Apple Computer has debuted a major print campaign for Macintosh hardware and software, including Mac OS X.
Currently appearing in major magazines in the U.S., including the September 8th issue of Entertainment Weekly (#895/896 “Fall TV Preview”), the materials include a white four-page detachable insert featuring the following pages:
Cover:
Inside Cover:
Back Cover:
Attached to the third page is a detachable 14-page accordion-fold 5 3/8″ x 5 3/8″ booklet featuring an iMac on the cover, and pages such as “Why you’ll love a Mac,” iPhoto, iWeb, iTunes, iMovie, GarageBand, iChat AV, Dashboard, Microsoft Office compatibility, and Apple hardware including, iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini:
MacDailyNews reader “getamac2day” has posted the full 14-page booklet on Flickr here.
Back in January, The San Francisco Chronicle’s Matthew Yi wrote, “Vista may still impress many consumers, because many of them may have never seen Apple’s operating system.”
We, along with many MacDailyNews readers, have long been concerned about Apple’s efforts to inform the public about Mac OS X. Also back in January, our own SteveJack penned the article “Apple in secret deal with Microsoft to hide Macintosh from world?“
SteveJack asked, “How can a company produce such a product as the Mac platform – a product that is amazingly superior to the Windows platform – and not be able to sell it? What’s the point? Why doesn’t Apple show the world what the Mac can actually do for them? …So, really, what’s going on Apple? What other deals do you have with Microsoft that you’re not talking about? Did you promise to advertise the Mac only to appeal to the egos of Mac users and not versus Windows? Did you promise Microsoft you’d keep Mac OS X and your Mac-only applications a secret in exchange for Office for Mac and/or other reasons? Because what Apple isn’t doing seems to benefit Microsoft, not Apple or their shareholders. I can’t imagine a company that executes so well at nearly everything can be so inept for so long at informing the world that there is a better way, a much better way.”
If this excellent campaign is consistently and widely run in major publications, it could potentially go a long way towards showing the public – albeit in static form – what Mac OS X looks like and what the Mac can do — ahead of Microsoft’s Vista rollout.
Related articles:
Computerworld: Microsoft Windows Vista a distant second-best to Apple Mac OS X – June 02, 2006
Thurrott: Microsoft going to get eaten alive over Windows Vista’s resemblance to Apple’s Mac OS X – March 09, 2006
Analyst: Windows Vista may still impress many consumers because they have not seen Apple’s Mac OS X – January 05, 2006
Looks sweet!
I’ll have to keep my eye out for one of these.
My Mac does do spreadsheets.
This could be one of the rare times people buy a magazine for the ad! Expect circulation to go up a little.
Assuming that people who buy Entertainment Weekly know how to read and don’t just look at the pretty pictures, they will forget all the pro-Mac arguments when they walk into any computer store and only find Windows PCs, each one cheaper than the other. Yes, they are not really cheaper than Macs when you compare specifications and included software but it takes too much effort to explain that to most computer users.
Stuff I have to do. Stuff I want to do. I use my Mac for both.
Only bad thing is the page about the iMac says the price starts at $1,299, which as of today is no longer true. Same goes with the speed of the Mac Mini. Ah well.
Late night.
Saw this in Entertainment Weekly, last week.
What, so Mac’s can’t to “work” type of things? You would think that Apple would let people know that it can.
Why sending a wrong message? What now? Mac’s can’t do piecharts and spreadsheets? “Hey, you can’t use Macs at work: even Apple says it”.
Puzzled as it is the very first thing one get. IF I was an intrigued corporate customer knowing nothing about Macs I could just see dropping the leaflet at that first statement and not wanting to read more. “Ah yes, finally they admit it. It is a computer for leisure not for serious work. I’ll sign that order to renew our 5000 languishing PC and wait for Vista”
Apple can’t win for some of you!
If they said ‘hey, we do pie-charts and spreadsheets too!’ you’d say the reaction from business would be ‘pff, no big deal – I can do that on my PC!’
At last they splash out on some serious advertising, admittedly aimed square at the home market and entertainment segment(Entertainment Weekly, not Business News!)… and you moan! Wait untill next week for more of the same.
Apple are moving in the right direction.
It’s like a game of chess, the long strategy wins over quick-fix knee-jerk solutions.
About time. How about the same ad campaign for the UK?
Amazing.
You’ve all been bitching about Apple not seriously advertising the Mac for years. It finally happens and what do you do? Bitch about the lack of focus on OS X.
You’ve all been bitching about Apple’s lack of focus on OS X in the Get a Mac campaign for months. It finally happens and what do you do? Bitch about the lack of focus on business applications.
You smug bastards don’t know whether you’re coming or going.
Glad to see a massive campaign but I already can hear our IT Director.
“Listen, even Apple says it. PCs are for pie charts and spreadsheets. Macs are for home.
I think this ends the discussions. I hope I am not going to hear from you again. Apple says what I have said all these years: Macs and work do not match. PC are for the things we have to do. PCs offer much more at work. What now, are you going to fight hard to convince me Apple is wrong and you are right?. Finally all these years bitching from you are coming to an end. Cheerio”
AND, since I know the bastard pretty well HE is going to use this campaign much more than me. And people will listen HIM, not me. I can just become again so fanatical I even say Apple is wrong to have my Mac at work.
Not moaning but why state on the first statement something that we know is a shortsighted labeling (PC at work, Mac at home). First impressions stick. There will be people just reading the first statements only.
Nixon, you should be impeached one more time if you do not see this coming. Oh wait, maybe you do not have a work or never fought endless discussions to keep Macs at work.
If they said ‘hey, we do pie-charts and spreadsheets too!’ you’d say the reaction from business would be ‘pff, no big deal – I can do that on my PC!’
Wrong: Why limit yourself with a computer only good for pie charts and spreadsheet!
As with Boot Camp and Parallels why not stating as it is: Macs do more. On the OS why getting a computer where you can only run Windows and Linux and not getting a computer where you can do Windows, Linux and OS X.
Same here: why getting a computer where you can only do things you have to do (pie charts, spreadsheets, computation intensive tasks, development) and not getting a computer where you can do all that and the things you like to do: movies, music, pictures etc. Why the hassle of keeping multiple computers for different tasks and not getting the only one which is best at everything.
So much for Mac users drinking kool-aid from Apple at every move. Up yours trolls. Windows is what it is because its users never complain being abused.
We bitch and moan till we get it right, and even then!
I hope this advertising effort isn’t a one-time deal. They should continue advertising to increase marketshare. Apple should’ve done this a long time ago.
Not bitching:
Tell your boss to read and re-read page 10 of the ad. When he’s done, tell him to read and re-read it again. “Microsoft Office. Macs do the work stuff too.”
Macs do the work stuff too: exactly. Why bury it at page 10 when on page 1 it seemingly says the opposite. What is on page 10 should be on page one.
The problem is not for bosses not to know that, is of bosses trying everything to deny the evidence. And some statements in the Apple ad are helpful: it is enough to take them out of context and you can say everything and its opposite. I would have preferred a more careful attentions to giving the flank to cheap shots. That’s all.
I would have liked a “PCs and computers in general are for the stuff we have to do […]. Why limit yourself? Macs are as well for the things we want to do […]”.
And not because the ad is not good, but because Mac haters will stick to everything to be able to still say “Macs have no place at work”.
It seems a strange time to advertise, just before upgrades and the September 12th announcements – does it mention the Core 2 Duo in the iMac? I hope they advertise again when Leopard is released and all of the machines (except maybe the mini) are Core 2 Duo, they can then flaunt Boot Camp the ‘when you really have to use Windows’ option. Perhaps they could say ‘We made Boot Camp really simple to use, because it would be easy to forget a program you never really need.’
OK:
1) Mac zealots, please do not hog the print ads. They are not for us. If you buy them and give them to your friends, they won’t read it. They need to buy the magazine themselves. You can sell your friends without the magazine already.
2) There should be more focus on the ability to run Windows on the Mac. This is the #1 Fear Factor causing the ignorant masses to continue suffering until the whip of Windows.
I just like that Apple are putting themselves out there. I think the Mac/PC ads and this print ad serve as a great way of firstly getting the Mac name out there. Most consumers probably don’t realise that a Mac is an option let alone a viable and superior one. At best they would consider them expensive and specialised and therefore not for them. I think we’re seeing the first signs that Apple is trying to educate people. Getting the name known, getting the machines known (the iMac specifically), then the consumer software (iLife). Then little snippets about running windows, doing work stuff, no viruses, overall security. Then hopefully they’ll show off the OS in terms that your average person will understand and see the benefit of. Hopefully this is just the beginning.
Unless Microsoft goes backrupt and is unable to deliver a “browser” to me on a Dell machine or until Apple gives me a free “PC”, I’m not going to be swayed!
I’m going back to watching my boob tube, and drinking a few more before the “bitch” gets home.
<sarcasm>
If Apple emphasizes that Macs not only do pie charts and spreadsheets, but Macs also do movies, photos, music, web pages, etc. then I suspect the ad to be effective. Apple should to direct the ad to the widest possible audience, appeal to both left-brain and right-brain individuals, and show the versatility of Mac. Apple has to destroy the myth that Macs are “only good for graphics” and other exclusively non-technical activities, and clearly demonstrate how Macs are being used in business, research, academics, and other areas described on Mac@work.
Why place the ad in “Entertainment Weekly”? What demographic is Apple focused? What is the annual circulation of “EW”? What single magazine reaches the greatest number of people? What single magazine reaches the greatest diversity of persons? Personally, I neither subscribe to nor read “EW”.
who gives a fuck aboot using windoze on a mac ?
i look at it as the mac’s first virus
fuck microshit
OH MY GOD!!! An apple ad showing the OS. HELL has froze over!!!