AVC: what’s the status on those Apple commercials?
Justin Long: You know, I think they might be done. In fact, I heard from John, I think they’re going to move on. I can’t say definitively, which is sad, because not only am I going to miss doing them, but also working with John. I’ve become very close with him, and he’s one of my dearest, greatest friends. It was so much fun to go do that job, because there’s not a lot to it for me. A lot of it is just keeping myself entertained between takes, and there’s no one I’d rather do it with than John.
Full interview here.
MacDailyNews Take: Cancel or Allow?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Winston” for the heads up.]
Though they are getting on as a concept, I will miss those two: they had really good chemistry together.
I think these commercials, in aggregate, form a company statement that is totally brilliant
Looks like Microsoft finally landed their first blow on Apple. Please don’t tell me that Windows 7 Makes those ads irrelevant…
Their brilliant. Please don’t stop making them.
Cancel.
Move on.
My favorite Justin Long performance was in Zack and Miri Make a Porno. See that movie if you haven’t.
Both Hodgeman and Long, will be remembered as a classic comedy team of the 2000’s..
Anthropormorphising into living, breathing silicon, was at once an artful interpretation of the pc wars, and brilliantly sharp comedy.
How about Long as the iPad, and Hodgeman as the MS Big Ass Table? “Hi, I’m an iPad.” — “And I’m a Big Ass Table.”
If Apple is going to end that ad campaign, then they need to finish it with a big, blowout one. Something that includes iPad and some key accessories along with a Mac. Then Mac hands an iPad to PC and PC sits down at a M$ Surface table to use the iPad (or shoves the Surface out of the scene to make room).
MOVIE! We want a MOVIE!
@ KingMel.
Brilliant. Love it.
All Good Things Come to an End! They were great commercials for Apple.
they were more than great – apple gets more consistently positive buzz from those commercials than anything else they do marketingwise. jobs would be an idiot to not keep them going. every time they come out with a new product it creates another avenue for the two characters to go – endless opportunities to keep it fresh. and the two actors are perfect for the roles.
the only problem as i see it is apple just needs to stop calling the os that runs iphone, ipod & ipad the “iphone os”. instead give it the mac name like the os for the computers. as i’ve read it, they’re all related anyway.
“mac” & “pc” are not the floppy drive. for as long as there is various flavors of windows (7, mobile, etc ), apple will always have something to play against, and as characters they will never be obsolete.
Macintosh has momentum now. They will keep selling in larger and larger numbers. So those commercials are not really needed.
What Apple should do is shoot one last “episode” that basically says Mac and PC get both get along great with iPad. Mac and PC shake hands. Instead of fading to a Mac, fade to iPad, The end.
Over or not (and I hope not), it was a great campaign. The “security” skit (“Cancel or allow”) was pure brilliance.
Things get old fast in the ad business where everything has to be new, especially when the client is Apple, always inventing the future. But for ad campaign longevity, this series had a tremendous run.
Besides, microsoft is so far behind now, they’re as good as dead. No sense kicking the corpse.
Still, I’ll miss those guys.
when you hit 10% marketshare, and about 30% of the US Consumer market, its not really ‘needed’ anymore…
I mean, maybe they can just stop talking about PC now, because the PC side is just pathetic these days
I think they should keep those two, but have them talking about (or bringing in) their sisters, iPod/Zune, iPhone/POS Windows phone, iPad/Cheap ass netbook, etc…
I like the simplicity of them and the reduction to people (it resonated so much that MShit built an ad campaign around them…stupid, but indicative of the power of the ads). However, I think they are close to the end of their cycle.
I thought Justin struck a good note as confident, but not arrogant. I know the PC crowd didn’t think that, but his role was just the straight man and responding.
Let’s move on into this century now. Leave MS even farther behind with their windows 7 thingies.
mike,
Planet earth to mike. Planet earth to mike, over. There is more to this planet than the US of A. Mac sales in other parts of the world are not listed at 10/30 percent of market share. Likewise Apple is aware of this and is penetrating these markets. You should be cognisant of this fact as well.
I loved Justin in Galaxy Quest, but he will always be known for being a Mac. Too bad they can’t find a way to keep them going.
Justin Long “acted” in Apple commercials?! C’mon!!!
“Hi I’m an iPad and I’m a tampon” doesn’t have the same ring to it. I vote to keep it around a bit. but maybe just one or two more.
bad apple!
It’s hard to imagine what could replace it as an ad campaign. Apple has their purely informational and demonstrative ads for iPhone and iPad, and while they share the same clean white backgrounds and minimalist approach, they don’t have a lot of “character”. Mac vs. PC helped give Apple a personality, which is something they should continue to build.