Jan. 22, 1984: Dawn of the Mac

1984: The Apple Macintosh personal computer is introduced to the world in a now-legendary TV commercial aired during Super Bowl XVIII.

The 60-second spot featured a female athlete running through a dystopian landscape inspired by George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, to throw a sledgehammer at a TV image of Big Brother, meant, in this case, to represent IBM. It ends with the promise, "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984."

The ad, the brainchild of the Chiat/Day advertising agency, played well when shown to an Apple sales conference in 1983. But the company's board of directors balked and ordered the ad withdrawn from its Super Bowl slot. Only the intervention of Steve Wozniak, who said he'd pay for the spot personally if the board refused to air it, saved the day.

The commercial aired nationally only once, but its creativity and impact on the product prompted Advertising Age to select it as the "Commercial of the Decade." The ad is also credited with beginning the annual creative orgy that characterizes modern Super Bowl commercials.

The Nielsen ratings estimated that the ad reached 46.4 percent of American households, although how many people actually saw it is left to speculation. The spot aired during the third quarter of a tediously dull game -- the then-Los Angeles Raiders easily defeated the Washington Redskins, 38-9 -- and who knows how many viewers, even if they were watching, were still sober enough by then to understand what they had seen.