Entitled "1944," the almost 9-minute full version was Apple's in-house takeoff on "1984," the iconic first Macintosh TV ad that caused a sensation during that year's Super Bowl. Set as a World War II tale of good vs. IBM, it is a broadcast-quality production (said to have cost $50,000) that was designed to fire up Apple's international sales force at a 1984 meeting in Hawaii. A copy of "1944" was provided to me by one-time Apple employee Craig Elliott, now CEO of Pertino Networks, a cloud-computing startup located two blocks from Apple in Cupertino.

It is a little gem. There is a lot of symbolism in 1944, so as in 1984. I think displaying Apple as the rebel against the giant Big Brother (IBM) was more effective. To represent Apple as an organised army fighting with “weapons” in a global war does not serve its purpose at best.

I am happy to identify myself with a rebel against domination, but not necessarily happy to join soldiers at war.