New Mac ads respond to Windows ads responding to Mac ads
First is was hilarious. The Mac, Justin Long, all cool and hip with his witty retorts and his, umm, jeans. The PC, John Hodgman, all dorky with his thick glasses and his ties. Oh lordy that PC, how silly he was with all of his dumb ideas and his inferior OS. After a while, Microsoft decided to respond to the commercials with a run of its own. “I’m a PC”, responding to “I’m a Mac”, highlighted the tremendous reach of the Windows OS and the millions of people in all walks of life who use Windows. Ok, super. Can we move on now? Oh no - now a fresh crop of two new Mac ads have started running, attacking Microsoft for not saying the word Vista in its commercials in the “The V Word”, and claiming that Microsoft is spending all its money on advertising as opposed to fixing Vista in “Bean Counter”. Umm, prior to Microsoft’s current ad run did any computer company advertise on TV even 10% as much as Apple? Regardless, it’s getting dirty out there folks - we haven’t seen a smear campaign like this since, well, Obama and McCain. The bottom line is that the whole thing is getting old. Sure, fanboys will still snicker at Justin Long and all of his snappy zingers but you don’t need to sell fanboys now do you Apple? You need to sell the rest of the market and stagnant ads with a dude who was funnier when he was getting pelted in the marbles with dodgeballs might not cut it anymore. So Apple, it will behoove you to know that we’re kind of over it. It was witty, it was effective and it’s time to move on. It might be best to get rolling with a new campaign before Justin Long becomes the next Aflac duck or Geico gecko - you know, so hated that people actually vow never to give those companies a single dollar as a result. Hit the jump for the other zany new “I’m a Mac” ad.
Tags: Ads, Apple, Commercials, Mac, microsoft, OS, os x, vista, Windows
Yea i thought it was pretty sad that now they’re not even really bashing the operating system as much as they are bashing a company now.
and btw Vista is fine Apple
Permalink | Reply
Did everyone at BGR forget how to use Paragraph breaks? Good lord, did someone break your collective “enter buttons”, lol.
Permalink | Reply
Ehhh I still think they’re pretty funny.
Permalink | Reply
both the ads were really funny, actually i felt sad when i saw microsoft’s ad with bill gates and jerry.
Permalink | Reply
I thought the “money on advertising” one was hilarious.
@Zach - maybe you’re taking this too seriously. It is just advertising. Lighten up.
Usual disclaimer - Not a fanboy, own multiple PCs, one Mac. Was very happy with XP - Vista was a forced and useless upgrade.
Permalink | Reply
Of course Zach is taking it too seriously, he’s a PC users!
Permalink | Reply
Mac is bashing on PC for the millions of dollars it is putting into advertising of Vista, but what about all the money Apple is putting into advertising? Personally, I haven’t had any problems switching over to Vista other than my 10 year old PCI modem is not compatible. And yet the iphone still can’t copy and paste and sucks up battery worse than a treo 800w. Why doesn’t Apple put some less money into advertising and more money into “fixing” the iphone.
Permalink | Reply
I agree with Zach. It is lame because they are just criticizing the company instead of the OS, which is what made the original commercials such a hit.
And for the record, Vista isn’t even buggy or problematic anymore. I thought Apple prided itself in being up with the times–why is it using old standards for its commercials?
Permalink | Reply
These commercials will never get old! Apple keep it up!!!
Permalink | Reply
krodami: You can’t be this clueless. Apple hasn’t dded copy and paste to the iPhone because most people don’t care, and even some of those that do care went and bought iPhones anyway. Comparing Vista to the iPhone is unwise no matter how you slice it, since the iPhone is at least meeting sales goals, while Vista, quite frankly, is not. See, this is why you say these things that make sense to you, but never seem to materialize: in the end, copy and paste or not, people are still going to buy the iPhone, they’re not going to buy Vista and will instead wait for Windows 7, and you’ll still be a tool.
Permalink | Reply
Too late. I already would never buy something from Apple.
Permalink | Reply
Fanboy shootout! And it all started with the commercials themselves lol…and leads all the way down to comments of this blog, and elsewhere.
I did find the MS commercial with Jerry as pretty funny, especially Jerry’s comment of getting stuck in his own traffic..lol…cause its probably true lol..
Just my two cents.
Permalink | Reply
The Iphone is still better than anything windows has put out.
Permalink | Reply
@Zach - “maybe you’re taking this too seriously. It is just advertising. Lighten up.”
Zach, you’re the reason these ads were created. They’re a counter to the hundreds of MacSux T-shirt wearing gamer/haters with Microsoft sponsored propaganda websites, like this one.
Permalink | Reply
God, these commercials get worse and worse… I see they’ve stopped talking about the Mac at all now.
Permalink | Reply
LOL, fanboys are fuming with these new ads cause they are so true lol, and to make matters worse everytime vista crashes on them, this ad is going to pop up in their minds lol. They are funny as hell cause it’s the sad honest truft
Permalink | Reply
zato, thank you. We need a better balance of whining here. Right now there’s way too much “Waaaa you love Apple, they must pay you” and not nearly enough “Waaaa you love Microsoft, they must pay you.” Rock on.
Permalink | Reply
Lol I was about to point that out zach! first you all are apple fanboys, now you’re ms fanboys. Jesus pick a side already! But all in all, these commercials are great.
Permalink | Reply
Agreed. The first group of I’m a Mac ads were cute and funny without feeling negative, they could be appealing even to dedicated Windows users, but they started getting negative a long time ago. The iPhone ads have also gone from being really well done and evocative to talking about features (boring). Apple needs a new ad team.
Permalink | Reply
I like how Perspective just decided that nobody wants or needs copy and paste on the iPhone. Are you kidding me? it is a basic function that is required and desired by everyone. You will complain about Vista without having a point (because you are in the dark). By the way, looks like Apple is taking care of their loyal followers by dropping firewire on the macbooks as well.
Permalink | Reply
@krodami
Why do people still think the ad campaign is just for Vista? Here is some info. It is not about Vista but the WINDOWS BRAND, which does not evolve just around Vista. I think Apple needs to get facts before putting out false ads. BTW I did find them funny but I see right through the ads.
Permalink | Reply
@jr - You are so right, hey should get a new ad team. Seriously, all we are doing is talking about the ads, and what they mean, and debating which is better. What a total failure on the marketing companies part. /sarcasm
Permalink | Reply
krodami you make a great point. Perspective is an idiot and has never made a smart comment on any story ever posted on BGR (hence his idiotic copy and paste remark when we all know it’s an essential part of any smartphone). And FYI Vista’s adoption has doubled that of XP so how is anyone not buying it? Just like Apple you do and say things without research. And no one can call Zach a windows fanboy because the entire BGR team is known to be Apple fanboys. He just realized how dumb these commercials have gotten and so has a lot of people.
Apple spends about 10 times more money on ads than Microsoft, money they don’t even have! And it’s never about how good their product is or what they can do, it’s always about how bad Windows is. Since when did people buy any product based on how bad another product is? And they wonder why they still have less than a 10% percent market share.
Microsoft’s ad campaigns have nothing to do with Vista because it is about reinventing the Windows brand so how do these commercials make sense? Steve Jobs needs to start firing some people over at Cupertino before the market share of his company gets even worse. I would understand if the Windows ads took a shot at Apple but they don’t even mention them, you know why, because they don’t matter.
Permalink | Reply
Ok, Apple’s being a douche-bag now.
This was cute when it first started and now it’s like two rich, little high school girls trying to win the popularity contest so that one can become prom queen.
Permalink | Reply
whts that i hear? the Apple koolaide you drank is beginning to wear off? your heads clearing up theres hop you guys are just now coming to the conclusion I cam to over 20 years ago? there is hope yet lol
Permalink | Reply