That ad worked because customers at the time associated IBM with the impending corporate monolith. IBM was just the whipping-boy for the larger idea. (Much like how today Apple is the whipping-boy for Foxconn manufacturing scandals.)
It became apparent soon after that Microsoft was the real threat to Apple's business model.
People change, organizations change and the world changes. To survive you must adapt. Why not mention the Microsoft investment in 1997? Or the partnership with Cingular/ATT in 2007? Or were those not really evil empires?
