
Im sure everyone has heard of those great 'Get a Mac' ads that Apple puts out to tout its computers and operating system as better than PCs. If you havn't seen them heres a link. The ads are funny, brilliantly simple, and extremely well made, however, i have one huge beef: the ads don't highlight the features of the Mac, they just attack every possible aspect of the PCs as possible. I really just get pissed every time i see them- even though they make me laugh. One of the current ads that i saw as a banner ad on a website (apple has cleverly had the ad use the top and side banners to make the ad better) where PC gets a news ticker to show great news about his new Vista OS. We proceed to see several Vista bashing pieces of news on the ticker, which upsets PC. Mac sits there smugly, and the ad then fades to a picture of an imac. I do own a PC, and i love Macs too (if it weren't for their price i would have one probably too) however these ads make me hate the people at Apple. Every other computer companies adds highlight the computers features, whereas the best highlight we see in a 'Get a Mac' ad is Mac calmly and smugly proclaiming "everything kind of just works in a mac" when we discover a flaw in PC in one of the ads. Not only is that not always true, but it is really just a mean stab at PCs and at less informed PC owners who may begin to believe they are using inferior machines and wasted money, even though they are encountering none of the problems that John Hodgman (who plays Mac) encounters. These less informed computer users are doing everything they need to do on their PCs and do it fine, just the same as if they had a Mac, yet these ads try to trick them into thinking everything is wrong. YES, vista has its issues- a lot of issues, but the large majority of those issues are never causing hindrance to the average PC users- the problems are occurring for hard core computer users and programmers- yet the ads make it seem like they are. Yes, ads can attack their competitors, and companies do all the time, but the extent that Apple does it in their ads is almost sickening, and even though i like Macs, it makes me want to avoid buying one.
-Jig
I searched the web too see if anyone agreed, and i did find one reputable source who agreed with me, his last sentence sums up my opinion well:
"isn't smug superiority (no matter how affable and casually dressed) a bit off-putting as a brand strategy?"
link:
http://www.slate.com/id/2143810/