The "Get a Mac" ads, featuring the PC and Mac personified, are doing very well in the States. The American ads, as most of you know, star John Hodgman as the nerdy PC and Justin Long as the hip Mac. It looks like Apple is continuing to try and recreate the success in various other countries, including Japan, which I posted about a few months ago. The latest in this line of commercials hails from the UK, where the PC and Mac are played by Robert Webb and David Mitchell, stars of the British comedy Peep Show. You can watch the ads here.
When it comes to the American commercials, I always like the PC better because I'm a Hodgman fan, not because I dislike Long or the Mac. However, in a few of the UK commercials, the Mac actually sounds kind of mean. I feel like if I were to try and check my e-mail on the Mac and accidentally type my password incorrectly, he'd laugh at me for several minutes and then make a snarky remark about my hair.
[Thanks, Tom!]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-29-2007 @ 4:20PM
Dan said...
Peep Show is a wonderful program, sporadically available on BBC America. I think the Mac comes off as more snarky because the actor is doing a bit of the character he plays from the show. I love these guys so thanks for the link to the commercials!
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1-29-2007 @ 4:34PM
Jake said...
These ads are interesting and a little fun, but I also think it is a little sad that Apple has to resort to old stereotypes about PCs in their ads. For instance, I can't remember the last time my Windows XP system crashed, yet Apple would make you think its still a big problem. That might have been a problem with something like Windows 98, but Microsoft has gotten their crap together since then. Also, there are plenty of non-mac laptops with built in webcams. But these mac ads misinform the consumer into thinking otherwise. The way I see it, it's easy for Apple to advertise against "PC's"; but notice they don't compare their products to actual brand name PCs, such as Dell or Sony. If they did, they'd get killed, because both Dell and Sony make more advanced and cheaper PC's with more memory, hard drive space, and processing speed than the current macs. In my opinion, the only reason to get a Mac is if you are either computer illiterate (and this is a stretch, because windows is not that difficult to learn, or you just want to pay extra for the name/experience (which I admit matters). I think with Windows Vista coming Apples will be on the decline.
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1-29-2007 @ 4:58PM
BC said...
Don't know about the spots, but casting the "Peep Show" lads was pure genius.
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1-29-2007 @ 7:10PM
Joey Geraci said...
Maybe Peep Show is good, but neither of these actors performances holds a candle to Hodgeman and Long. And I have the PC/Mac ads! But I can certainly appreciate a good performance when I see one. The difference is especially glaring in the three ads that are basically exact copies from the American ads with some British slang substituted.
And you said the ads have been a success? Under what definition? Because they are continuing with a campaign, they have been a success? Apple certainly doesn't make these types of decisions out of any type of business sense (at least they haven't in the past).
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