The View From the Couch

Twenty years ago, the electrifying introduction of Apple’s Macintosh transformed the final showdown of the football season into the greatest advertising event of the year. With one dramatic hurl of a sledgehammer, Chiat/Day’s heroine heralded an era in which the game’s commercials are almost as hyped as the game itself.

Since 1984, the average cost of a 30-second time slot on the Super Bowl—the most expensive advertising event of the year—has ballooned from $400,0000 to $2.3