“Garfield’s ‘Bobby’ awards honor the year’s best performance by an actor in a commercial. This year’s Best Male Performance was won by Justin Long and John Hodgman who play Mac and PC in the Apple Macintosh ads created by TBWA/Chiat/Day,” Bob Garfield reports for Advertising Age.
“Hodgman is a PC, earnest and uptight, and Long is a Mac, casually cool. Yes, PC is a doofus, but what so distinguishes these performances is how the two interact — affably and respectfully, in spite of the central premise. Long is cool not because he’s ultrahip but because he’s laid-back and confident, minus any trace of condescension,” Garfield reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Adam W.” for the heads up.]
“You like us! You really like us!!!”
Man I thought he wrote condensation! That would change the meaning a bit
I really like the Justin Long and John Hodgman commercials. Except for the Justin Long part.
“he’s laid-back and confident, minus any trace of condescension”
Excellent description of exactly what Mr. Mac is, in other words, he’s not smug.
But in normal use, my Mac is “minus any trace of condensation” as well!
Many have complained that the ads don’t show OSX, but looking back, it is a brilliant campaign. I’ve chuckled at most of the commercials.
It is a pretty neat bit of advertising. I thought the characters were perfect.
I thought these Mac and PC characters pissed off every PC user on the planet.
The voters for these awards must all be advertising industry Mac users.
Yeah, but Justin is a little bit smug, right. I mean, just a little bit.
i still think some shots of os x in action would have gotten the message accross better.
Only PC losers think he’s smug…
They need to have PC gloating over the features hes about to get in Vista, with Mac telling him he’s got the same features now.
I like clyde’s idea of a vista commercial. Another is a “backup” commercial when we get Leopard. They can have a second Justin Long come out as the back up and have a whole bunch of kids dressed as Hodgeman to show CDs as backup. Somehow show new data just being handed back to the backup on the Mac side and on the PC side the CDs saying they are full.
As for the “showing” of OSX, you just can’t do that well in 30 seconds. These commercials are memorable and all my PC friends like them, they are not offended. These are serving their purpose quite well.
For those pc users who are offended by these commercials, I really think there is medication for that. I have had many of my pc using friends tell me they love these commercials. Getting them to switch is a no brainer now compared to just 2 years ago when it was a total uphill battle. Out of at least 2 dozen people I’ve switched, I’ve never had anyone switch back. Or even consider it.
I would like a new ad which includes one more actor. He would say, “Hi, I’m Vista. I work with PC. I am beautiful.” His face would be hidden behind one of those masks you see used in some operas — the ones held on a stick. It would have an Apple logo for the face. At the end, the camera shot would reveal the actor’s face behind the mask. It would be the Neanderthal guy from the Geico ads.
I thought condescension was more about the proper way to move prisoners into the basement.
“It would be the Neanderthal guy from the Geico ads.”
Or Nick Nolte’s mugshot. Same effect.
“minus any trace of condescension,”
I totally agree. If you go back and look at the ad’s you see it. Those that have said otherwise (I believe) were injecting their own Mac vs. PC biases.
I can’t believe how far backwards people were bending to say that John’s character was actually the likable one, and that Justin’s was a pompous jerk. There’s nothing like that in the ads – PC isn’t villainized, he’s just lame like a lame old uncle. And Mac isn’t a dick, he’s just confident and casual.
Kudos to both. PC peeps have been subject to such awful ads (“…buy a Dell Dimension E521 with Genuine Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005… ” zzz…) they know not what they do.
If peecee-using tv viewers were smart enough to “get” OS X, there’d be no need for commercials. I think the ads are great. If you’re a peecee user, the ads rub your nose in it, but very gently.
I agree with Clyde, Apple has an opportunity here. Play up the new features in Vista and point out…yeah they are nice but we have been enjoying them for a long time now. Vista is almost like our OLD operating system….
Its not too smug is it????
Condescension….basement…hahahah I get it.
Garfield’s “Bobby” award? What the hell is that? Shouldn’t it be an “Odie” award?
Another spin on the commercial using Vista might be that the PC guy gets a big beefy body guard who follows him everywhere… to the point of annoyance when he constantly shows up at the most inopportune times.
“PC guy gets a big beefy body guard”
How about an ornery paper clip that sneers and flicks rubber bands at people?
For those of you that think they should be playing up OS X think again. KISS… your target audience is watching television, they’re not reading MacDailyNews. Most people don’t even know that there is an option to a PC.
The commercials and actors are brilliant, thus the award.
Showing off OS X or applications running on the computer would work for a rather small percentage of consumers. The current ads, using people in place of technology, is perfect because working with a Mac has always been designed to be a “friendly” experience. Why do you think the Finder has a smiling face?