Apple has begun airing two new ads in their “Get a Mac” campaign which features Justin Long as the “Mac” and John Hodgman as “PC.”
In “Pep Rally,” PC’s bright idea is to hold a pep rally to promote himself, as Macs are now “selling in record numbers” and “the #1 notebook on college campuses,” but his plan backfires, as usual. No “genius,” he; shoddy OS, after all. In the end, the cheerleaders that PC has carted in for his “Pep Rally” chant, “Mac’s number one! Mac’s number one! PC’s number two! PC’s number two!”
Apple’s “Get a Mac” ad: “Pep Rally”
Direct link to video via YouTube here.
In “Group,” Hodgman’s “PC” attends a “PCs Living with Vista” meeting, in the style of Alcoholics Anonymous, where a group of dorky PCs — amalgams of every IT guy (MCSEs, no doubt) we’ve ever met — get together to bemoan their self-imposed fate. “Mac” tells “PC” that he’s proud of PC for attending and stands by witnessing the group’s meeting as bemused as ever about why these people continue to repeatedly inflict such needless suffering upon themselves.
Apple “Get a Mac” ad: Group
Direct link to video via YouTube here.
See the ads in a choice of qualities and sizes via Apple.com here.
MacDailyNews Take: Windows. It’s like hitting yourself in the face with a hammer every hour, on the hour, because you’ve convinced yourself that’s just how it has to be. It doesn’t. Get a Mac.
Hola!
While these are humorous, I still think they’d be much better off creating Mac commercials that were similar to the iPhone commercials – show people how easy things are on a Mac.
PeeCees really ARE number 2.
Juvenile, but true. I’ve always told people that P.C. stood for Piece of Crap.
Love the commercials, but I agree with Jay-Z.
Make iphone style commercials for Leopard.
But keep making these fun ones too.
@Jay-Z
I don’t think that is the best way to play it. Most people think they know what a computer is and are just afraid of switching. I think Apple’s “Get a Mac” campaign is brilliant. It doesn’t insult the viewers by showing them how to use a one button mouse, rather is shows how safe a mac really is.
ZING!!
? @dallas
Apple makes a one button mouse?
Windoz – if only I had a choice
Yeah, those are okay, but this one’s the coolest:
The song’s a little flighty, but the girl lipsynching is very watchable and the use of every app made for OS X is amazing!
weak and cheap
QUICK, NEED APPLE TV HELP!!!!!!
Got an Apple TV yesterday, hooked it up, it is synced. But when I try to play any of the tv shows that I have purchased it tells me that Apple TV is not authorized to play the content. So how do I authorize my Apple TV. I thought the 5 digit code did it, but it didn’t. Also tried to purchase at the iTunes store with the Apple TV and at the password part it says my Apple id or my password are incorrect,
Please Help.
Yes!
No-one can possibly argue the Get a Mac ads haven’t been successful.
They have been, and they still are.
@Jarrett, > Apple.com/forums > TV section > post problem > get answers…
Does anyone know who the three other PC actors are? I know all of them, but I don’t know from where…
Linux… we’re number 3, we’re number 3!
group much better than pep rally
@KenC
Thanks for that link. That video is fantastic! I actually enjoyed the song too. The redundancy is hypnotic.
@elgarak,
That’s Missy, Buffy, and Cherry.
My wife – who hates ALL commercials, by the way – got a chuckle out of “Group” and hated (to her chagrin) that she understood the joke. First time through. She’s not much of a computer person and likes her AliMac more because of its ease of viewing as for any of its other benefits, but she has heard about the glitches from other playwrights – more of whom are switching as time goes on.
Not only do the ads help convince PC types to switch to Macs, but they confirm to Mac users that they made the right choice. Most ads are trying to sell you a “new widget to replace your old widget”, these are just aimed at convincing you there’s a better widget out there. Remember, every switcher converted this year is good for a sale – maybe two – this year … and no more for two to five years! The cycle for PC sales is shorter … every year or two. Selling a Mac to a switcher is stealing TWO sales from the PC side. Some of the early switchers – like my wife – are just getting around to their second purchase. Things will be picking up from here.
@ Jay-Z
The Mac is a more complex mechanism than the iPhone. The brilliance of the current ads is that they are aimed at changing people’s attitudes about Macs. The also work well by making very complex concepts easy to understand.
If you haven’t noticed, it’s working pretty well.
AAPL back up over 190$
Now if MDN website would be fast like the rest of the Mac experience . . .
It’s been REALLY slow lately. Bloatware to the max!
@ Jay-Z:
Nah, the iPhone is something that by first glance, would make someone wonder how the hell to use it. On the other hand, a Mac has a keyboard and a mouse.
I agree there are tons of things that are worth showing on a Mac, but TV is not the way to do it.
I think the dork on the extreme left, the most dorky of the four dorks, is so dorky that only a maximum dork could like him while we can all appreciate his dorky-looking presence as a representation of Windows.
Apple and ChiatDay must have looked a long time to find him and, when they finally found him, they must have jumped for joy, way up there, in their excitement. What excellent casting!
No, these commercials do not in any way infringe on the quality of Windows PCs; they simply offer an amusing, inoffensive way to differentiate Apple and PC in a lighthearted way that still conveys a serious message about the amount of good quality the two camps have.
Look at Mac’s shirt… BSOD Blue. Nice color. lol
@ GizmoDan
Aw com’on, don’t you like taking your mouse and dodging all of the green hyperlinked text (that automatically pop up adverts and sometimes even video ads without clicking anything)? It’s like a maze game. “Avoid the Popup Ads!!! Only on MDN”