Is It Time To Say Goodbye to 'Mac and PC' ?
Monday, August 31, 2009 at 11:23AM 
Over the weekend a new Mac and PC ad was released, (see below.) and I have to say, it might be time for these two buddies to move on.
The ads have been clever in gently poking fun at the PC, while showing the virtues and accolades of the Mac. You've go to wonder though, is it simply preaching to the choir at this point. If you were a PC user, and you'd seen these ads for over three years, would you suddenly wake up, ready to by a Mac, or would you feel badgered and belittled by this point?
Just to be clear, I personally enjoy the ads, even if they've lost their LOL appeal through the years. They've still found a sweet spot in which to highlight the Mac, while downplaying the PC points, and have done it with class not seen in the Microsoft Seinfeld ads, the short-lived "I'm a pc" campaign, or the "Laptop Hunters" spots running now.
I always felt the switcher ads were under-used, and maybe in retrospect, came a little earlier than they should've. Maybe it's time to see real-world people switching and talking about the experience again. Or maybe it's time to go in a whole new direction.
Given the popularity of the iPhone/iPod, and the Apple ecosystem overall, maybe it's time for something like the "Think Different" campaign: now that so many more people own an Apple product, perhaps it's time to get them to realize they'll love the same things about their Mac that they love about the iPhone or iPod. Let's see an Apple brand, feel good, kind of campaign. Hedge the bets and keep the "Get a Mac" ads around for awhile to answer whatever ridiculousness the next Microsoft spot holds.
Reader Comments (8)
They're definitely getting less funny but they really persuaded me to switch to mac... I think they need to take a new angle on the pc vs. mac thing :-)
Great Idea. Why not show all the iPod and iPhone uses how similar the Mac is to their handheld device. Sure beats insulting 90 percent of your use rbase (PC users).
I suppose it's a matter of taste. Some people got tired of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner after just a few episodes, while others continue to enjoy what is, after all, the same joke over and over taken to almost limitless variety. I am one of the latter. Give me more 'Mac and PC'; I still laugh.
These ads are not for you or me, that's what everyone needs to realize. So yes, we're a little tired of them perhaps, but they're obviously still working.
Apple has, without a doubt one of the best marketing teams in the world, AND one of the best ad agencies in the world, and they work in concert together, a real partnership that has done amazing things for both companies.
You can be sure that if this campaign starts to lose air, they will pull it and replace it with something better.
I really like these ads. One of the best was quite recent - customer support. I really felt for PC yelling into his phone "but they told me to call you."
The ads are meant to be low key. They don't have to grab you. They are part of the environment. When you are in a public space and see the ad come on you don't have to hear the sound track. It already registers in your mind.
They could do some other things as well, but I hope they keep these ads.
The ads shouldn't change. Why? because they are successful.
Campbell's soup has been running the same "Mmmm Mmmm Good" ad for forty years. The Advertising people hate it because they want variety. Customers like it because it reconfirms what they like Campbell's -- its taste.
Time for PC to switch to a Mac. Can you imagine the hilarious comments that a revitalized PC could offer that were "old news" to Mac?
PC brags about his new iPhone and how well it works with PC. Mac, with an edgy smirk, winks at audience and says it is even better with the Mac.
PC touts the beauty, fit and finish of the iPhone. Mac, with an edgy smirk, winks at the audience and says it is built as beautifully as the new aluminum MacBook Pro.
PC is amaze at the integration with Exchange.
PC changes clothes and hair style... and buys a Mac. PC smiles more!
PC enjoys the ease of switching via the Genius bar support.
PC is astonished by his new energy from longer battery life.
PC wonders how he lived with "other" WiFi solutions before his first Airport BaseStation... and he brags that he now streams music to his stereo via an Airport Express.
PC raves on advantages of Keynote vs. PowerPoint.
PC is blown away at the speed and features of Safari.
PC...and on and on...
The ads only work because PC is always flustered and thwarted, like Wile E. Coyote. They would instantly become uninteresting and ineffective once PC wises up and becomes a Mac fan, just as the Road Runner cartoons would no longer make any sense if Wile E. Coyote stops trying to outwit him.
By the way, it still seems that the detractors of these ads will never get it. Mac and PC in the ads are personifications of computers. John Hodgman and Junstin Long are playing computers, which is the opposite of Microsoft's "I'm a PC" ads where people play people who say they are proud to be machines! Maybe attributable to some Freudian projection, methinks....
I'm glad Apple doesn't listen to all the haters. The ads WORK on potential switchers (hint: they are not designed to stroke the egos people who have already switched). The whining about these ads is like all know-it-alls who said:
* Apple needs to license Mac OS now or it will die (not)
* Apple needs to stop making toys like the iPod and focus on Mac or it now or it will die (not)
* Apple needs to include a floppy drive in the iMac now or it will fail (not)
* Apple needs to dump Mac OS and adopt the NT kernel or it will die (not)
* Apple needs to bring back FireWire to iPods instead of going all USB or it will die (not)
* Apple needs to come out with an el-cheapo netbook or it will die (so why is Apple showing Mac sales growth while the PC industry is in double-digit decline)
See the patten? The one thing that Apple has done consistently since Jobs came back in 1997 is that they do what WORKS, not what people say should work. "Working" is the only metric to which to measure things by, and if anything, the rising tide of Windows faboys hating on these ads shows just how vulnerable and helpless many of them are feeling.
This is attitude that a business (which is the underdog, btw) should abandon an effective campaign because the other side says, "Hey, why not take a breather, just for me? Isn't it getting old? I sure think it's getting old. Come on, give it up!" is really nonsensical, if you think about it. Glad Apple is still producing these ads (btw, MasterCard has been using the "Priceless" campaign for like 15 or 20 years now?)