International Mac Podcast

The “Get a Mac” ad campaign (sometimes known as the ‘Mac vs. PC ads’) shown in the U.S has, last month, been named AdWeek’s “campaign of the decade”. In light of this, I have now found an excuse to unveil my personal distaste for Apple’s latest Mac campaign and the people who love it.

Now before I begin, I cannot, and will not deny how successful these advertisements have been for Apple. The fundamental reason why I believe this to be the case has been worded perfectly by AdWeek themselves:

“That series of 60-plus ads brought some humanity into the equation by turning the machines into live-action cartoons. In so doing, the comic spots offer transparent understanding of the aspirations of its audience and how people identify—and connect emotionally—with technology.”

The casting for the ads is very effective (something AdWeek’s article also mentions), and the two characters are well received by what I would assume is the majority of the Apple community and what they perceive as a good way to advertise the Mac platform. But this fact highlights my first point, that in my eyes, suggests a weakness in the campaign that many fail to see.

This is the plain and simple fact that the people who react in the most positive way to these 30 second long advertisements are already Mac users. I remember sitting in my local cinema with my brother one time whilst one of the hideous British “Get a Mac” ads with David Mitchell and Robert Webb (that are absolute tosh even when compared to the U.S ones) played. “What on earth was that about?” coming from a voice in a group of teenagers to the side of me was the first reaction anyone gave to the ad. I have also never heard any of my friends, some of which are now recent converts to the Mac, after four years of me preaching the Apple gospel to them, ever saying anything to suggest these ads deserve any “campaign of the decade” title.

Apple’s recent iPhone ads for the 3G and 3GS, in contrast, have made my friends go out and buy the device. The ‘Get a Mac’ campaign misses out on the simple principle of actually making ‘the public’, not just current Mac users, react to what is advertised.

To me, these ads could be more effective by actually advertising what the company is selling, than just slagging off it’s main competitive rival. They fail to realise that pretty much everyone whose eyes meet one of their particular ‘scenarios’ the character of Mac and PC find themselves in are in fact happy Windows users. Sure, PCs have viruses and spyware, as the 2006 ad, ‘Viruses’ highlights, but it doesn’t justify buying a new, expensive computer. The average Joe will download a good anti-virus/spyware package instead and get on with their life just fine. The majority of people don’t end up, after looking at these ads, wanting to get a mac, completely invalidating the point of the campaign.

I also don’t like the slip in what little quality these ads have had through the years. The previously mentioned 2006 ad ‘Viruses’ at least used a bit sourced fact before making a statement about the problems of PC’s. 2009’s latest ad ‘Broken Promises’ doesn’t even have anything negative to say specifically about any particular aspect of Windows, let alone any hard facts about the product. All this advertisement does is say that Apple thinks Microsoft are liars, for promising users that there won’t be any problems in their new O.S and have been doing it for the last 20 years. I forgot that on my box of Snow Leopard it says in big bold typeface, “Comes with technical problems, including automatically deleted user data and initial compatibility issues!” within it.

All operating systems have problems Apple, including your own. Making a company look bad for selling products containing flaws, like your own do, and calling them liars for not telling consumers about them before they are released is not a fair game to play. It is in fact, a very unprofessional game that I do not expect from a company that I invest my own money into. There are hundreds of reasons why I use OS X over Windows yet you feel doing this is the best way to promote your product? Not good Apple. Not good at all.

But I think what I hate most about these ads is how, when they provoke other companies to do the same, the Apple world has a big hissy fit over it. The Windows “Laptop Hunter” ads where the nice lady walks in to an Apple Store and thinks the MacBook Pro is too expensive, lead to Apple ringing up Microsoft requesting them to remove the price of it’s product. Does anyone apart from me think that’s abysmal after all the trash-talk Apple have given to Microsoft in the “Get a Mac” campaign? Why is it that people feel the need to make parodies and complain about the Verizon/Motorola Droid “iDon’t” ad, which does the exact same thing to the iPhone Apple has been doing for nearly four years to Microsoft Windows but yet don’t get any criticism for it? Unfortunately, Apple is the catalyst for this new way of advertising, and is the only the one getting away with it.

A positive point I can make about these ads and the mess they have caused, is how good Apple’s marketing really is. The “iDon’t” ad does do everything that Apple does in the “Get a Mac” ads, but yet the use of human interaction from Mac and PC somehow seems to give a more personally identifiable quality to the advert. Personifying technology does help to establish a relationship between the audience and the ad, and it is only Apple who have managed to realise, for some god-awful reason I don’t understand, people like the ads that they make.

What are your thoughts on this topic? I assume that I am in a very small minority of people that feel this way and I would love to understand some real reasons as to why people do like these ads and how they do it apart from, “Coz Microsoft sux, and Apple rulez”. Let me know in the comments!