1984

The ad I chose was this zinger by Apple from 1984. There are several characters in this ad. The first is the girl in the orange shorts, who acts as the heroine. The second is the authoritarian "Big Brother" on the telescreen, in association with the armed policemen chasing the girl, who are villains. The last is the marching masses of bland gray and bald men, some with strange facemasks, who are merely supporting characters. The setting is inside some sort of cold gray futuristic building. These are all allusions to the book 1984, which is mentioned in the final voice-over. The plot of the ad involves the introduction of the marching gray masses with the dictator chattering in the background, followed by the girl running through the building, eventually coming up to the telescreen, with policemen shortly behind her, and throwing a sledgehammer into the screen, causing an explosion and ending the transmission, amazing all the indistinct workers watching it, then the voice-over says Apple will introduce Macintosh, and that "1984 won't be like '1984'" (the book).

The conflict in the ad is instigated by the girl. The big man was having a fine time dictating his masses of followers, but then this stupid orange shorts girl has to go and stick a sledgehammer where it doesn't belong. The idea is that she's challenging the social norms of society and all the bland people who just conform with the masses. She's introducing innovation to the world of computers. She's showing everyone that Macintosh computers can do more than a regular old text-based PC. Big Brother doesn't like this orange business, and sends his thought police to catch the girl, but not before she can destroy one of the telescreens.
The conflict is resolved to some extent when the girl destroys the screen. She's challenged the conformity and showed everyone that there's another way, that they don't have to conform, etc., etc. This is supposed to be analogous to the Mac, by introducing the innovation of graphics and ease of use to the world of computers. They're attempting to show viewers that the Mac will solve the problem of conformity in society and bring revolution and innovation to the world. Apple was obviously very confident about their new computer.