Suzanne Vranica and Brian Steinberg take a look “Best (and worst) ads of ’06” for The Wall Street Journal.
Among the year’s best is the campaign Vranica and Steinberg call “Apple’s Bite” from Omnicom Group’s TBWA1/4Chiat1/4Day – the “Get a Mac” campaign for Apple Computer, Inc.
Vranica and Steinberg write, “A series of ads that played out on TV and the Web show the Apple Mac, represented by a hip-looking young man, debating its features with the PC, represented by a paunchy, nerdy-looking fellow. The Mac-man — played by actor Justin Long, star of the film “Accepted,” is clever, fun and handy — he can communicate with all sorts of different people, and knows how to come up with pictures and music. The PC, played by another actor known to the youth crowd, “Daily Show” commentator John Hodgman, is decidedly less hip, and is always amazed, humbled or befuddled by Mac’s never-ending range of abilities.”
Vranica and Steinberg, “Pepsi pokes fun at Coke, and Miller Brewing has smacked Anheuser-Busch, but this is razzing of a more sophisticated, and sustained, kind. Apple’s knife cuts deep, but by the time rivals feel it, they have already started to bleed.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Adam W.” for the heads up.]
Related article:
Justin Long and John Hodgman win best actor awards for Apple ‘Get a Mac’ ad characters – December 19, 2006
Well guys, looks like gwm has us all figured out. We’re just a bunch of Kool-aid drinking Apple Cultists who will go to great lengths to fabricate and lie about the abilities of the Macintosh. Not only that, but we know that we’re lying and being completely dishonest because we are blind to the reality that gwm has, in his unshakeable integrity, tried to describe to us fanatical zealots.
The fact that we want nothing better than to grind down gwm’s will and force submission upon his is true simply because he says it is so. I, for one, will now scurry away frightened by the blinding light of gwm’s enlightenment.
GWM,
It’s easy. You sell the iMacs, you said you had 4 right? Then you use the funds to buy an external monitor. Don’t worry about thinking Different. Worry about thinking at all.
Happy Holidays!
Magic Word: anyone as in Anyone else could have figured that out!
Well, that’s the only explanation I can come up with. I bought 25 G3 iMacs for a student lab in 1999 – they worked fantastically until there were replaced last spring. That was very heavy usage for 7 years. Running MS Office (not my idea) and several other resource-hog packages. I rarely get more than 3 years out of a standard Dell before it’s either worn out by the students or won’t run current software.
Troll on somewhere else, “Get a Mac”…
I’d think a Cat-5 ethernet cable would connect a Mac mini to any iMac. How you use the networked computers is up to you. One way would allow you ‘virtual’ access of the monitor capabilities in the iMac via a networked mini.
happy holidays (preciousss..)
gwm,
I can’t seem to get the monitor on my Mac SE to hook up with my iMac. What gives? And Apple says ‘it just works!’
You know, for the past year I’ve been closely following about forty Mac fansites on RSS with a refresh rate that’s far too frequent to post without embarrassment. This is the very first time I’ve ever been directed to that craigslist place to seek out a reasonably priced monitor to accompany a Mac mini.
Greatly appreciated. Joyeux Noël, my friend.
I have a 500Mhz imac next to me with panther loaded and the ads play fine…..gwm is a troll and not willing to update his macs…..I also have a 333Mhz imac and a 400Mhz imac with tiger loaded on them….they are not on the internet but itunes 7 and iphoto 4 work on both as well as appleworks. Not speed demons but work fine….I have a 300Mhz MT with panther as well and the ads play…..Amazing how some of the latest OS’s work on such old hardware…Just my 2 cents…Pete
If I’m not mistaken doesn’t the old G3 all in ones and the minimacs both have firewire ports. Could’nt the terminal utility in OSX be used to hook up to a minimac or even the tcpip port and network the damn things together. You can probably also run a minimac from a Imac G3 in target disk mode. Have you checked apples support site? Are you aware of the configuraton of your machine or do you not know…is that why you’re not telling us. It sounds like you’re still running Mac OS8.? MY exgirlfriend bought a mac back in 99-00 it was a Imac DV which first came with MacOS 8.6 she stayed with the MacOS8 series while I made the jump to OSX10.1.4 she allowed her mac to atrophy to the equivalent of an email teletype. She complained that she could no longer exchange word files with her PC at work. So when I made the jump to OSX 10.3 I got together all the software and got he DV to run OSX 10.2.8. I gave her a copy of MS office and she was once again back in the modern world. Now she only has 384 Megs of RAM but she had no trouble running this stuff. Her internet was still dial up but she has sattelite and doesn’t want the give the cable company out here any money for which I dont blame her. When I mad ethe jump to Tiger OSX 10.4…I gave her Panther OSX 10.3 and brought her up to OSX10.3.9 which is still running fine on her 384Meg RAM 400Mhz G3. She recently got DSL and her 7 year old machine is still running like a champ so. It seem to me you bought a legacy machine you’re probably running pre OSX stuff which plain will no longer work on the new Macs. So here are your choices. You can still find support for OS9 in Panther NewerTech makes G4 processor upgrade kits for your old G3 max out you memory and come into the world of OSX start with Lepoard 10.2 and graduate with Panther 10.3 or just scrap the whole thing and buy a cheap flat screen $150 for 15″ buy a keyboard and mouse $20 buy a MiniMac Intel single core $499 with 256meg of RAM,and trash all you old software. Save you data letters and prints and such that you created. Buy a copy of I work 06 and you can probably still use you old data. Otherwise seek professional help for trying to run modern software on an ancient machine that has not been upgraded to the proper specs. Good luck to you GWM.
Hardware Overview:
Machine Model: iMac
CPU Type: PowerPC 750 (22.15)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 600 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
Memory: 256 MB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.1.7f4
Serial Number: RN142120LFC
System Software Overview:
System Version: Mac OS X 10.3.9 (7W98)
Kernel Version: Darwin 7.9.0
Boot Volume: Macintosh HD
That said .. I stand by my reportage. And yes, with Artist’s help, it looks like I’m finally going to be getting out of this embarrassing G3 hell hole. Thank god. I thought it was never going to end.
I shit my brains out every morning after my morning coffee. Do you think that could affect my computer skills?
Hey Folks,
I have a similar problem on my iMac at home. I can’t play many of the latest QT videos. It’s not a hardware issue for me though. It’s the OS version. I’m on 10.2.8. With 10.2.8 the latest QT won’t install. For this reason, I can’t see the ads or most anything made with the latest QT. I wish Apple wouldn’t restrict the latest QT from my OS version. I don’t want to buy Tiger because I’m saving for a new mac.
Am I missing something? Anyone have any suggestions for my current problem?
@bobc
Magic word : Paragraphs
noplay:
Read the specs! If you won’t spend the cash for upgrading your Mac, don’t complain about not beng able to use free software like QuickTime. Looks like you should have purchased 10.3 when it was available over 3 years ago.
Mac’s have no backward compatibility like Windows. Heck, even Vista is susceptible to malware like ealier versions. Can Apple beat that?
“I have a similar problem on my iMac at home. I can’t play many of the latest QT videos. It’s not a hardware issue for me though. It’s the OS version. I’m on 10.2.8. “
I’ve got to agree with maczealot, you really are a doofus to expect latest Mac software to work on a 3 year old version of Mac OS X.
Greg:
“Yes, with all the great ads over the years, Apple is poised to make the giant leap from 4% market share to 4.5. We beleagured Mac users have seen these great ad campaigns really do little to convince a PC world to make the switch.
Oh well (sigh). Maybe in 2007 we’ll make the leap to 5%.”
This is a US ad campeign, the world Mac share (of all PC sales) maybe be under 5% (it’s under 4%), but the US share of all PC sales is over 5%, this happened only recently since the Intel Switch and this new ad campaign.
Apple is shoring up its base of US sales with the retail stores, this ad campaign and other projects including iPod and the upcoming iTV.
I fully expect by the end of 2007 for Apple to hover between 6 and 7% of all PC sales in the US, headed up by their highly profitable (and extremely popular) laptops. The US share of laptops will be much higher than this, and higher still among college age and home buyers.
It will take Apple awhile to penetrate heavily into business, but the more gains Apple makes in the home share the stronger position it will be in to make a move into that area as well.
Apple has a plan, knows what its doing, is focused and highly effective with a great product that attracts a high level of loyalty. Microsoft is drifting along (basically coasting) on an entrenched monopoly, without a focused vision or plan, without the means to implement one, lumbering along slowly hampered by layers of ineffectual beaurocricy and no vision or leadership. Microsoft attracts most of its loyalty under duress.
There is a tremendous window of opportunity for Apple here.
“I shit my brains out every morning after my morning coffee. Do you think that could affect my computer skills?”
No but it clearly makes you dumb enough to think that you buy a Mac and it just works. Don’t you realize that all Windows usability problems are Microsoft’s fault, but that All Mac usability problems are the USER’S fault. And that user is you, Dumb-ass.
Go buy a Windows PC, at least then it won’t be your fault when it doesn’t work.
For those people who cannot or will not upgrade their Macs, check out the following site,
http://lowendmac.com/
Be sure of one thing, time marches on with or without you. The same goes for technology.
is decidedly less hip, and is always amazed, humbled or befuddled by Mac’s never-ending range of abilities.
Perfect description of Microsoft, no?
Personally I don’t think the “Get a Mac” ads are that hot. The message is great but the ads just don’t grab your attention, they’re too long and wordy. When was the last time anyone saw an Apple ad stop & draw a crowd in a public place?
Then again, in a world of mediocre TV talent you don’t need to be great, you just need to suck less than everyone else. Maybe that’s where the ads succeed…
still not impressed,
If you are influenced only by a limited number of simple one minute ads and have no capacity for objectively and thoughtfully comparing and contrasting avialable consumer products, why make such a big deal? You must only have the attention span of a brain-damaged chimp.
Okay,
gwm should have no problem with quicktime 7 on his iMac, the only thing i can think of is that he has a slow internet connection which isnt allowing him to download the clips or stream them, But if he wants (or if you are reading this) you would like some help with this problem, or a newer machine try to go to lowend mac and buy a 1GHZ iMac G4 which will run tiger and leopard when it comes out.
that 600 MHZ G3 WILL run tiger with enough RAM installed. On the PPC 750 i would go with at least 512, the 128 that is built into that machine (i believe) go get a PC-133 stick which i think that takes in 512 MB and give yourself 640MB RAM then you should be good. Otherwise understand that the machine you are using is NOT 4 years old it is at LEAST mid 2001 or earlier.
but in all honesty i think he is a complete jokester who is just trying to get us riled up, and doing a good job. Stop being a jackass.
backdoor:
Apple is not responsible for bad internet service, inclement weather, moldy bread, or peoples’ parsimonious behavior. Really!
gwm,
I tried loading Tiger on my SE, but the dang install disc wouldn’t fit into the slot. Well, I trimming the disc down to where it would fit…and…surprise–it won’t load. When is Apple going to make things backwards compatible?!!
Yeah. I’m still reading. Persistant, aren’t you guys? ok …
I’ve got Videotron’s highest speed consumer cable service (a gift, btw) and 256 MB of RAM. How many times do you think I’m going to feed RAM to that thing?
The reason you guys are flipping out is because at least a few of you understand that, like it or not, I’m telling the truth .. and that the grim reality is that Apple sold a shitpile of barely-capable computers in the early 2000s with a default circumstance that the consumer would have to keep spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on memory over the years .. without which basic Apple software like QuickTime wouldn’t continue to work properly.
Now, I’ve stopped short of calling it a scam. My guess is that Apple didn’t know in 1998-99 that the goddamn G3 iMac was going to be a monster sales success. I would like to think that Apple would never have used that processor in those first wildly sucessful iMacs if they had known how many they were going to have to account for later on. Regardless, I nonetheless do see that Apple is still offering most of it’s computers in a basic default configuration with barely enough memory to satisfy the needs of OS X. That’s a mistake, I’m sorry to say.
gwm:
No doubt, yer a moron or a liar. If you had these problems earlier, as you claim, you would have been bitching years ago.