Apple — "1984" Super Bowl Ad (1984)

Apple's "1984" ad, directed by Ridley Scott and aired only once during Super Bowl XVIII, is universally ranked as the greatest television commercial ever made. It cost $1.5 million to produce ($4.5 million in today's dollars) and introduced the Macintosh as liberation from IBM's "Big Brother" dominance. The ad generated $155 million in Macintosh sales in the following three months and established the Super Bowl as the premier advertising platform.