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Frame from 1984 Apple's First Macintosh Commercial Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

1984 Apple's First Macintosh Commercial

Sean Collier
Other
YouTube
Cited on HN 13 times, 2008–2017, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN mostly uses it as a cultural reference, either as a favorite tech ad or as irony when criticizing Apple's later restrictiveness.

The famous 1984 Apple Macintosh television commercial, framed as a rebellion against an Orwellian Big Brother. This copy was uploaded to YouTube just after the site launched.

“The Apple 1984 commercial is my favorite” (HN, 2009)

4 citations · 5 critical · 4 jokes · Other

13 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@froo Sep 2008 Cites it
on HN thread Apple applies for patent on "sneakers" DRM
You sir, are awesome, I would give you triple karma if I could. For those who don't "get" the quote, it's the infamous 1984 Apple ad, directed by Ridley Scott. Links below for reference [this video] [link] (television_commercial)
@jmatt Mar 2010 Cites it
on HN thread Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement
For those you who weren't around in 1984... Or didn't pay attention in high school english or decades old super bowl ads. Apple's commercial: [this video] And the obligatory wiki link: [link]
@0xdeadbeefbabe Jun 2017 Cites it
on HN thread Gopher-OS: A Proof of Concept OS Written in Go
> Why care about OS:es when there is no room for anyone on that level of abstraction apart from a handful developers at MS, Apple and Google? There is as much room as there are people frustrated with the "state of the art." Edit: Have you seen this apple commercial [this video] . Yes it is from 1984 and you might think it doesn't apply.
@jhancock Sep 2009 Pushes back
on HN thread Our app got rejected again. We're trying to figure out why.
"1984" Apple ad. [this video] It really does not matter if you think they are right or wrong. Watch the vid and decide if that's what you want to attach your startup fortunes to. I can understand why some funds would have been motivated to focus on iPhone apps last year. At this point, I wouldn't touch an iPhone startup without an ironclad insider contract with Apple.
@elblanco Apr 2010 Pushes back
on HN thread App Store Bans Pulitzer-Winning Satirist. For Satire
> The whole hammer throwing thing from the 80s just seems so ironic now. [this video] I'm not even sure how to reinterpret it today. The Big Brother figure speaks of a garden of pure ideology, and it appears the woman is an app who is about to get rejected by the app store cops. Is the meaning of the hammer throw that I should go get an Android phone so I don't have to subject myself to the approval of the Big Brother character?
@trustfundbaby Jun 2012 Pushes back
on HN thread Why are Apple laptops becoming harder to take apart?
Read more
What I don't understand is why this is an either-or proposition ... was it really that impossible to build these laptops without alienating the 'enthusiasts' ... people who actually want to swap out hard drives, or RAM? I just spent two years transitioning my life away from windows, which I used for about 15 years, to OS X just to suddenly find that I can't run out and buy a new SSD hard drive to try on my system if I wanted to ... brilliant. The best part is, If reading HN threads where people are basically agreeing with this nonsense, because Apple made the decision. Thats right, just keep taking away choices from the user until the entire company and its customers become one huge parody. oh, hang on ... we're already there. yuck. PS: [this video]
@frugalmail Sep 2012 Pushes back
on HN thread Samsung Galaxy S4 due in February
Read more
I'm in America, an American, and not Asian. I find what apple is doing repulsive. - They are using highly questionable patents to discourage competition, are ruling their ecosystem like a fascist regime, - forcing you to swallow their whole stack to work with any part of their ecosystem (e.g. you can only build ios apps on mac) - their bundled applications suck (damn the "rainbow wait wheel" - making disposable laptops, ipods, and iphones which is counter to the environment and very anti-consumer but pro apple pocketbook. And all this is especially funny when you look back: [this video] Although that article is definitely not substantiating their bias it's just a shame that brand marketing here has so clearly pulled the proverbial wool over the American public's eyes.
@tlrobinson Jan 2009 Makes a joke
on HN thread Happy New 1984
Coincidentally, I'm reading the book at the moment (again). Is the movie any good? And of course, don't forget the epic Macintosh ad: [this video]
@sparky Dec 2009 Makes a joke
on HN thread Things I learned from iPhone and Droid ads
Hopefully this was intended as humor (and it was funny), and not as a straight-faced critique. It is not news that different styles of ad campaign can be effective; Apple has launched a fair few smarmy (Get a Mac [link] ) or fanciful (1984 [this video] ) salvos at the competition itself. What I learned from the 1984 ad: The CEOs of all Apple competitors have monkey-like visages and enjoy sitting very close to the camera as they brainwash the world. The Macintosh makes you proficient at the hammer throw. Incidentally, it also turns you into a woman with orange shorts.
@mdg Jan 2010 Makes a joke
on HN thread On the iPad
The future of personal computing that the iPad shows us is both seductive and dystopian. Upon reading that, I was immediately reminded of this: [this video] minus the sledge.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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