Funny Mac Ad

[dixonstalbert]

I spent a few hours yesterday repairing my friends XP after it got hit with a virus, so I got real laugh out of the new Mac ad about "PC-(that is, Windows) being as easy as 1-23. The joke being not 1-2-3, but Steps 1 thru 23.

Here are the steps:


(I tried posting a youtube clip of the ad this morning, but you could not read the list in the clip so no one could figure out what I was talking about. sorry guys...)

[Saint Angeles]

<tangent>
god... i HATE the comments on youtube! they always descend into brutal swearing and disgusting insults. it never fails.

you could be watching a movie about cute kittens and somebody will start screaming at somebody else while using the most vulgar expressions they could possibly come up with.
</tangent>

that is a pretty funny ad... but i don't like how they refer to windows as "PC" when a PC can include linux distributions as well...

[tubezninja]

that is a pretty funny ad... but i don't like how they refer to windows as "PC" when a PC can include linux distributions as well...

The majority of the audience that Apple is targeting largely don't have Linux in mind. To them PC=Windows. Until very recently, it was all they could get installed on a PC when they purchased one.

Perhaps that mindset will change if the Linux and/Or Ubuntu community makes significant efforts to effect that change. It's helpful that some vendors are starting to offer netbooks with Ubuntu, though it isn't enough.

In any case, it is not Apple's desire nor their responsibility to make people aware of Linux.

[mamamia88]

oops wrong topic

[Saint Angeles]

The majority of the audience that Apple is targeting largely don't have Linux in mind. To them PC=Windows.

Perhaps that mindset will change if the Linux and/Or Ubuntu community makes significant efforts to effect that change. But it is not Apple's desire nor their responsibility to make people aware of Linux.
it shouldn't be too hard for a multi-million dollar corporation to use correct terminology, especially when referring to a topic which they are supposed to be experts in.

if they had used the term 'Windows", the information would actually be correct... but because they use the term "PC" which can include Linux, their commercials come across as completely false because Linux and Windows are nothing alike, some of the commercials refer to Microsoft's allocation of money being spent on ads rather than the OS itself, and some distributions of Linux are in fact, easier to work with than OS X.

i'm saying that i like the commercials because the things they say about Microsoft are funny and true... but they can come across as being ignorant by choosing the term "PC". It has nothing to do with making people aware of Linux.

[chucky chuckaluck]

looks like apple is targeting the lazy moron dollar.

[RaZe42]

Haven't they always?

[PhoenixMaster00]

I think they use the word 'PC' because i believe you cannot directly attack another company in adverts, only compare (like say on prices an stuff), by using the term PC they can get away with it.

Saying that i could be wrong since US may be different from the UK.

[billgoldberg]

that is a pretty funny ad... but i don't like how they refer to windows as "PC" when a PC can include linux distributions as well...

A Mac is a PC as well, and besides Linux it could run a multitude of others operating systems.

That kind of deliberate misuse of words for marketing purposes gets on my nerves.

[Sublime Porte]

but i don't like how they refer to windows as "PC" when a PC can include linux distributions as well...

Well actually, technically even MacOS X runs on PC's now too, as pretty much all Macs are now Intel x86 machines not PowerPCs anymore, so if you take it purely on the OS level, then it could refer to OS X, Haiku, BSD, ReactOS, Solaris etc..

I think the reason they're using the term PC is part historical (PC always associated as opposition to Mac) and also probably part legal precaution. If they refer to a stuffy Bill Gates looking guy as "PC" instead of "Windows" then they're avoiding any kind of legal 'entanglements' that might ensue.

[tubezninja]

it shouldn't be too hard for a multi-million dollar corporation to use correct terminology, especially when referring to a topic which they are supposed to be experts in.

For 90% of the computing population (and 100% of the audience they are attempting to target), they are using "correct" terminology.


if they had used the term 'Windows", the information would actually be correct... but because they use the term "PC" which can include Linux, their commercials come across as completely false because Linux and Windows are nothing alike,

And you are exactly who Apple is not targeting with this ad.


It has nothing to do with making people aware of Linux.

This statement is absolutely right: it's not about linux awareness, and this is exactly why Apple chooses not to even acknowledge it.

Advertising is about simple, straightforward messages that are as succinct and simple to grasp as humanly possible, and to get that message to the broadest segment of the targeted audience as is possible. For the purposes of "Mac vs PC" ads, "PC" sends the appropriate message of a dull, boring box with a certain operating system from Redmond that tends to crash a lot and is widely perceived as vulnerable to security threats. We can pick that message apart and be critical, and that's fine, but I reiterate: to the people Apple is trying to get their message to, sitting them down and nitpicking the ad, and telling them how linux is different is not something they are receptive to hearing.

Is that the "moron dollar" that was mentioned earlier in this thread? To you, probably. But there are more of them than there are of you, and Apple knows this. :D

Perhaps at some point, Canonical or some other group should consider a "Linux vs PC" set of ads. Or, sorry, I meant "Linux vs Computers that run Microsoft Windows, including but not limited to Intel-based Macs that happen to have Microsoft Windows installed, but excluding Macs that have Linux installed instead." Yeah, that rolls off the tongue really well.

[SomeGuyDude]

looks like apple is targeting the lazy moron dollar.

I been sayin' that for a while.

All the Mac ads I've seen tout their "features" like the fact that you can yank the cord and it's magnetic so the computer won't fall. That must be why you can't buy a macbook for under $1100: their target market is someone who can't figure out "don't trip over the cord", so clearly jacking up the price won't be an issue.

[dixonstalbert]

oops- you cannot read the list on the youtube clip so I re-did my original post with the steps 1-23 attached.

sorry about that.

[Sand & Mercury]

The way Microsoft and Apple have been taking cheap shots at each other repeatedly lately has reminded me of kindergarten playtime feuds. Totally immature and doesn't really do either one any favours in my eyes, just makes me feel a bit ashamed if I'd buy anything from either one knowing that I'm rubbing shoulders with computer-illiterate simpletons they're trying to appeal to in the process.

[0per4t0r]

<tangent>
god... i HATE the comments on youtube! they always descend into brutal swearing and disgusting insults. it never fails.

you could be watching a movie about cute kittens and somebody will start screaming at somebody else while using the most vulgar expressions they could possibly come up with.
</tangent>

that is a pretty funny ad... but i don't like how they refer to windows as "PC" when a PC can include linux distributions as well...
meh, it always helps to post some good comments yourself :)

[mamamia88]

# 7 isn't really fair. you don't have to download drivers on osx because they only have 6 or so models of computers how hard can it be to include all the drivers on the install dvd

[Saint Angeles]

For 90% of the computing population (and 100% of the audience they are attempting to target), they are using "correct" terminology.



And you are exactly who Apple is not targeting with this ad.



This statement is absolutely right: it's not about linux awareness, and this is exactly why Apple chooses not to even acknowledge it.

Advertising is about simple, straightforward messages that are as succinct and simple to grasp as humanly possible, and to get that message to the broadest segment of the targeted audience as is possible. For the purposes of "Mac vs PC" ads, "PC" sends the appropriate message of a dull, boring box with a certain operating system from Redmond that tends to crash a lot and is widely perceived as vulnerable to security threats. We can pick that message apart and be critical, and that's fine, but I reiterate: to the people Apple is trying to get their message to, sitting them down and nitpicking the ad, and telling them how linux is different is not something they are receptive to hearing.

Is that the "moron dollar" that was mentioned earlier in this thread? To you, probably. But there are more of them than there are of you, and Apple knows this. :D

Perhaps at some point, Canonical or some other group should consider a "Linux vs PC" set of ads. Or, sorry, I meant "Linux vs Computers that run Microsoft Windows, including but not limited to Intel-based Macs that happen to have Microsoft Windows installed, but excluding Macs that have Linux installed instead." Yeah, that rolls off the tongue really well.
ok well you totally missed the point of what i was trying to say... but everybody else on this thread understood so i'm not going to bother repeating what i meant.