The subject is Apple’s new Macintosh computer.  The purpose of the rhetoric is to convince people to buy Apple’s computer, and Apple argues this by contextualizing the release of the computer in terms of Apple vs. control.  Apple is portrayed as breaking down systems or control and setting people free.  This makes buying the Macintosh computer an act of rebellion and an exercise of freedom.

The audience is the millions of Americans watching the Super Bowl.  This is a very large and diverse audience, which introduces some constraints.  The first, and biggest, constraint is the sheer size of the audience.  Apple had to make references that the majority of Americans would understand.  Therefore, they used 1984 because even though most American’s haven’t read the actual book, most are familiar with the main ideas behind it.  The other constraint was time.  Apple couldn’t make a feature-length film based off 1984 to market their new computer.  They had to condense their message into a minute-long ad.  So the only words you actually hear, besides the ramblings of the man on the screen, are Apple’s announcement of it’s new computer and its short assertion that “1984 won’t be like 1984.”

The pathos, or the appeal to values, is Apple appealing to American’s sense of independence and antipathy towards authority and control.  These values are exemplified by the popularity in America of the book 1984, which Apple takes advantage of to market its product.  The “ethos,” or appeal of credibility, is achieved through Apple identifying itself with with the woman breaking the screen.  Perhaps some Americans in 1984 thought modern technology would bring us to a dystopian future.  Apple positions itself on the side of the common person, against that sort of dystopian future where technology controls our lives.  The logos, or appeal to logic, is indirect but still effective.  Nearly all people, regardless of political ideology, are at least theoretically opposed to centralized control as seen in the Apple advertisement.  Even those whose ideologies have lead to centralized systems of oppression think of themselves as opposing such systems.  Apple appeals to this undercurrent in almost all ideologies, opposition to oppression and restrictions on freedom, and positions themselves on the right side of it.  “Kairos” means an opportune time or the supreme moment.  The “Kairos” in this commercial is when the woman is running toward the screen with the guards chasing behind her and just barely throws the object at the screen before the guards get to her.  If she had run just a little bit slower the guards would have caught her and the best moment, or Kairos, of the ad would have been lost.