“The new Apple ad annoys me. (Touché) It exudes the kind of smugness that a lot of people associate with Mac users, and the nit-pickiness of the definition of ‘touché’ alienates people. Hell — I wasn’t previously aware that the term is that specific (a point made in rebuttal to another point, according to the commercial), so I looked it up online and couldn’t find a reference that mentions that specifically. Hell, Apple’s own dictionary app (using the Oxford English Dictionary) doesn’t mention it,” Jammer blogs for The Welblog.
Jammer opines, “Lame. Smug, arrogant, and possibly wrong. Get rid of the ad, Apple.”
Full article with screenshot here.
Apple’s “Touché” ad:
MacDailyNews Note: “Used as an acknowledgment during a discussion of a good or clever point made at one’s expense by another person” certainly describes the poor PC’s reaction to the Mac’s statements in Apple’s “Touché” ad. Jammer’s right about that part. We wouldn’t put it past Apple to intentionally use it wrong – we are talking about it now aren’t we?
The ad’s real point, that Macs run Windows and are the only computer you’ll ever need, seems slightly muddied by the whole “touché” discussion, but not muddied enough to hurt. The ad is still powerful. This ad works, “touché” right or wrong, because it dangles the “twofer” right in front of the publics’ collective face. Certainly, Apple’s “Touché” ad is not lame, smug, or arrogant.
There is simply no defense against, “Now you can run Mac OS X or Windows on a Mac, so it’s the only computer you’ll ever need.”
The “Embrace” phase of Apple’s plan is off to a strong start.
As we see it, Apple is executing a two-part “Embrace and Extinguish” plan. Give people their Windows “insecurity blanket” first. They believe they need Windows and cannot be convinced otherwise. Let them find out for themselves what Mac OS X and Apple’s Mac-only apps like iLife, Safari, etc. are all about. Then, when the time comes to buy their next Mac, they’ll be just like us: they won’t even care if it can run Windows. We are extremely confident that Mac OS 10.4 Tiger will win converts from Windows XP. Heck, for that matter, we’re extremely confident that Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar would win converts from Windows XP. Leopard vs. Windows Vista? It’ll be no contest. We’ve seen it happen in real life too many times: let someone really use a Mac for a couple of weeks and they simply do not want to go back to Windows.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple debuts three new ‘Get a Mac’ ads (with video) – June 12, 2006
Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows!
Why buy a Dell when Apple’s Intel-based computers will run both Mac OS X and Windows? – June 08, 2005
You’re right.
The first time i saw this add I thought it was sort of insulting.
Certainly not funny.
Makes the mac guy look like a total knob.
The others are very good and strike a nice balance.
I sometimes wonder if Apple doesn’t make these ads as much or more for the Apple community to enjoy, as they do to try to sway PC users over.
Well, I don’t know about his version of the Apple Dictionery. but on this Mac, typing touché into the dictionary gives the following definition:
“used as an acknowledgment during a discussion of a good or clever point made at one’s expense by another person.”
All I can say is.. “Touché!”
Apple’ new ad campaign just plain sucks! Why can’t Apple show the product? Stupid lame ads piss me off and make me think I am in some stupid coffee shop with unkempt & unlearned kids in their 20s thinking they know everything. Please just make these ads go away and get some real ads showing real people and the product working.
These ads are to stop Apple users from defecting to Windows.
Secure the base.
Defensive ads to make MDN-type readers happy. (Note almost all Mac owners here think the ads are great – they see themselves in the ad.)
Apple must know things aren´t going so good – market research must show that lots of people are considering a Windows computer. Plus Apple keeps dipping in market share numbers.
The ads are for current Apple owners thinking about which computer to buy next: Apple or Windows?
By Apple embracing Windows on a Mac this does not help Apple.
Hard Core PC geeks, the type that will never buy a Mac – this one really smacks them, as we can see here in these posts.
The touche’ stuff – all a smokescreen. It is like people asking “Can God make a rock big enough to crush himself?” All dancing and not serioius about the core of the issue.
In this case the core is:
Mac’s can run OS X and Windows. A PC cannot – so get a Mac, because it’s better.
This really infuriates PC people becuase they, like the PC can’t counter:
1. HW price it’s virtually a wash right now. “Yeah, but you’ve gotta buy Windows” is the argument, but the overall purchase is worth the value many would counter, and many have an install-able copy at work, home, or from school, etc… It is a weak argument.
2. The Mac can indeed run both really well. So now a Mac owner can do Windows things, along with having iLife power, no virus conserns (on the Mac side at least), and have a really versatile system. Again, no real counter for this, so Windows appologist (for whatever reason) just get hacked off, becuase this route is really great.
3. PC folks can’t rag on lame hard ware – it’s the most reliable in the industry, and the industrial design is solid.
4. PC folk can’t harp on service, as Apple’s again is rated number one, and the stores have incredibly quick turn times.
Again, this has hit a nerve becuase it’s buying a Mac and Windows folks for whatever reason simply hate that, while Apple is really opening the door to a larger world for computing folk, which is quite a great thing.
~Steven
Since Jammer is a semi-literate moron, people shouldn’t give a steaming dump what he thinks. Just because he has a public forum in which he can express his views, shouldn’t imply that he has any common sense or anything of value to share with others.
People should also avoid clicking on the original article. It will inflate his numbers and make the guy more money.
Apple: Attention PC owners you are all idiotic, stupid, dumb twit headed nerd idiots! Now please, please, please buy a Mac.
98% of computers owners in the world own a Windows PC and Apple creates ads making fun of these potential customers. Brilliant strategy – tell your potential customers they are idiots….sheesh, Apple deserves a 2% market share.
Could it be that windows fans are starting to get afraid of possible Apple success and this fear is making them feel unpleasant and hence, writing these kinds of articles???
– Mark
Mark: “Could it be that windows fans are starting to get afraid of possible Apple success and this fear is making them feel unpleasant and hence, writing these kinds of articles???”
LOL. Apple has a 2% Market share Mark and falling in the last 4 years. To 95% of Windows users a Mac computer is not even on the radar; never even thought about.
I remember Apple’s Touché ad having much higher video quality than that low-fi YouTube version.
The point of the ad is that PC is trying to use “touche” as a retort, something which touche is not. The ad then closes with the PC properly using touche as an acknowledgment that he has no viable retort, although the PC still is befuddled and doesn’t quite know what is going on.
Only Apple could think that it is useful or productive to make an ad that turns on the proper connotation to give usage of a French word usually confined to college debates and fencing, as demonstrated by the fact that most of the people posting here today are almost as befuddled as the PC.
A little advertiing secret–most advertising is not intended to form new opinions or associations–rather it is to reinforce the opinions or associations people already have. Ford ads aren’t intended to get people to switch from GM to Ford; they are intended to make people that have already bought Fords feel good about their purchase and therefore loyal to the brand the next time they buy a car.
Smug, self-satisfied self-congratulation is so much at the heart of Apple’s Mac advertising that Apple is genetically incapable of producing advertising that reaches out to new buyers.
It almost seems like Apple counts on the media attention it receives to serve as its reach-out advertising; like the switcher campaign, these ads may seem like they are pointed at new buyers, but really they’re just more of the same crap making sure people that have already bought macs feel good about their purchase.
Most Windows PC users have never used a Mac and probably couldn’t care less. I would guess that they are more concerned with what they can do with their computers. I think Apple would be better served if the commercials showed what the user can do with a Mac instead of showing some geek being a wiseass. ( I am a Mac owner that switched about a year ago. I switched because I got tired of Windows problems. But, I am not what you would consider a “fanboy”.)
What the Apple guy forgot to say is that it cost him $200 more to put Windows on his Mac…plus the extra cost of the cool factor of owning a Mac.
What the Windows guy would have said in real life was – “Glad you finally realized that Windows is great platform and decided to make it optional on a Mac. Bill Gates thanks you, too.”
Apple guy: “Touche´.”
“Lame, smug, arrogant, and possibly wrong” can also describe some Windows users i’ve met over the years who argue that their platform is so much better.
touchy (not touché)
Who cares if it’s right or wrong-it sucks! Now the other one where the mac and the pc are in boxes, that was great.
Apple and its ad agency are very deliberate in their wording and approach in these ads. Believe me, they’ve done their research and most likely conducted focus groups. My lonely, little organization does this for all our advertising, so I’m sure a company as uber anal like Apple is going to do this as well.
They know exactly which segments of the consumer market they are going after and why. They’ve probably found that a large segment of consumers that are likely to switch actually like a little ‘arrogance’ in their advertising as long as the company can back it up. These ads are designed to get people who have never owned an Apple computer (but may own an Apple iPod) to ‘consider’ Apple as a viable alternative for their next computer purchase.
The bonus in these ads is that they speak to the Apple choir…energizing the consumer base and mobilizing the masses to go out there and preach the Mac sermon. (Got Kool-Aid?)
It’s simple and ingenius. My hat off to the creative team.
“Arrogant”?
Are all Apple ads?
The ad should be removed. It comes across as VERY smug. That isn’t the impression Apple needs. Instead, Apple should be combating that impression that it DOES leave with many.
Caveat: I love Apple and its products, but that doesn’t blind me to seeing the big picture and keeping an open mind.
These new apple ads are pretty damn lame, not too arrogant, but for sure lame. Some of the other ads are pretty damn arrogant, but hey, so are its users.
What’s all this fuss I keep hearing about toupee???
-Emily
Apple has a 2% Market share Mark and falling in the last 4 years
Funny, IDC is two years that reports Apple growing 2x faster than market.
In Europe on Q2 FY06 Apple grew 14%, rest of market 9%
IDC’s research director, Karine Paoli:
“Apple is certainly doing well at the moment across our region. The company has been able to not only leverage from the momentum created around the iPod, but also from a good go-to market strategy: refreshed products, price-positioning, and improvements in its supply chain with more use of its two-tier distribution channel to reach a wider market… Apple also remains strong in education, graphics and media markets”
“The refresh of Apple’s product lines, in particular in the notebook space, along with the move to Intel processors should help drive continued expansion throughout 2006, in both the consumer and business space”
To 95% of Windows users a Mac computer is not even on the radar; never even thought about. – Walt
You certainly then are part of the remaining 5%. The Mac is definitely on YOUR radar since you post here.
By the way, this 5% is truly very big judging from the number of Windows fence-sitter that are here lurking around. It certainly is a bigger and bigger 5% I lost the count on the number of Windows users that came up to me with a “I am getting a Mac, you know?”
Greetings:
Keep up the great work, MacDailyNews! You’re mucho appreciated!
Well, one thing that really gets to me is (to Apple ads) you “have to” be a denim-uniformed scruffy-sneakered campus ragamuffin to really like and appreciate the Mac’s innovations while suit and tie folks are cluelessly conservative and welded to Gatesmobiles.
Hello! Besides what I already suspected, The Computer Chronicles and The Computer Connection shows then cited the bulk of Mac 1985/86 users were suit and tie folks like me (who moved up from the super-innovative Amiga–which once left the Mac and other PCs in the dust in every area!) Heck, I won’t even mention a VERY media dominant VERY suit and tie guy who’s undoubtedly the Macs’ best continuous booster to over 25 million people daily for over 15 years on the radio and is responsible for god knows how many million Mac sales, even though Apple and most Macheads wouldn’t give him time of day. I’d like any Hollywood or denim-clad pop culture Mac user top that!
James Greenidge
Apple Cupertino HQ is full of French people. How anyone could doubt they do not know how to use French language correctly is justs amazing.
… the English language on the other hand …
You are certainly right, but if then I call you buttbreath or a turd in the punchbowl I will not then preach and pontificate about their correct use since English is not my language. Capish better now bah-fungoo? Bag it up.
The message isn’t muddled.
It’s quite underhanded and clever:
the PC doesn’t have a point, i.e. it’s pointless.
I quite like it.