Apple launches the Macintosh with a Super Bowl ad
Ridley Scott directs a one-time ad; Wozniak and Jobs's team ships a computer built around a mouse and windows
Quick facts
- Ad aired
- 22 January 1984, Super Bowl XVIII
- Ad director
- Ridley Scott
- Macintosh unveiled
- 24 January 1984
- Key features
- Mouse, overlapping windows, icons, cut-copy-paste
What happened
Apple aired a one-minute commercial called '1984,' directed by Ridley Scott, during Super Bowl XVIII on 22 January 1984, casting IBM's dominance of the computer industry as a dystopian Big Brother that the Macintosh would defeat. Two days later, on 24 January, Apple unveiled the Macintosh itself at its shareholders meeting. Drawing directly on ideas Steve Jobs had seen at Xerox PARC and on Apple's own underperforming Lisa computer, the Macintosh built in a mouse, a graphical interface with overlapping windows and menus, clickable icons, and cut-copy-paste editing, packaged as a complete, self-contained product rather than a kit or expandable box.
Why it matters
The Macintosh was the first computer to bring PARC's graphical interface ideas to a mass consumer audience rather than a research lab or a five-figure workstation like the Xerox Star. It set the visual template, icons, windows, a mouse, that both Apple's own later products and, eventually, Microsoft Windows would follow.
How we know
The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History documents the 1984 ad, the January 24 launch, and the Macintosh's PARC-derived and Lisa-derived design features from its own historical account and object collection.
Sources
- Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Remembering Apple's "1984" Super Bowl ad · Reputable sourceamericanhistory.si.edu · The domain "americanhistory.si.edu" is on our Reputable source registry.
- Smithsonian Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. Remembering Apple's "1984" Super Bowl Ad · Reputable sourceinvention.si.edu · The domain "invention.si.edu" is on our Reputable source registry.
- Computer History Museum. Timeline of Computer History: 1984 (Apple 1984 commercial) (1984) · Reputable sourcecomputerhistory.org · The domain "computerhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.
Part of a timelineThe Internet and Computing36 events · From a mechanical engine that never ran to a network that never sleepsView all →