“Justin Long has about an hour and a half before he has to drive from Santa Monica to Burbank to shoot some footage for the website of his upcoming movie “Accepted.” And though the hip and trendy Urth Caffé on Main Street does have awesome soup, and he is very into soup, the line is prohibitively long so he suggests Mani’s Bakery, which is just a few doors down, as an alternative,” Mary McNamara reports for The Los Angeles Times.
McNamara reports, “There he does indeed order the soup, some of which he actually eats while discussing the events that led to him having a half-dozen films in various stages of postproduction while, even as we speak, his pop icon status grows with every ‘Get a Mac’ TV spot released by Apple. ‘If I had been egotistical about the movies, I have been brought back to earth,’ he says. ‘Nine out of 10 people who recognize me recognize me from the commercials.'”
McNamara reports, “Long was previously best known for his role in the TV series ‘Ed’… but now… he is fending off computer geeks who either find his Mac guy righteous or maddening. ‘I had a guy come up to me, in my face, saying, ‘You think you’re so cool? You’re not cool’ and I’m saying to him, ‘Dude, it’s a commercial.” There have been seven spots so far with Long playing the slacker-hip Mac guy to John Hodgman’s nerdy PC guy and there are almost 20 more in the can, guaranteeing that what is currently the hottest campaign on TV can last as long as the heat does.”
Full article here.
Related articles:
Apple debuts three new ‘Get a Mac’ ads (with video) – June 12, 2006
Apple: ‘Get a Mac. Say ‘Buh-Bye’ to viruses’ – June 01, 2006
Expert panel critiques Apples’ new ‘Get a Mac’ ad TV campaign – May 15, 2006
Apple’s ‘Get a Mac’ campaign seizes the moment as Microsoft suffers Windows Vista setbacks – May 04, 2006
Apple debuts ‘Get a Mac’ TV ads, new section of website replaces ‘Switch’ (link to watch ads online) – May 01, 2006
Best Ad for Apple
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/victorias-secret-models-like-macbooks-too-192281.php
I think my tv may explode from all the pomposity emanating from it. Thank god for TIVO!
I think it’s funny that people have trouble understanding that the actors represent computers, not computer users. They take it personally that their pc is dull.
Too funny.
This is why the commercials are so effective. It keeps the heat up. The day Apple commercials start looking like stuff from Dell, HP, or Microsoft is the day Apple will slide into obscurity.
I mean, how effect was the lame “G5 blowing you through the house” ad? Does anyone outside the Mac inner circle even remember that?
The point of advertising is to be noticed, and Apple is achieving that very well with the current ads. That a few people’s veins are popping just shows that a few people have inner issues they need to deal with, but Apple shouldn’t be tailoring commercials to them in the first place anyway (like what ad would ever convince a vein-popping Windows fanboy to buy a Mac?)
There is a funny one on YouTube with the standard two guys and then in the middle of their dialogue a black dude comes in (Black MacBook) and starts in with “. . . . and I’m a mac too)
It is so damn funny!
Great. I love the ads. I guarantee that there will be one where the PC is dressed almost identically to the Mac when (if) Vista is finally released.
R, during the initial run of GILLIGAN’S ISLAND there were people who did not understand it was all fictional — actually wrote to the Coast Guard wondering what could be done about those poor people. Dain bramage.
ugly white computers belong in a hospital or a kool-aid lab not a real place.
no tv ad works if it makes people feel bad for using the compatition.
to really be good ads they should make non-machedz feel good not bad.
reminding them of things that arent so great about windows is just a big slap in the face.
os x isnt perfect either, look at the bad-color plastic apple had to replace when the macbooks were new.
let people know that it doesnt matter, pcs and macs they are all the same, cuz thats the truth, and that way maybe somebody will drink the kool-aid and pay extra for a mac pro.
all you smug mac-hedz with your no viruses, i have 10 gams for everyone u have, except i cant buy that many.
“During the initial run of GILLIGAN’S ISLAND there were people who did not understand it was all fictional — actually wrote to the Coast Guard wondering what could be done about those poor people. Dain bramage.”
Well, that actually clears up how Bush got elected, doesn’t it?!
My problem is that I am too honest to take advantage of these people, otherwise I’d be a millionaire by now.
“i have 10 gams for everyone u have, except i cant buy that many.”
I assume you meant games. Funny comment. I love games, and yes, there are far more for the PC than the Mac. However, there are more for the Mac than I have time to play, so honestly, what difference does it make?
Regardless, if you buy a new Mac, you can install Windows and play any game you want so the point is moot (or as Joey would say, moo).
AG-
can you post the url to that ad, please.
I was just thinking about how we all (well, some of us) used to complain about lack of advertising to depict features and such (yes I know there are good reasons NOT to do that).
but w/ the advent of YouTube.com, et al, why not anyone here just make movies and post ’em.
(Featuring Expose, fast user switching, iLife, etc.)
Yes, I know, not for IT people, but so what?
Booting Mac & PC sisde by side?
Opening mail containing virus?
What else?
ideas, please.
7up:
Is the 7 in your “handle” your AGE?
Sheesh, talk about moronic childish babble!
7up
My favorite part of your tard-mumbling is the part where you say OS X is not perfect and then make fun of the discoloration of the MacBook saga.
Since when is discoloration a result of a less than stellar (or whatever your problem is with it) OS?
Maybe it is different for PC users.
I’d like to see Apple phase in some other personalities, including celebrities, to represent the Mac in these commercials. I think the message is spot on, but that guy kinda does irritate me.
7Up was probably one of those who harangued Justin Long, along with ‘homophobe’ Ron and some of the other Windell zombies who mistake maintaining a computer with doing something useful with a computer.
Maybe playing with Imagination not included™ PCs for the last 25 years (apparently it’s the 25th anniversary of IBM’s original 5150 PC tomorrow) means that you can make the logical leap between reality and fantasy.
“all you smug mac-hedz with your no viruses, i have 10 gams for everyone u have, except i cant buy that many.”
Perhaps someday they’ll give you a promotion from grill scrubber to fry guy at the local burger stand and you can buy a few more games. Oh yeah, what are you doing buying games for a PC? I thought the PC’s were ‘real’ computers and the Macs were supposed to be toys.
People don’t like to be told they suck from the choices they make and they don’t like the smug face of reality. The ads perfectly portray that- how it feels to be on the losing team, but this time, there is hope. Switch, dipshit. Oops, I meant switch, we welcome you into the light side of the force. I did, and boy do I feel smug!
“I’d like to see Apple phase in some other personalities, including celebrities, to represent the Mac in these commercials. I think the message is spot on, but that guy kinda does irritate me.”
This is an excellent idea. It’d be to see well-known personalities do the “I’m a Mac” and “I’m a PC” schtick. Especially if the Mac is represented by the likes of Gisele.
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Does anyone else realize that 7up is joking? I can’t believe so many of you are getting worked up over his comments… HE’S JOKING.
Mike K, unfortunatley he is NOT JOKING. He is just really, really sad and stupid. His IQ rivals that only of a cucumber.
We need empathy for this soul.
uh huh just joking.
not!
too bad i am not sad at all, i am home with my dell on friday night playing WOW that you mac-hedz dont have!!
rivals a cucumber?
only 1 part of me rivals a cucumber awwww yeahhh!
lol
apple is the REAL joke here, what do u do with only 2 optical bays, make all the rest of your oprical drives external until u cant even see your desk, my dell has 4 optical bays in case i want them and no lame pants-on-fire-wire 800.
Yeah its a joke come on people no one could be that stupid. Anyone who plays games knows there is a WOW version on the mac platform.
OK, you got me 7up
Not a single person on earth could of made your last post, and actually been serious.
My Bad.
Nice work!
god no.
Hey man if your “cucumber” is green you better get it looked at, could be an STD. You don’t want it to fall off do you?
Well, while you’re playing WOW, I’m actually getting work done, meaning less time on the computer weeding out viruses and spyware, leaving more time for fun stuff…
Caught part of Justin Long’s interview on Jay Leno the other night (still got it on the DVR because the spouse wants to see John McCain) — I thought it was funny that he’s really pretty clueless about computers. Maybe they should make that a future commercial — you don’t have to be a computer science major to use the Mac, because it’s so intuitive and less prone to disasters like the Blue Screen of Death…
i am sparkling and delishes.
7up – you are a psychoanalysts dream.
M di L Buonarroti, “Liberalism is a mental disorder”
Big Boy-
Sounds like someone’s been reading Mann Coulter.
Gee, you MUST be a genius.
“During the initial run of GILLIGAN’S ISLAND there were people who did not understand it was all fictional — actually wrote to the Coast Guard wondering what could be done about those poor people. Dain bramage.”
Well, that actually clears up how Bush got elected, doesn’t it?!
Sooo… by writing the Coast guard, We The People got Bush elected?
This anti-Bush business has gone right off the nutcase-o-meter.
True story: Last week I overhead a discussion about Fidel Catstro’s brother taking over the country for him. Someone commented, in all seriousness, “Just like Bush’s son taking over for him”. OMFG. Um, apparently the eight Clinton years and four presidential elections since Bush Sr. didn’t happen?
As far as the Mac TV spots go… they are getting old. Twenty more featuring the two boring geeks might do more harm than good.
Yeah 7up, I can see how only 2 optical bays would satisfy me. Four is clearly better, especially when you run an operating system that can’t even handle 1 optical drive at a time. Christ. I’ll just go sulk about having to use FireWire instead of USB. I hate transferring data at high speed anyways.
Actually, I’m glad Bush got his first term. I’m not real psyched about the second term, but I’m glad he got his first term.
Why?
Because it’s really going to fuck up the kids learning Presidential history in another 40 or 50 years. It’s the John Adams/John Quincy Adams thing.
Now, if Hilary becomes President in 2008, we’ll really be messing with people’s heads in 50 years…
And then Jeb Bush can have a go, and it’ll be…
Bush-Clinton-Clinton-Bush-Bush-Clinton-Bush
That should get some slacker’s head exploding.
The Left can’t win elections because it confuses name-calling with substantive argument. Actually, the quote about Liberalism being a mental disorder comes from Michael Savage. Ann Coulter makes a pretty good case that it is a religious disorder that believes that the world can be perfectly controlled (hence the philosophy of big government, big budgets, endless regulation, high taxes, and of course, no military). And honestly, if you think Coulter is ugly have you looked at Helen Thomas lately? Since when does truth or force of argument depend on the looks of people?
As for Gilligan Island watchers electing Bush, perhaps you should look at the first televised presidental debate — Kennedy vs. Nixon, and recall that Kennedy won. Why? He looked better. So if you’re going to insult the American electorate, be at least even-handed about it. Also, the whole “Bush is dumb” routine is just typical Democrat “argumentation” as usual. This particular meme has been in action since the late ’60’s. Nixon was dumb; Ford was dumb; Reagan was dumb; Bush Sr. was dumb; Quayle was dumb; Buchannan was dumb; Bush is dumb. It’s funny how ineffective this meme is and yet it’s still being used. Guys? Maybe you need to try somethine else?