification” and “unification of thought.” The workers sat motionless, absorbing the message. Then a woman in bright red running shorts sprinted through the corridors, pursued by riot police in full body armor. She hurled a sledgehammer at the screen, shattering it in an explosion of light just as Big Brother declared “We shall prevail!” The commercial ended with a single line: “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984.’”
