The 1984 Apple Macintosh Super Bowl Commercial Story

The 1984 Apple Macintosh Super Bowl Commercial Story

The now legendary commercial that introduced the Apple Macintosh personal computer for the first time was aired only twice.

A nod to George Orwell's dystopian future, the Ridley Scott directed award-winning 1984 aired only once in Twin Falls, Idaho on December 31st, 1983, in order to qualify for a Clio award ,and again most notably on CBS on January 22nd, 1984 during Super bowl 18.

The commercial was both powerful and wildly successful. The commercial states: on “January 24th. Apple. Computer will introduce Macintosh, and you'll see why 1984, won't be like 1984’”. Despite its success, It was officially only shown twice.

According to mac-history.net, the estate of George Orwell and the television rights holder to the novel 1984 considered the commercial to be a flagrant copyright infringement, and sent a cease and desist letter to Apple and Chiat/Day in April, 1984. According to the Chicago Tribune, the ad was supposed to continue running, but did not because the company's board thought it was irresponsible to air a commercial, for which no product yet existed .