Apple shared the infamous '1984' Superbowl ad 36 years ago today

1984 commercial (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

The "1984" ad was a huge deal for Apple.
It aired during the 1984 Superbowl.
It was Steve Jobs and Apple all over.

Apple aired the now infamous "1984" Macintosh commercial 36 years ago today. January 22, 1984, was the day that a computer became a household name and the rest, as they so often say, is history.

You can catch the ad on YouTube and it's embedded below. The full transcript is also available via the Unofficial Apple Archive, if that's how you roll, too.

The ad was directed by Ridley Scott and created by advertising agency Chiat\Day. Its airing went on to become a watershed moment for Apple and advertising and it's often pointed to as one of the best ads ever made.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.