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.
@Likeabite
Ditto!
“dude, you got to get a Dell!”
What happened to the Dell dude? Probably living in a gutter somewhere drooling all over a circa-1990’s inspiron.
I think it’s interesting how it has always been a central theme for Apple ad’s to promote themselves by showing how they are better than PC.
When I heard that Microsoft was planning to counter with their own set of ads, I initially thought that this result in a stab back at Mac. If such were the case, I would have found this tasteless and ultimately ineffective on their mission to improve their image. Instead, they targeted their ad campaign on improving windows’s image by highlighting the positive’s of their own brand ( bar the seinfeld/gates ads ).
These recent set of response ads from Apple no longer promote their own product at all! I would say that Apple is a much established name brand these days. The ferocity of these response ads and the fact that they still need to show up the competitions shows gives the feeling of insecurity on their part. Apple really needs to move on and start promoting their products on their own merits.
In the end, all semantics aside, we’re all PCs. Some of us prefer Mac OS, some of us prefer Windows.. and I guess some of us prefer Linux, FreeBSD, and even Solaris. I don’t care to label myself, like these commercials seems to be encouraging everyone to do. This, to me, seems to be a campaign for tribalism, and I don’t truck with that.
He actually got arrested for buying marijuana and Dell dropped him, haha.
To me, the Mac ads have followed same path every serial story does. Writeres exhaust initial ideas and need to move on, usually devolving into the negative or outrageous. Apple used all its ways to tout the Mac, and moved into attack mode. I don’t care that they did. But they did.
It is the same as Seinfeld’s show. While always about “nothing”, it was not originally about selfish, mean people. First couple seasons they had their issues, but George was the lone selfish guy. Elain and Kramer, particularly, were all about helping others. But stories ran their course and they all devolved, winding up in jail as if the whole premise of the show from the get-go was this way. It was not.
Ok, I’m done. Love me some Seinfeld (which is what makes those dome MSFT ads so sad for me)….
the MS adds with Jerry and Bill were, I think, an attempt use the same type of analogous figures that Apple was using. Instead of a mac and a pc though, I think (think) they had a consumer (jerry) and innovation (bill). But WTF, seriously, there was no intelligible interaction between the two.
Anyway, as for these adds, I really do think it’s akin to a political smear. Vista used to really suck in the beginning, and apple could attack that directly. Now, as MS & Vista have improved (really people, it’s not THAT bad anymore), the attack becomes less about what it offers and more about it’s history.
Frankly, I’ve always found the apple adds amusing in concept and the PC guy is top notch..but as a tool to sway my opinion? I’ve never even considered a Mac based on these ads.
Anytime I ever think about it (still haven’t pulled the trigger), it’s because of positive feedback from a real mac user. Not some smear campaign that just says “yours sucks!”
Apple is just being immature now they keep using the same kind of ad … nothing original and it makes them look childish this ad actually makes me love microsoft more …. it makes microsoft look like the victim!
Apple it is not funny since you are the one spending all the money on ads.
Amen.
well said.
It’s funny but inaccurate, I think if we took a look at the numbers Apple probably spends 3x as much on advertising compared to Microsoft. Which contributes to the falsely negative perception of Vista. To put it simply MS wouldn’t have to spend so much on ads if Apple didn’t spend so much on ads.
I think it’s funny to see Apple talking about advertising in their add. Maybe they should fix iPhone’s problems, and fix the WiFi in their iPod Touch before opening their mouth?
@ Perspective (if that even *is* your name)
Do you work for Apple? You wrote:
“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.”
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHY APPLE DOES THIS OR THAT? You don’t know nothing unless you work for them. And if you do work for them, why don’t you come out and say it already.
@ Tyrone D.
You let me down. You used to be funny. I loved all that stuff you wrote about the Bold delay. I was all like, that Tyrone D. guy feels my pain vis-a-vis the Bold and all the fucking delays. And now this gem, “ditto what Likeabite says.” LIKABITE? Who the hell is that?? That’s not even a name! And he/she never even said boo on these pages before today and now you’re kissing his/her ass? Shit, Galvatron, in general, has more moxie and intelligence than LIKEABITE!!
That said, s/he is right about the copy and paste. “Perspective” is dead wrong about its utility and popularity. And if “Perspective” is right that Apple made an affirmative decision to exclude it, then Apple is a retard on that count.
The rest of what Likeable, its name should be UNlikeable, said is silly. Total nonsense unsupported by any basis of knowledge. So, TYRONE D., can you find someone else to ditto?
@ Zach
I love the I’m a Mac ads. I can’t get enough of them. My favorite was the first Mac Genius one. She was hot.
Disclaimer: I own 2 PCs, one iMac, and 3 blackberrys. I returned the iPhone 3G a week after I got it.
I also have to agree that Vista has ironed out most of its issues but still has the perception issue to get over.
Another point is that Apple could be setting themselves up for a world of hurt. Microsoft appears to be getting their act together for Windows 7. If done right, Windows will be back in the game quickly and with a vengence.
Windows is still deeply entrenched in the lucrative enterprise market with Apple had yet to even put a dent in MS’s armor.
In 18 months, it might be revenge of the nerds.
1. Re-writes attributes, MAJOR problem.
2. No Maximize, stupid.
3. No native right click.
4. No Move, only copy-then-delete, frags HDD fiercely.
Do I really need to say more? People would write viruses and exploit their security issues if they had adequate market share to inspire innovation!
@ Truman (if that even really is your name)
I have no idea what you just said.
Re-writes attributes?
No Maximize?
No native right click? I right click all the time.
No Move?
Don’t know what any of those things mean and I’m happy as a clam.
Cockrad I see you’re gonna have to be another person I ether off BGR. First, I comment on practically every post BGR puts up so unless you’re regularly on here don’t say shit. I send in tips that gets put up all the time so don’t say shit. No one ever heard of you til now so don’t say shit.
Second, your feeble brain comes mouthing off out of the woodworks in an attempt to gain some attention. Whoever chooses to ditto whatever I said must’ve known I was right seeing as how most of the comments on here echo what I had previously aforementioned. When was there ever a mention of the name Apple/Mac or anything associating with that brand in any of Microsoft’s ads? That’s a fact unless you need to go back to the BGR post about their ads and watch again because obviously you’re not smart enough to remember anything the first time. And prior to those ads how many Microsoft ads as opposed to Apple ads were on TV? From the Mac ads to the Ipod and Iphone ads it’s pretty much a landslide. Unless you don’t have access to a TV then you wouldn’t know this either. I can go on but I have a feeling that you can’t comprehend anything I just wrote here seeing as how you said my previous posts were wrong when in fact everything I said was accurate.
BG I think you need to start banning idiots like this from here before this site gets dumbed down worse than Sarah Palin.
I’d just like to clarify, Apple does have money. $24.5 billion, in fact, according to the financial conference call for this quarter. Why does everyone have to get so angry about these stupid things? They’re just people’s opinions. Be happy.
OK, here’s MY advertisement budget…2 cents.
VISTA IS GARBAGE WHICH HAS NOT ONLY NOT IMPROVED ON XP BUT HAS INSTEAD MYSTERIOUSLY DETERIORATED IN PERFORMANCE SO THAT I WASTE MORE TIME DEALING WITH OS ISSUES THAN I SPEND COMPUTING. I DON’T HAVE TIME TO WATCH ADS. THIS IS MY FIRST VIEW OF THAT & I THINK IT IS PRETTY CUTE. THEN AGAIN, I ALSO NEVER FELT THE NEED TO PURCHASE AN iPHONE. IT LOOKS SO REDUNDANT TO ME THAT I REALLY CAN’T IMAGINE ANYONE WORRYING ABOUT PROBLEMS THEY DON’T NEED TO HAVE.
Sorry for the caploc but I felt it justified the price.
~two cents~
Harley Annie Luck
@ Will…i concur
I just like Justin. I think he’s hot. I don’t even know what a ‘mac’ is.
PC GAMES, MAC – couple games, shit really