In 1984 IBM and Gates were essentially the same entity in most people's minds, and IBM was the face of the pair. Although Microsoft had been around since 1975, few people outside the hobbyist and Unix communities knew about Gates. (Yes, until MSDOS/Windows came out, Microsoft was primarily a Unix vendor; see Xenix).
OTOH, everybody knew the "IBM computer" (the Big Iron in the corporate basement) and the "IBM PC" (the latest rage in executive toys).
> For me, the best Super Bowl ad evah.
You, me, and nearly everyone else with a full set of brain cells. :-)
The problem for me is that Apple has evolved over time into the other side of the commercial - doing things like stealing IP from startups and pushing their cultural agenda on the world.
nobody ever lost their job buying IBM
IBM screwup their OS/2 OS didnt sell it well. but it’s still alive..