Apple’s ’1984′ Named Best Super Bowl Spot

Apple Inc.’s 1984 TV commercial was named the best Super Bowl spot in the game’s 40-year history, a Florida communications company said Wednesday.

The Jan. 22, 1984, commercial aired in the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, launching the Macintosh personal computer.

It showed an unnamed heroine wearing shorts, a tank top and running shoes running through an Orwellian world to throw a sledgehammer at a TV image of Big Brother, suggesting IBM Corp.

A concluding message and voiceover said: On Jan. 24, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ’1984.’

The commercial, which aired only once, was the best on the basis of impact, sales and viewer memorability, said Bob Circosta, president of a communications company bearing his name.

The second-best commercial was Anheuser-Busch Cos. 1989 Bud Bowl, Circosta said. The computer-animated spot featured Budweiser bottles playing a football game against Bud Light bottles.

Those two commercials managed to transcend marketing and actually became staples of our American culture, Circosta said.