Apple became a household name in the third quarter of SuperBowl XVIII when it aired the enormously popular 1984 ad promoting the upcoming release of the Macintosh.
Apple's PR firm, Chiat/Day, had pitched a similar ad in 1982 to promote the Apple II. The basic premise was that the Apple II would only enable people, and not hinder them with inane commands and hard to understand interfaces.
No executives were particularly enamored with the spot, and it was filed away for possible later use.
A year later, Chiat/Day was tasked with creating an advertising campaign for the upcoming release of the Macintosh. The agency prepared a spot titled Manuals that featured an IBM XT and a pile of the manuals which were bundled with the computer. The camera would then show a Macintosh with its single user's guide floating down to land near the mouse.
The ad didn't find many champions in the corporate hierarchy, so Chiat/Day, on the advice of Steve Jobs, restarted production of the shelved 1984.
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