Apple debuts major Mac OS X print campaign with 14-page ‘Get a Mac’ booklet

20 years ago

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.