John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise and 'Resident Expert' on The Daily Show, is starring in the new advertisements for Apple. Hodgman plays a PC. With his hair combed the way it is and his glasses and suit, he kind-of resembles Bill Gates, doesn't he? Just like on The Daily Show, Hodgman plays it totally straight and it's pretty darn funny. Either he's a PC with a cold, or he has to restart, or he can't talk to the hot Japanese girl who is talking to the cool Mac. Interestingly, the super-hip Mac is played by Justin Long, who has played some memorable geeky roles in Galaxy Quest and Dodgeball.
Check out all the ads here. My favorite personal favorite is 'Viruses'.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-02-2006 @ 5:58PM
Joel Keller said...
Of course, Justin Long was also in Ed! Remember Warren?
Hodgman's perfect for playing the stodgy old PC. And I'm a PC user.
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5-02-2006 @ 6:26PM
Carissa said...
I love Justin Long - I've seen Dodgeball about 20 times. I have kind of a geeky crush on him. I am so stodgy that I didn't even know Macs didn't get viruses. Too bad everything else I love is on a PC, or I'd think of switching. Amazing what a commercial can teach you. !!!
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5-02-2006 @ 7:16PM
Thomas said...
I'd be interested as to what Carissa loves on a PC that isn't available or couldn't be replaced on a Mac, and I'm aware this isn't TUAW.
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5-02-2006 @ 8:12PM
tozmervo said...
You should take a listen to Hodgman's work on This American Life (http://www.thislife.org). It's brilliantly funny and entertaining work - better than what he does on TDS. You can find his stories by searching for his name.
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5-02-2006 @ 9:33PM
Mark said...
Hillarious stuff. But as much as I found the presentation and delivery by the two actors / comedians to be funny, I also found Apple, pushing stuff that was probably more true 10 years ago than it is today, to be hillarious as well. I mean, who has seen a digital camera that isn't immediately recognized by XP as soon as you plug the USB in...
And I type this from an XP setup on a Vaio that hasn't been rebooted in about 2 months.
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5-02-2006 @ 11:11PM
joe said...
i love that they got justin long to do this.. perfect casting. it's not saying that macs are 'cool' it saying they're just a cooler brand of geeky, which has me sold.
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5-02-2006 @ 11:17PM
doc said...
I never thought Apple would be able to come up with an ad campaign that would make me long for the days of the horrid switch ads, but they have done it. These commercials are just stupid. The only silver lining to the campaign is the inevitable flood of spoofs that is sure to come.
Also, I agree with Mark. What kind of jacked up cameras are people buying that don't just work in XP?
And I type this from OSX Tiger on an iBook that only reboots when required by an update.
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5-03-2006 @ 12:07AM
Jason Anderson said...
"who has seen a digital camera that isn't immediately recognized by XP as soon as you plug the USB in..."
*Raises hand*
Actually, I've also seen an OEM Keyboard that wasn't recognized by XP. Emphasis on ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURER.
Best Apple commercials in a long time. This includes the Switch campaign.
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5-03-2006 @ 2:06AM
Reuven said...
Great ads.
My Canon Powershot S70 won't work with XP. Sure, XP recognized it, but when I installed the drivers to try to actually transfer photos over USB, it claimed it couldn't find some necessary DLL. So I just use a card reader.
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