“Apple has now made available the latest ads in the ‘Get a Mac’ promotion. The number of ads in the series now totals 15 and are iLife, Network, WSJ, Accident, Angel/Devil, Trust Mac, Out of the Box, Touché, Work vs Home, Viruses, Restarting, Better, Counselor, Better Results, and Self Pity,” Chris Howard writes for Apple Matters.
Howard writes, “The last three are the latest ones. Two out of three I thought were laugh out loud funny. That doesn’t mean they will be to everyone. Windows users might find them offensive.”
Get a Mac – “Self Pity” ad:
Get a Mac – “Better Results” ad:
Get a Mac – “Counselor” ad:
Howard writes, “But therein lies my question. Is Apple – or its advertising agency – loosing sight of the goal and just going for laughs? Do laughs sell Macs? Or is the message missed in the mirth?
Howard writes, “It’s hard to know the answer when you’re already a Mac user, but I do wonder if the jokes distract the potential switcher too much from the message. In the beginning they were good attention grabbers. Some people said they were derogatory, but hey, they still were getting attention. But how long can you run a gag before it gets stale?”
Read the full article here.
The ads can be seen in higher quality QuickTime via Apple.com here: http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/
Related articles:
Apple debuts three new ‘Get a Mac’ ads online [UPDATED] – October 09, 2006
‘I’m a PC’ guy John Hodgman really an Apple Mac user – September 25, 2006
USA Today Ad Track poll for Apple’s ‘Get a Mac’ campaign shows above-average consumer response – September 18, 2006
Apple debuts major Mac OS X print campaign with 14-page ‘Get a Mac’ booklet – September 07, 2006
More new Apple ‘Get a Mac’ ads – one featuring Gisele Bündchen – seen in Apple Retail Store – September 05, 2006
Critiquing Apple’s new ‘Get a Mac’ ads – August 28, 2006
Apple debuts three new ‘Get a Mac’ ads – August 27, 2006
Nearly 20 more ‘Get a Mac’ TV spots ready to roll – August 11, 2006
Apple’s ‘Get a Mac’ ads too harsh? – July 31, 2006
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
Do Apple’s new ‘Get a Mac’ ads generate animosity among the uninitiated? – May 08, 2006
Why Apple’s new ‘Get a Mac’ campaign will fail – May 04, 2006
Apple’s ‘Get a Mac’ campaign seizes the moment as Microsoft suffers Windows Vista setbacks – May 04, 2006
iTWire’s Beer: Apple’s new ‘get a Mac’ campaign misses, preaches to converted – May 04, 2006
Apple debuts ‘Get a Mac’ TV ads, new section of website replaces ‘Switch’ (link to watch ads online) – May 01, 2006
Carlo beat me to it! Same point as me, but better expressed.
If you find thosse commercials offensive, please seek therapy, you emotional cripple.
loki capret = asshole
The most successful ad campaigns for technology have come from apple, dummy. Say somehting worth hearing please. You don’t have to defend Apple, but if you’re going to bash it, do it intellignetly. Thank You dummy.
The Pi
Come on, that “Better Results” ad is hilarious.
The look on “PC” is priceless, and the second “model” is a riot.
Get a sense of humor!
Sb
These ads suck big time. I have been a loyal Apple fanatic for years and years BUT these ads are just plain stupid. Why can’t Apple show their product? Show the computer, show the software, show it! OMG!!!
“But really, how can you talk “creativity” when most major creative software, other than the iLife suite, can run under either platform? If you work in Photoshop, it really doesn’t matter if you’re on a PC or a Mac anymore, does it?”
These ads aren’t targeted at anyone using photoshop or Avid (which, by the way, works better on the PC until the Intel nnative version comes out). They are targeted at the average user that jjust wants to get movies or pictures off the new camera they just brought home from Best Buy to film their kids soccer game.
In this respect, it is all about iLife, since the consumer level PC software sucks.
These ads are on YouTube and elsewhere on the net.
Parodies of these ads are on YouTube and elsewhere.
People are talking about Macs.
People are asking about Macs.
The ads work.
duper wrote: “As opposed to tightening sight of the goal? Sheesh.”
No actually. If he said “loosing” then the corresponding verb would be “tighting”. Not that either word exists.
Agreed it should never have got through coz it is a pretty obvious one that someone should have picked up, but it’s sad when people are more concerned about one small spello or typo than the message.
If you hadn’t have put the “Sheesh” on the end, it would have come across as funny and we’d all be laughing at your clever humor. Instead you sound aloof and arrogant, and we think… well… you can guess, eh?
Windows users are too oblivious to find any of these ads offensive.
How long can you run a gag until it gets stale?
Ask Enegizer.
They need to show OS X!!! Just show some eye candy and a lot of people will switch
i love the old ads when the first imac came out. When jeff goldblum did the adds. I love the one about clutered. You see a pc and he says prefusly clutered and so on and then they go to the imac and its got one cord coming out the back and it looks so nice so elegant even now but especailly back then and it was so nice because in one comereical you get across the fact that the pc is huge bulky and a mess while the imac is simple and elegant and very easy to set up. I also like the guy vs kid and broady the dog setting up a pc and the kid and dog setting up an imac. The pc guy is sitting there trying to figure out how to set his pc up and hooking up all the cords while the kid opens the box takes the imac out and plugs it in and a couple clicks he is on the internet. While the other guy is entering his license code for windows and going through several windows screens before ever getting to the desktop. I also like the one where the where the imacs are spiing around and the song is playing she comes in colors everywhere.
These ads are great but there should be something else to them. The out of the box would be great if at the end they showed an imac and simply taking it out of the box and pluggin it in and going to work or something.
These adds are better then some apple have had in years past.
I want to see them do some adds aimed at business people to get them to see macs can do anything your pc can do and do it better.
jason,
yes I agree.
The original iMac ads were very good and I believe they played a role in the success of that computer and thus set Apple’s revival in motion.
As you wrote, they showed ordinary people how easy it is to get started on a Mac and how unclutered your desktop is.
Perhaps they ought to just redo those ads with the new iMac – and a new HP.
The same arguments still apply, and there are still a lot of people out there (particularly older people) who don’t have a computer and want one, but are worried about whether they can ‘handle’ the technology.
Those ads reassured.
Most Windows users I know are offended simply because Mac’s exist. Tell the masses about the brillance of a mac so those that spout mac’s are rubbish can be shown to be wrong.
Ok you see a beige box with a beige CRT and opposite this you see a 20′ iMac.
Then the voice overs come in. With a little movement from the iMac you hear ‘Hello’ I am a Mac’ (with an exclamation point on the screen with the OS desktop) then some movement from the beige box with ‘And I’m a PC’ (with a question mark on the screen with the OS desktop).
I’m thinking how great this would be for Pixar/Disney to animate this as one of their shorts but in a more realistic less cartoonish style.
So in some clever dialog PC is confused a little about where the rest of the Mac is. Something like where’s the rest of you (maybe along the lines of the idea they had with the two actors in a box). The Mac explains this is all of me, I am all here. The next line I think would be great. PC says ‘But where is the computer part?’
I have heard so many not very computer inclined people say this about the iMac, even the original iMac. I don’t intend this to poke fun at Mac ignorant people, just answer this question before they ask because they are always amazed that the ‘screen’ is a complete computer.
Then a bunch of alert dialog boxes cascade across the screen for PC (donk, donk, donk, donk) and blue screen of death appears and shuts down.
I think this would really target people ready to upgrade.
Plus when I use Photoshop on the mac I use exposé all the time. Can’t do that on Windows.
I believe they probably work, but I still would wish for more ads spelling out the idea that the Mac is, in fact, a serious work machine. So, do the cute ads for home users, do “serious” ads for work machines.
Lost my lease, and I’m losing my grip, I just might trip as I loosen the knot in my tye-dyed tie. You lose, when you are loose with the editing.
And the MDN word id “Simple” Amazing, how does it know?
I agree with M.X.N.T.4.1 that Apple’s advertising isn’t aimed at Windows fans but at the millions of clueless drones who buy Windows pc’s only because “everyone else” does. These folks may not be able to think for themselves, but they ARE capable of switching their focus when heavily bombarded by a suitable alternative message.
I think the ads are funny and effective without being too heavy-handed; but I also think the war has already been won because there is no f-in’ way that today’s teens are going to automatically buy sucky pc’s the way their clueless parents did. Apple is “cool” and everybody knows it. The fact that Macintosh computers also just happens to be the very best personal computers that money can buy will seal the deal. We just have to wait for all these kids to morph into card-carrying consumers. When that happens, game over.
If you work in Photoshop, it really doesn’t matter if you’re on a PC or a Mac anymore, does it?
This is like saying: If you’re driving to St. Louis, it really doesn’t matter what kind of car you drive. Afterall, all cars have four tires, two headlights and a steering wheel, right?
This attitude, unfortunately, assumes that all cars are equally safe, equally reliable, equally economical… which, of course, is simply not true. The fact that one product superficially resembles another does not in any way guarantee that product performance will be equal.
Long live Mac. The alternative is unthinkable.
Why treat as relevant anything a so-called professional writes when he/she reveals himself/herself to have the IQ of a kumquat?