1. The 1984 ad (1984) The spot that introduced the Apple Macintosh aired only once, on Jan. 22, 1984, during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII. People haven’t stopped talking about it since. Envisioning a hellish dystopian future (or was it the present?) of drones under the thumb of a televised Big Brother, the Ridley Scott-directed ad brought on a hot Valkyrie with a hammer to smash through the screen and liberate the masses. What did this have to do with computers? Not much, but it established once and for all the terms of home computing’s dominant rivalry: fascist PCs vs. freedom-fighting Macs. The Apple board got cold feet about showing the ad at the last minute, but Jobs and cofounder Steve Wozniak held firm. In 1999, TV Guide called it the number one commercial of all time. (Ty Burr / The Boston Globe) Continue reading »