During the Olympics, Apple has debuted three new 30-second Macintosh commercials on U.S. broadcast and cable networks.
The new, rather remarkable ads feature at the same “Mac Genius” who interacts with everyday personal computer users.
The ads are entitled “Basically,” “Labor Day,” and “Mayday.”
In “Basically,” an Apple Genius points out there are a lot of things that separate a Mac from an ordinary computer, like great apps that come built in.
In “Labor Day,” the same Apple Genius shows a soon-to-be father all the amazing things he can make with iPhoto.
In “Mayday,” an Apple Genius shows a fellow passenger how easy it is to make great home movies with iMovie. All before the tray tables are returned to their upright position.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously these ads are not targeted at the typical MacDailyNews reader and therefore might, upon first viewing, seem simplistic or even stupid. These ads are not at all stupid, they’re simply talking to people who speak a much more basic tech language than we do. When it comes to these ads, we are all paleontologists being forced to watch Dinosaur Train.
MacDailyNews readers, you are hereby absolved from watching these ads. They are not for your consumption. Pay no attention to these ads whatsoever while you share them repeatedly with your parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and anyone else you know who might be in the market for their first real personal computer.
Every Mac user, especially the longtime Mac users who’ve been to the edge and back, should welcome new Mac users whether they know exactly what they’ve just purchased or have much yet to learn.
To take a line from a very early Mac TV ad (second ad below), “The real genius of Macintosh is that you don’t have to be a genius to use it.”
The ad title “Basically” says it all. These ads are appealing to a very basic target audience – the broadest possible target audience – and therefore represent a rather significant milestone:
Apple has finally returned to marketing the computer for the rest of us to the rest of us.
Steve Jobs’ ultimate goal, to take back the computer business from Microsoft, is being realized. These ads are a part of that effort. Apple’s Mac has regained its strength to the point where it can fight for the wide personal computer market again. Microsoft, if they were cognizant, should be shaking in their boots. It’s 1984 all over again and, for the Mac at least, that is a very, very good thing.
I don’t know. Mountain Lion is really nothing to write home about. Lion wasn’t really much either, so ML didn’t have much to build on. OS X is showing its age. Mac sales are off, even with some really hot new products. These ads seem off, not very interesting to me, because part of the whole Apple experience is that the advertising makes us feel as though our products are different.
I’m wondering if it really is. Because Mountain Lion, after using it this many months, is really not that great, and maybe all Apple has become is iOS. And that’s sad.
Looks like the perfect time for you who clearly feel superior to Apples stupid engineers to finally showmthe world your genius and share you world class OS. Surely you have at least a beta copy for us. Don’t just talk trash, show us what an OS should be. I know you can do it.
EVen on it’s worst day, OSX is more efficient and more productive than the rest of what’s out there.
I think what everyone is failing to take into account is just how iconic the image of the “Apple Genius” is. Everyone who sees the kid in the blue Apple shirt with the badge immediately know what he’s supposed to be. I don’t blame Apple for trying to capitalize on that.
——RM
These ads are absolutely HORRIBLE because they indicate that Macs are sooo incredibly difficult to use that you need a FSCKING GENIUS to help you use them!! HORRIBLE MESSAGING. Steve Jobs would have NEVER approved these ads.
These ads are a welcome relief from the older stuffy ads, especially the I’m a Mac, I’m a PC ads which were never funny and always annoying, but just kept coming anyway. The Mayday one is funny.
The ad called “Basically” is so true, I can’t tell you how many PC users I know who have this story. Many end up as switchers the next time around after I have to tell them exactly what this Genius told them.
The argument that says these ads are lame because they say dumb people buy Macs is interesting.
Really, it’s the same argument that current highly logical and competent trained IT Windows professional types use to hold on to their Windows machines. We don’t need to recruit them. They will buy an iPad. They might only buy an iPod. But eventually, they’re coming over. They aren’t the types to be won by experience, but eventually they will experience the best and see the issues more clearly. They claim that Apple is ‘just so expensive’ but they own 3–4 high defs, an XBox 360, an ultra book, a Zune, and their Android phone, and their Android pad. These guys will say (and do say, from knowing them) ‘Apple makes some amazing stuff!’ These guys cannot get over their perceived 10%-15% Apple tax for stuff that is “basically a Mac/iPod/iPad”
These guys are like 5-10% of the population, my guess.
Then, there are 40%-50% of the population who aren’t tied to a non-Apple lifestyle who can also relate to these ads.
So MDN, I agree. Thanks for helping us think it through!