In an article that looks like it's targeted at the average Joe ("Chances are pretty good you don't own an Apple computer"--see some words on this black-and-white approach to market-share in a previous post* of mine) Forbes gathers the most known Apple commercials from 1984 until now. [read Pick Your Favorite Apple Ad in Forbes]

I am not very surprised really to see that the myth about 1984 Macintosh commercial being aired only once is alive and kicking. It's not true, though. Apple aired it on local televisions during December 1983 in order to qualify for varoius advertising festivals, and also after the Super Bowl. Anyway, this is a TVC constantly referred to as the best TV commercial of all times.

About 1984 Forbes article says: « Directed by film director Ridley Scott, "1984" was the Apple ad that introduced the world to the Macintosh and, in the process, changed the world of advertising forever. The spot aired nationally only once, during halftime of the Super Bowl, and featured a woman runner who hurls a sledgehammer through a looming video screen, meant to represent the PC world. " '1984' was the greatest TV commercial ever made," says Bob Garfield, advertising critic for Advertising Age magazine. "And it has damaged advertising to a degree that can scarcely be estimated. It encouraged many lesser talents to take the same risks, and they failed gigantically." »

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* About the Rolling Stone interview with Steve Jobs where he says « In other words, the thing about Apple's market share that you have to understand is, when you get under the hood, we don't sell computers, en masse, to sit on every desk of every corporation. So when you take that out, the remaining markets -- we have a much higher market share. Our consumer market share has doubled in the past few years -- doubled. So our market share in the creative-professional marketplace is over 50%.
So when you look at the markets that we compete in, our market share isn't 5% or 3% -- it's 10% to 60%. In some cases, it's up at 90%. So that's sort of the myth of the market share. »