We all had a little chuckle at Apple's "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" ads when they came out, but as the weeks wear on, the backlash against the ads has really set in. Slate billed them as "
mean spirited," and it turns out more people identify with the lovable John Hodgman's PC than they seem to with the (not so) subtly smug demeanor donned by Justin Long's Mac. VH1's Best Week Ever more or less sums it up with Christian Finnegan and Nick Kroll's spoof of the ad campaign; as card carrying expensive jeans-wearing Gnarles Barkley-listening nerds, we especially enjoyed the following dialogue:
Mac: Basically, I "stole" footage from Psycho, and then "borrowed" music from the Gnarles Barkley song, and put 'em all together. It's mad stupid.
PC: Do you know what I think is "stupid?"
Mac: What?
PC: Expensive worn jeans, ironic t-shirts, and pretentious film school glasses.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jon Himself @ Jul 11th 2006 3:46PM
I saw these a day or two and even though I love macs (read: fanboy) and do think the ads are alright, these spoofs do a great job of ripping them... Quite funny
Ice Raider @ Jul 11th 2006 3:50PM
I'am a mac, I don't run much software, I cost allot and look cool and no I don't the latest video games.
agent m @ Jul 11th 2006 3:50PM
Don't think that we don't know you 'bloggers' identify with the hipster 'MAC' character (Ryan and Peter, YOU know who you are)!
Thought no one would catch that, huh?
you only knew it was a matter of time @ Jul 11th 2006 3:51PM
there are other parodies all over google video. My fav, the one I said from the start was, "BRING ON PC GAMER!"
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5676481025134622157&q=i%27m+a+mac
Craig @ Jul 11th 2006 3:51PM
Actually, I like the Apple ads...they made me laugh regardless of any semblance to truth. They're nothing if not innovative, and I just can't see Justin Long as mean-spirited (which is about as likely as Arnold Schwarzenegger being intentionally funny). And I don't even own a Mac.
Cory @ Jul 11th 2006 3:53PM
Finally. I hated those ads. Good job vh1.
Thataboy @ Jul 11th 2006 3:54PM
The original Mac ads suck, but these "funny" "parodies" are even worse. Not cute, not clever.
One could say that the sucky Mac ads are a success because of all the attention (the desired effect), but the parodies are definitely a failure because they aren't funny (the desired effect).
Warren @ Jul 11th 2006 3:55PM
Congrats, Engadget...based on "Ice Raider's" post above, it looks like you're well established with the K-6 school-age demographic.
Nick @ Jul 11th 2006 4:01PM
Thataboy wrote:
"the parodies are definitely a failure because they aren't funny (the desired effect)."
You obviously haven't taken any advertising courses, because "funny" is not the desired effect for an ad campaign. And no, it's not even to get you to buy something. The object is to move you (the ad viewer) along the path towards buying something.
At this point, probably nobody can say if the ads are effective or not.
Ryan @ Jul 11th 2006 4:04PM
Warren, the K-6 is the 2nd most coveted demographic, only falling to the 18-34 year old demographic. web blogs,inc. will take the traffic and use it to pitch it to potential advertisers.
Ian @ Jul 11th 2006 4:04PM
God I hate those Mac commercials. You know if you buy windows to use on your mac then MS still gets money so I don't think they really care. And until I can use my custom built PC to play games on a mac (which will never happned) I won't get a mac.
z @ Jul 11th 2006 4:08PM
I was kind of disappointed, the mac adds aren't really funny, but these are even worse.. I guess someone could do better than this, no?
Andrew @ Jul 11th 2006 4:10PM
Hilarious. I never saw the Mac ads as mean spirited, more like two friends busting each others balls (you can't tell me you don't know anyone that you should, by all accounts, hate, but you don't).
"I'am a mac, I don't run much software, I cost allot and look cool and no I don't the latest video games."-IceRaider
Which could be followed with
"I'm a Mac. I'm shiny. People like shiny things. For an extra $100 I can be black, too."
The endless Mac vs PC debate, and the superiority complex displayed by many a Mac user annoys me, and I'm a Mac user. I could care less what computers people use, just as I'm sure they could care less what I use. But it is, at least, entertaining...for a little bit.
Ice Raider @ Jul 11th 2006 4:11PM
Warren wrote
“Congrats, Engadget...based on "Ice Raider's" post above, it looks like you're well established with the K-6 school-age demographic.”
Considering the amount of information that flows through this website the odds of making any sort of grammatical mistake is high. Besides it’s a blog not an essay writing contest.
Thataboy @ Jul 11th 2006 4:11PM
Nick wrote:
"You obviously haven't taken any advertising courses, because "funny" is not the desired effect for an ad campaign."
You obviously haven't taken any reading courses. I said the PARODIES aren't funny, and therefore they fail.
I find the anti-Justin slant of the parodies to be the ramblings of jealous conformists who resent anyone who isn't a corporate drone. The VH1 skit is particularly obnoxious. "Wow, he wears nice jeans and his glasses look different than mine -- what a moron!"
People find the John Hodgman character in the original ads to be endearing because our culture celebrates ignorant oafs (see President). Everything about the ad campaign and its parodies is utter bollocks. Makes me long for a dancing silhouette.
CharlieX @ Jul 11th 2006 4:13PM
The ads aren't targeted at (let's be frank) nerds. We all have our alliances to Mac/PC and we know exactly what each can and can't do. They're going after iPodders, mom, dad, and your Uncle Buck.
Label Marketing is stupid @ Jul 11th 2006 4:14PM
Label marketing is just plain dumb. You're not the computer you use or the car you drive. You buy a certian computer based on what applications it offers that you need. These mac adds have been doing nothing but advertising macs to mac users, not the opposite.
Victor Agreda, Jr. @ Jul 11th 2006 4:15PM
The whole ragging on something that's ragging on something that's pretentious to begin with, but funny anyway is SO meta.
narco @ Jul 11th 2006 4:18PM
I think the good the about Mac ads is that they are easy to make fun of. I'm sure Apple realizes that they're new ads aren't the greatest, but these parodies - good or bad - will just bring more attention to the Apple camp.
Fishes,
narco.
George @ Jul 11th 2006 4:18PM
I'm surprised that I haven't seen more competent parodies of these ads by now. VH1's three spots are better than the others (although the third one goes for the mass-market laugh rather than pandering to techies), but rebutting the Mac campaign should be like shooting fish in a barrel.
Deezee @ Jul 11th 2006 4:21PM
Pretty funny. I like the parody. The Mac ads piss me off everytime I see them. Anybody who falls for that type of ad is a brainless drone.
andrew @ Jul 11th 2006 4:21PM
what do you mean youcan run windows software and games on a mac (bootcamp)
m @ Jul 11th 2006 4:44PM
These commercials have a lot of potential for parodies but this one just retarded. "Expensive worn jeans, ironic t-shirts, and pretentious film school glasses." I won't get into comparing expensive worn jeans with an even more expensive suit. Ironic t-shirts and pretentious film school glasses don't even make sense. I'm not sure the creators even understand what the word "ironic" means. I haven't visited Fark yet today but I hope this makes the front page. They always have good flamewars on the misuse of irony.
Same sorta thing with the glasses, the original mac guy isn't wearing glasses. I mean, it just doesn't make any sense to rip on the ads for pretentious film school glasses when they weren't in the original ads.
You could probably find one or two good parodies on Google Video (haven't looked) but this one is poorly done. I have to agree with Thataboy's, "The original Mac ads suck, but these "funny" "parodies" are even worse. Not cute, not clever."
---
Ice Raider: "I'am a mac, I don't run much software, I cost allot and look cool and no I don't the latest video games."
Your ignorance is showing. With the switch to Intel, macs can arguably run more software than PCs. (They can run almost all software for Windows, OS X, Linux, Unix, BSD, etc, which is the same as a PC except for OS X sw.) The pricing of Macbooks, iMacs, and Mac Minis are very competitive for consumers. Powermacs and Macbook Pros are really expensive but they are meant for businesses (read as meant for those who can easily afford it). Lastly, macs easily run all the latest games, see what I said about sw. If you meant OS X then maybe you'd be a little correct but OS X surprisingly can run most of the latest games. The more you know.
/dunno why I wasted my time on this post, my time is lost on people like Ice Raider who can't spend 5 minutes researching to know the least bit about shit they think they know about...
Eikon @ Jul 11th 2006 4:44PM
I smell sour grapes. PC users are eternally jealous of the Mac's cool factor. Yet somehow, they have no problem going gaga over every feature Windows rips off Apple systems.
CoreyJF @ Jul 11th 2006 4:49PM
I think the Mac advertisements are clever and well done. The fact that they are being parodied is great for Mac, it will only help keep the product in the public consciousness. If Microsoft does attempt to “rebut” the Mac campaign, they will only succeed in looking like a school yard bully. Americans love an underdog
David @ Jul 11th 2006 4:51PM
Another brilliant mac parody that I'm sure has already made the rounds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqp9zPI0-9M&mode=related&search=best%20week%20ever%20mac%20apple
Matt @ Jul 11th 2006 4:53PM
I made the switch a little over a year ago from a PC to a Mac. After a year of use, I can absolutely say the Mac is a much better machine than any PC I have ever used.
Regarding the ad debate, since when do people expect advertisers to be nice? The mac ads aren't mean spirited, they're true. If you buy a camera, or printer, or software, etc that says its mac compatible, it is. You plug it in, it sets itself up, and it works, every time. That simply isnt the case with a PC. How many times have you needed to find a driver, or download additional software to get something to work on a PC.
Not to mention the fact that there has not, as yet, emerged a significant threat from viruses, worms, or other malware. Agreed, this threat will grow if, and when, more users begin to use Macs.
Keeping my PC running smoothly meant running anti-virus, anti-adware, and firewall software. Not to mention continually sweeping my system for pieces of malware that had slipped through the software just mentioned. Even switching from IE to Firefox (an entirely seperate issue), although helpful, wasn't enough to stop everything.
Macs deal with these, and other probems inherent in PCs running Windows, extremely well. The operating system is extremely stable, fast, and secure. I have found, easily, software to run every task imaginable that is as good, if not better, than any PC software I've ever had. And much of the software for the Mac is open-source and free, or very cheap.
The Mac v. PC debate often gets caught up on two things - the gaming issue, and the price issue. As to price, Macs are a little bit more expensive than PCs. That being said, you get a much better product for a little bit more money. You can get a Mini for $600, and a laptop for $1100. Yes, that is still more expensive than PCs. But, part of that price is because Mac recently switched to Intel processors; now, using software supported by Apple, you can run easily Windows software on a Mac.
As to gaming, yeah, Macs lose. However, that again is any issue of demand. If, and when, more people move to a Mac, then gaming companies will start writing software to run on Macs. Given the new chip, it won't be as difficult was it once was. And, I dont know for sure, but it may be possible to play Windows based games on a Mac, using the above mentioned software.
Sorry to ramble, I hope people make it to the end. I use my computer alot, and I genuinely think that the Mac is a better product. The only time I've been frustrated on a Mac is on the Internet, a few times. Right now, you can't - for example - watch ESPN's 360. Other than a few small other items, that's it.
And as far as the reason that I think people are reluctant to switch to a Mac? Every person I've ever asked (and I ask alot) has replied "I dont know how to use it." It works the same way as a PC, just easier.
-Matt
Eikon @ Jul 11th 2006 4:58PM
"I'am a mac, I don't run much software, I cost allot and look cool and no I don't the latest video games."
I'm a PC and can't write for shit because I'm illiterate. I'm cheap like a two-bit hooker because I'm just a glorified video game console"
But seriously, PC software is so niche. You need 20 programs to do the job of 1 on the Mac. I'm thankful we don't have a ton of crap to sort through!
JoeyPoey @ Jul 11th 2006 5:09PM
where does one get "pretentious film school glasses", anyway?
By the by, i use a mac and a PC at work, usually with one hand on each mouse.
kelly @ Jul 11th 2006 5:10PM
"it turns out more people identify with the lovable John Hodgman's PC"
They should have gotten JP from Gandma's Boy he is more typical of the Overclocked, Custom PC Fanboy.
kelly @ Jul 11th 2006 5:29PM
JoeyPoey-
why don't you use synergy?
Peter from Belgium @ Jul 11th 2006 5:31PM
If the aim was to convert PC users to Macs, then the ads failed miserably as there was no common ground between the two persons. I am a Mac user and did not identify at all with the wannabe cool guy. Fun stuff but not a good sell.
Justin @ Jul 11th 2006 5:32PM
The PC/Mac wars already have a winner (see: PowerPC [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC])
The M$/Apple wars already have a winner (see: bootcamp [http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/])
Are we so easy to forget?
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/17244/17244.html
Pip @ Jul 11th 2006 5:38PM
"Anybody who falls for that type of ad is a brainless drone."
That is exactly who they are targetted to. The people who have been buying Windows for the past decade when they could have had something better.
Just sayin'
Marco Pervo @ Jul 11th 2006 5:41PM
I find the anti-Justin slant of the parodies to be the ramblings of jealous conformists who resent anyone who isn't a corporate drone.
You're wrong. Our culture glorifies individualism to rarefied heights. Even the hipster version of it, where all the "individuals" dress exactly like the rest of their herd is elevated to nauseatingly high levels.
Helio @ Jul 11th 2006 5:44PM
The worst thing about using a Mac has always been the smugness of Mac zealots and the way that they take Apple and whatever Apple says is a part of their identity. This is only a small minority but they are loud, obnoxious and make the fatal mistake I find it scary and the exact opposite of "Think Different". When it first opened there was a chilling moment in the Apple Soho store when they were playing the "1984" ad and a group of people sat in the crowded theater staring, transfixed, with sickly smiles on their faces. Not unlike the "IBM" zombies in the ad itself. Hard to even look at.
The orginal "I'm a Mac" ads are essentially made for them. To me they seem geared much more to making current mac users feel cool than converting anybody. I know more than a few people they turned off and I can't blame them.
I use everything, but do really, really like my Mac. However, VH1 got this exactly right, if I ever start identifying with the punk in those ads I might have to move on for good. Does Unbuntu have any switch ads I can review first?
Mat @ Jul 11th 2006 5:48PM
(scene from The Longest Yard):
Stop the violence! Can't we all just get along?!?!
Eh not likley, its still amusing to watch both sides try to best each other though.
Ian @ Jul 11th 2006 5:53PM
God I hate those Mac commercials. You know if you buy windows to use on your mac then MS still gets money so I don't think they really care. And until I can use my custom built PC to play games on a mac (which will never happned) I won't get a mac.
Quizzle @ Jul 11th 2006 5:55PM
great video.. LOL @ MACS
Karl Entwistle @ Jul 11th 2006 6:05PM
They gave me a little giggle, could be much better.
rospaya @ Jul 11th 2006 6:32PM
"dunno why I wasted my time on this post, my time is lost on people like Ice Raider who can't spend 5 minutes researching to know the least bit about shit they think they know about..."
Not all of us need a Mac, you know... Some people (actually a LOT of them) like to play games on their home computer which is pretty easy on a PC, you can install any game and it will work like a charm if you have a good CPU, graphics card and RAM. Macs can't do that because of the lousy graphic cards they are using. And another thing, when you install Windows XP on a Mac (you said that Macs can use Windows programs), it's not a Macintosh in the classic description, because a real Mac is a combination of hardware and software, no more, no less...
Matt @ Jul 11th 2006 6:35PM
"get over it, PC has more functions than mac"
ok semi, what are they?
and which of them do you regularly use?
and which of them would a majority of the computer using public use?
and are they worth the hassle?
DA @ Jul 11th 2006 6:45PM
There's one ad where Macboy seems to insinuate that PCman can't play videos. Other than that, they aren't bad.
Matt @ Jul 11th 2006 6:45PM
Rospaya -
what you say is true. many people do use their computers for gaming. many also do not game, or use a seperate, dedicated system. right now, macs are not a viable platform for gamers, ive stated that.
as far as running xp on a mac, i didn't mean to imply that you would remove os x from the hardware, but that you can run two operating systems on the same piece of harware. right now xp doesnt run as fast as a dedicated box, but the perfomance will improve.
i would argue that someone who is doesn't have the time, who is unable, or who is otherwise unwilling to set up and maintain a system to protect their computer from virus, adware, spyware, and the like, then they might just need a mac.
daschupa @ Jul 11th 2006 6:52PM
Geez, they are freaking operating systems which both have their problems. None of them are less than each other. They both are suck. In real life it’d
PC: Hello, I'm a PC and I Blow.
Mac: Hi I'm a mac and I suck.
PC: I run XP, which I'll probably be running for a while since I don’t have a 500mb video card, a 40ghz processor and a holographic drive which Vista requires to run well.
Mac: I run os 10.4 or at least will until 10.5 comes out, then I'll have to pay 100 bucks to fix my bugs which should be fixed for free. It's what I like to call my yearly apple privilege service.
PC: I have lots of viruses and spyware. I constantly have to have my doctor on 24 hour guard. *sneezes* Oops, there's a new one, oh wait this one is just Sony's Rootkit.
Mac: and I'm only used by 10% of the population so no one is moronic enough to write code for a minority. It's like terrorists attacking Malta, I mean who fricking lives there? Not that it's hard to write a virus for the Mac, Apple makes it very easy to do anything on a mac.
PC: PC's randomly crash, rarely you'll get a BSOD, mainly we'll just up and restart on you like, "whoah, dude did you press the restart button? I didn’t?!? Must have been you dude."
Mac: Mac's don’t crash we leave you watching a spinning pinwheel giving you some hope of the safe return of your file until you finally shut us down, that way it's your fault, you shut us down, not ours I mean we were just thinking and stuff you just jumped the gun.
PC: Well, I’m a PC, I cost less but you can maybe get a cool case that looks like a mac maybe.
Mac: and I’m a Mac, I cost more but don’t look like a minifridge. By the way, YOUR SOUL SHALL BECOME ONE WITH THE MAC!
Guruboy @ Jul 11th 2006 6:52PM
I still don't see how Macs are better than PCs at all. If 1 Mac program does the work of 20 PC programs, let's see an example! I for one want to see some examples!
If you want the look of a Mac, download any of the programs that help you do that.
If you care that much, switch to Linux.
Jeffrey M Foster @ Jul 11th 2006 7:09PM
damn flame wars. you're all dumb! go fight it out somewhere else.
these parodies were... er, lame. I'd LOVE to see some GOOD parodies, and it seems like it'd be easy, but these were just lazy and sloppy. oh well.
FreeRange @ Jul 11th 2006 7:13PM
Quick note: I'm a PC user and I love the form factor of everything Mac. I just hate the attitude of Mac users. I had a sales associate at a Mac store roll his eyes when I asked (jokingly) if he was serious that a plastic cover for a nano costs $15. I bought it at Fry's for $4. Granted, the associate there barely spoke English, but there was no attitude.
Joe Silver @ Jul 11th 2006 7:16PM
Dude, you spelled Gnarls wrong.
JK @ Jul 11th 2006 7:17PM
Mac's Ad's are going to bite them in the ass in the long run. I came close to buying a mac until I saw those degrading commercials. And I know I'm not alone. There are a lot of potential consumers that Apple has lost as a result of thier eliteism.