A Brief History
On January 22, 1984, Apple introduced their iconic home computer, the Macintosh, on a television ad during Super Bowl XVIII. The Mac is notable for being the first commercial computer to make popular use of the “mouse” and the “graphical user interface,” that is, using clickable icons instead of having to type text commands for many functions.
Digging Deeper
The Apple “1984” ad for the Macintosh is considered a groundbreaking ad that set a new standard for Super Bowl commercials. Super Bowl commercials have become an annual tradition for millions of people, either for the dramatic debut of new and exciting products or for the entertainment value of cleverly put together ads.
A few of those notable ads include:
The annual Budweiser ads, an ever popular series of ads that have often featured the beloved Clydesdale horses, especially in 2023 with their “Old School Delivery” edition where the big horses deliver the famous beer to a snowed in town.
In the 2018 game broadcast, viewers were treated to a cast of celebrities trying to replace Amazon’s Alexa voice when the familiar AI assistant loses her voice due to a cough.
And of course, nothing is as American as Betty White, and she made Super Bowl memories with the 2010 commercial for Snickers candy bars, in the unlikely role as a hungry football player.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: What is the greatest Super Bowl commercial?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Lu, Cary. Mac: The Apple Macintosh book. Simon and Schuster, 1984.
Raithel, Sascha, et al. Winning the Advertising Game: Lessons from the Super Bowl Ad Champions. Springer, 2025.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Davis Staedtler from San Antonio, TX, USA of a Macintosh computer, on display in the Newseum, Washington, D.C., is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.