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New "Get a Mac" TV ads 588

Posted by Hemos from the something-amusing-to-pass-the-day dept.
Klaidas writes "Apple has introduced 3 new "Get a Mac" TV ads: "Accident", "Angle/Devil" and "Trust Mac" " Normally, posting ads would be make me cry, but these are genuinely funny and well done.
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New "Get a Mac" TV ads More

New "Get a Mac" TV ads

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  • angles (Score:5, Funny)

    by gEvil (beta) ( 945888 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @07:36AM (#15992935)
    Does the 'Angle/Devil' one show how a Mac can help kids with their geometry homework?

  • And... (Score:4, Funny)

    by djupedal ( 584558 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @07:37AM (#15992936)
    ...where the hell is Mel Brooks when you need him?

    "Sorry about the 'up yours, PC!'"

    ...and, yes, the new ones are funny - keep 'em coming! :)

  • I don't care for these commercials (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gkhan1 ( 886823 ) <oskarsigvardsson ... m minus caffeine> on Monday August 28, 2006 @07:42AM (#15992943)

    I think Slate [slate.com] got it right when it comes to these ads. They're kinda funny, but really mean-spirited. They're "Haha...you suck!!"-ads that don't appeal to me. That, and the fact that they kinda make me happy that I'm running windows (not right now, right now it's Fedora all the way, I double-boot) instead of apple. It makes the PC look productive and serious, instead of the slacker Mac OS X.

    They also contain alot of stuff that's plain wrong. For instance, Windows runs fine out of the box, there's virtually no advanced configuration after you've installed it. Set the date and time, account password and keyboard configuration, and bobs your uncle! Same thing with my digital camera, that works fine with windows, contrary to what one of the ads say.

    Don't get me wrong, I think Mac OS X is a stellar OS, far superior to windows, I just don't like these ads.

    • That's plain wrong (Score:5, Informative)

      by Vandil X ( 636030 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @08:12AM (#15993024)
      They're kinda funny, but really mean-spirited. They're "Haha...you suck!!"-ads that don't appeal to me.

      Far nicer than the political ads that are swamping televisions this election year.

      It makes the PC look productive and serious, instead of the slacker Mac OS X.

      Actually, it points out what people already know: Corporations and businesses use Windows PCs. Windows for many is Word and Excel. And almost everyone who has used a Windows PC at work has hated it at some point. Showing you a desktop after logging in but not being able to do anything for an additional 30-120 seconds. Programs with odd names performing illegal operations and offering them the change to debug, only to do nothing useful. And so on.

      The Mac is being shown in the light of being a computer for your home life, far away from spreadsheets and Active Directory, where your photos, home movies, and music play a much stronger role, and showing ease-of-use for doing nice things with that media.

      Windows runs fine out of the box, there's virtually no advanced configuration after you've installed it.

      Remember that the majority of new Windows PC owners buy an OEM machine and can barely plug in all the color-coded cables. They turn it on and the Windows setup wizard starts as you said. Fine. Now your OEM machine is detecting the 3-in-one inkjet-scanner-fax printer that came bundled free with the computer. Windows is now pompting them to install three items it has detected. Each one throwing up the New hardware wizard. Not to mention the computer's system image was from 4 months ago, so they need to download 55MB of patches on their dial-up connection in order to be "safe".
      • Far nicer than the political ads that are swamping televisions this election year.

        Apple Ads: Still more truthful and less nasty than the 2004 election campaign.

        Not a motto I'd be proud of for my company ;-)

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        When I opened up my dual core mac, I had to download 123 megabytes of updates to the OS. . . I wasn't sure if it was to be "safe" or not, as there were no real details on this issue provided. So I just blindly clicked "ok." And you know what? When it was done, I had to reboot. But it was a very "advanced" reboot. Then when it came back up, it had me strike keys on my keyboard so it could figure out what kind of keyboard I was using. I thought it was the keyboardy kind of keyboard, but I guess it wasn'

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Pollardito ( 781263 )
        The Mac is being shown in the light of being a computer for your home life, far away from spreadsheets and Active Directory, where your photos, home movies, and music play a much stronger role, and showing ease-of-use for doing nice things with that media.
        if they're conceding the office world to Windows, they'd better take extra care to explain how you can play games on a Mac with bootcamp because a solitaire game is only going to stay interesting for so long

    • Re:I don't care for these commercials (Score:4, Insightful)

      by autojive ( 560399 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @08:16AM (#15993040)
      It makes the PC look productive and serious, instead of the slacker Mac OS X.

      Yeah, and I'm sure that Apple's trying to market these commercials towards those that need office applications at home as opposed to the Mom-and-Pop types who just want a computer to surf the internet, and check/send e-mail from/to their kids.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by ContractualObligatio ( 850987 )
      Windows may run fine out of the box - assuming you're satisfied with the rather basic set of software Windows includes (although I guess to be fair that could lead into an interesting discussion on the legal actions MS gets into when it bundles things, anyway I digress...).

      Point is, your average Windows-based system does not install simply. There's usually all sorts of bundled stuff on the desktop - when my friend got a Sony for his girlfriend, he swore never to buy a PC from them again, there was so much a

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by nahdude812 ( 88157 )
        The stuff the OEM vendor bundles on the desktop is really not a problem with Windows, it's a problem with OEMs who don't actually have the best interests of their consumers in mind. I'm not a big fan of Windows, but I'm also not a big fan of OSX. Between the two, Windows is able to be more productive, consistent (home & end keys - nuf sed), meaningful (how often do I really need to scroll to the top of my terminal window's history vs going to the front of my current line, why would Home & End be b

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by elrous0 ( 869638 ) *
          Wow, a reasonable response in a "Mac vs. Windows" thread. I'm afraid I'm going to need to see your /. membership card, sir. Please come quietly.

          -Eric

        • Re:I don't care for these commercials (Score:4, Insightful)

          by nursegirl ( 914509 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @09:51AM (#15993474) Journal
          These ads never say anything about "Windows." They talk about PC-vs-Mac. What they are talking about is not Windows per se, but the experience of running a non-Mac PC for most users. Most users don't understand the difference between Windows, PC hardware, add-ons from OEMs, and Microsoft Office. In their minds, it's all the same thing.

          These ads play on that fact. Whether that's fair or unfair is another question entirely.

        • Re:I don't care for these commercials (Score:5, Insightful)

          by ContractualObligatio ( 850987 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @10:06AM (#15993562)
          Great - in a Windows vs OS X comparison, you resort to the argument that you don't use Windows or OS X because you prefer Linux; you don't think it's a problem that the out-of-box experience for Windows is poor because it's the OEM's fault (how else is a typical consumer supposed to buy one?!); you've got a smug attitude about how your set of values is more important than other users'.

          Can't argue with you - you're definitely a classic early-stage techie. When I hear a end users complaining about the fact that when they leave their computer alone, it runs up a few CPU cycles, I'll start giving that kind of logic some weight.

        • Home and End (Score:5, Interesting)

          by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @10:59AM (#15993845)
          Between the two, Windows is able to be more productive, consistent (home & end keys - nuf sed), meaningful (how often do I really need to scroll to the top of my terminal window's history vs going to the front of my current line, why would Home & End be bound this way by default?)

          Since OS X ships with Bash, I simply use Ctr-A and Ctrl-E for that. I have never missed home and end in terminals nor do I use them in Linux, as they are too far removed from the primary area of the keyboard.

          For single lines in textareas of browsers, you can simply use Pageup/PageDown to go to the start and end of line respectivly - this is the only time when I ever used to use Home/End they way you are speaking of and really it's smarter to fold this ability into the same keys where it makes sense.

          Why you think Windows is in any way more productive when it does not ship with a real shell is a mystery. I'd perhaps give Linux to you execot that Expose as an app switcher is a pretty big productivity boost.

          and waste less of my CPU on stupid and meaningless crap like Dashboard, software rendered drop shadows & transparencies, etc.

          GPU - all that is hardware accellerated. Kind of removes your whole point there. If your GPU is otherwise sitting idle why not make use of it?

          Believe it or not, I value responsiveness, consistency, and day-to-day usability over polish.

          So do I. That's why I use a Mac - polish is removed easily as it only covers the ugliness beneath. Good design goes through and through a product, which is what the Mac offers and why I switching away from Linux as my primary home computer.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by Mattintosh ( 758112 )
          [waaah waaah waaah] Home & End [waaah waaah waaah]

          Because Home and End are supposed to go to the "home" or the "end" position of the file. If you want to go to the beginning or end of the current line, use apple-left-arrow or apple-right-arrow. It's much easier on a laptop keyboard. Home is fn-left-arrow and End is fn-right-arrow, making it a matter of holding a different meta key depending on what you want it to do.
        • Believe it or not, I value responsiveness, consistency, and day-to-day usability over polish.
          So do I, that's why I use Mac OS X over Windows. You already mentioned home & end keys - yet forgot to mention the inconsistencies in their use. Not to mention the "close a window" key-commands.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by istartedi ( 132515 )

          The stuff the OEM vendor bundles on the desktop is really not a problem with Windows, it's a problem with OEMs who don't actually have the best interests of their consumers in mind.

          Truer words were never spoken. Every OEM machine I've ever worked with, I have to spend a few days tweaking it (while working) to get the setup I want. Inevitably, I put a folder called "crap" on my desktop. Into this folder I throw all the shortcuts to the bundled crapware that came with the machine. I don't uninstall it

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @08:29AM (#15993085)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re:I don't care for these commercials (Score:5, Insightful)

        by nahdude812 ( 88157 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @09:30AM (#15993375) Homepage
        Not that almost any PCs come with PS2 keyboard/mouse any more, but since most vendors color code all their cables, its really just a matter of either not being color/tone blind (and also being able to match colors), or at least being able to tell the difference between the icon that looks like a keyboard, and the icon that looks like a mouse. Even if in spite of all of this, you manage to get them mixed up, most computers will still work fine. The rest of the cables only fit into one socket, so the only way to misconnect them is either to forget to, or requires a hammer.

        Honestly I am not sure why all the keyboards and mice are USB now, the plug is no smaller, and you also give up at least one USB port to something that every non-server computer has. My Mac Mini at home only has 2 USB ports, and because I didn't want to drop $120 on a keyboard & mouse for a $450 computer, I have no free USB ports by default. Instead, I have an extra device sitting with my mini (USB hub) complete with associated wires.

        And can we get a Mac with a USB port on the front of the box? I know that it's supposed to look like a simple design, but when I have to drag the expensive and fragile screen of the iMac I have at work around to get at the back of it so I can plug in the cable/thumb drive, so I can turn the screen around again so I can see it, so I can copy a file off of it, then turn it around and unplug it again, before turning it straight again so I can go back to work, it suddenly stops seeming like such a simple design. Whatever happened to form following function? Macs are all about being pretty, and somehow most people accept this as actually meaning "more user friendly."

        • Re:I don't care for these commercials (Score:5, Informative)

          by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF ( 813746 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @10:02AM (#15993532)

          Honestly I am not sure why all the keyboards and mice are USB now, the plug is no smaller, and you also give up at least one USB port to something that every non-server computer has.

          USB can be plugged in and unplugged while the machine is running. PS/2 cannot. USB can be chained. PS/2 cannot. USB can be used for higher speed connections to cameras, and the like. PS/2 cannot. As for every non-server having a P/2 port, they take up space that could be used for other ports and they take up more space than USB ports which can provide greater functionality.

          My Mac Mini at home only has 2 USB ports, and because I didn't want to drop $120 on a keyboard & mouse for a $450 computer, I have no free USB ports by default.

          As I mentioned, USB is chainable. If you buy a keyboard from a reputable company, they will spend the extra $2 it costs to put at least one more USB port on the keyboard. The same goes for most other devices you might want plugged in permanently. In this way, adding peripherals takes up no additional ports. If you go to froogle.com and enter "usb keyboard" the resulting keyboards start at $3.99. The first one with extra ports on it was $9.99. Do you think you can afford that?

          And can we get a Mac with a USB port on the front of the box? I know that it's supposed to look like a simple design, but when I have to drag the expensive and fragile screen of the iMac I have at work around to get at the back of it so I can plug in the cable/thumb drive, so I can turn the screen around again so I can see it, so I can copy a file off of it, then turn it around and unplug it again, before turning it straight again so I can go back to work, it suddenly stops seeming like such a simple design.

          So plug it into the empty port on your keyboard. Or, buy one of the macs that comes with ports on the front. Or, buy a hub.

          Whatever happened to form following function? Macs are all about being pretty, and somehow most people accept this as actually meaning "more user friendly."

          Most people find macs easier to use for a lot of reasons. Some people who pick a machine aimed at one demographic and then use it in ways unusual for that demographic have problems. You're probably one of them.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by nahdude812 ( 88157 )
            I haven't found a USB keyboard that provides a built-in USB hub that is also powered yet. Maybe they exist, but they certainly aren't the $9 ones. No matter what I plug into there other than the mouse, it tells me I need to plug this device into a powered USB port (even if it doesn't actually need power, like an iPod or my digital camera, both of which come with their own power). Its funny because on my PC, these devices work fine on unpowered ports. Same is true on the same hardware running Ubuntu. It

            • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

              by Bassman59 ( 519820 )

              No matter what I plug into there other than the mouse, it tells me I need to plug this device into a powered USB port

              A USB flash drive usually lives in one of the two ports on my Mac keyboard (the mouse lives in the other). I sometimes use one of those Griffin iKnobs in the keyboard port; works fine. A flash card reader also works fine in the keyboard port, although it's slow because the keyboard port is full speed, not high speed.

              (even if it doesn't actually need power, like an iPod or my digital cam

        • Honestly I am not sure why all the keyboards and mice are USB now

          Thank goodness we're getting rid of the abomination that is PS2. Finally, we've got a single bus design that accepts just about all peripherals your're likely to need. Just plug 'em in anywhere.
          It's also become easy to build a hub into the keyboard, so you can hang mice, memory sticks etc. off the keyboard instead of having to root around the back of the computer.

          My Mac Mini at home only has 2 USB ports, and because ... I have no free USB port

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Nexum ( 516661 )
          The PowerMac G5s and the new MacPros do have USB, Firewire 400, and Firewire 800 on the front of the box.

          On your iMac, why not plug your USB drive into the USB port on the Apple keyboard that came with it. For the typical home user, this is all they need, and should cover you fine too.
        • My Mac Mini at home only has 2 USB ports, and because I didn't want to drop $120 on a keyboard & mouse for a $450 computer, I have no free USB ports by default. Instead, I have an extra device sitting with my mini (USB hub) complete with associated wires.

          Pardon me, but something is fishy about this part of your story - why are you not plugging the mouse into the keyboard USB extender? At most the keyboard and mouse together should take up one USB plug, which is why all macs come with at least two.
        • usb mice are usually hot pluggable.

          ps2 mice USUALLY are not.

          big big diff!

          if your connector falls out on ps2, you have to reboot! not so on usb based mice.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by cjhuitt ( 466651 )
          My Mac Mini at home only has 2 USB ports, and because I didn't want to drop $120 on a keyboard & mouse for a $450 computer, I have no free USB ports by default. [...]
          I know that it's supposed to look like a simple design, but when I have to drag the expensive and fragile screen of the iMac I have at work around to get at the back of it so I can plug in the cable/thumb drive, so I can turn the screen around again so I can see it, so I can copy a file off of it, then turn it around and unplug it again, be
      • On the other hand, all of the hardware in an iMac is contained in a single unit.

        On the other other hand, all of the hardware in a Mac Mini is not. Can't claim this point in Apple's favor if there are models in the product line that are at least as difficult to set up the hardware for as a typical Dell or HP desktop box.

        you have to realize that all of that is pretty daunting to anybody who's never owned a computer before

        A group of potential customers that gets smaller and smaller every year. Is it really i

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Erectile Dysfunction ( 994340 )
      Apple's advertisements serve a number of roles: reassuring their customers of the superiority of their platform choice (thus encouraging continued purchases), obtaining as much recognition for their brand as possible, and appealing to the vanity of potential new customers. I think they're fairly pretentious, but their success will be measured by how much brand-awareness and revenue they generate. They will turn some people off and appeal to others, but there's little doubt that they will succeed in increasi
    • I don't know. I think they're just right for the target audience; that is, if you find them callous and mean-spirited, maybe you take life too seriously to enjoy using a Mac at all. (Not you, of course. I mean "you" in the general.) On the other hand, if you're light-hearted enough to laugh along with the absurdity of the caricatures--one of smugness, the other abject squareness--you just might be the kind of person to appreciate a Mac.

      Just one man's opinion.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by elrous0 ( 869638 ) *
        bsurdity of the caricatures--one of smugness, the other abject squareness

        Why would that make me want to buy EITHER?!?!

        -Eric

        • Because most non-techies only have those two choices. And let's be honest, most of us would rather be smugly superior than boring. None of us want to admit it, we all say we'd rather be nice and humble, but given those two options...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MBCook ( 132727 )

      I disagree, I really like them. They are fun little ads that draw attention to the brand. They are not "You must buy a Mac", they get you interested to check Macs out. I also disagree about the Mac. I don't think he looks like a slacker, I think he looks "cool"; mainly I think he simply looks better than the PC who looks uptite (and since PCs are business machines that have been put in homes...).

      I also have to disgree with the "Windows runs fine out of the box" assertion. Installing Windows is for most use

      • I think he looks "cool"; mainly I think he simply looks better than the PC who looks uptite

        Here's my problem, though. Like a high school bully, Apple has decided to make themselves cool and popular by picking on nerds. Especially ugly nerds. For the same reason it worked in high school, it works in advertising. That doesn't mean I have to like it.

    • No, it's set the date and time, account password and keyboard configuration, and wait 20 minutes for a worm to hit, and your Uncle's computer is owned by Bob.

    • Re:I don't care for these commercials (Score:5, Interesting)

      by kalirion ( 728907 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @09:39AM (#15993422)
      Well I'm just the opposite. I'm a Windows guy all the way (for games, mostly), and have never touched a Mac since high school computer labs. And I happen to love these adds. My favorite type of comedy is a good roast, whether the guest of honor is a willing participant or not.
    • One of the things that resonated with me is that they mentioned all the junk software you have to clear out - all those "free" trial versions of about a billion programs, many of which have a serious ability to mess up your system. I checked out a new Dell PC recently and was amazed at how much of that stuff there is.

      Apple's pretty free of that - I think the only trial is of Office, and it's easy to remove if you don't want it.

      I think the strongest arguments, though, are anti-spyware. Of the typical compu

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by mbsatgt ( 948603 )

      I think Slate got it right when it comes to these ads. They're kinda funny, but really mean-spirited. They're "Haha...you suck!!"-ads that don't appeal to me. That, and the fact that they kinda make me happy that I'm running windows (not right now, right now it's Fedora all the way, I double-boot) instead of apple. It makes the PC look productive and serious, instead of the slacker Mac OS X.

      So, interestingly, I talked to three different people - independent of each other - about these ads yesterday. All th

      • Only mean spirited if you are reading between line (Score:4, Insightful)

        by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @11:46AM (#15994123)
        What I am saying is that it has become clear to me that the ads are not back firing, and in fact, are reaching the target audience. All three of these women expressed a desire to buy a Mac for their next computer, when their current one finally breaks. This actually was surprising to me, because I assumed the ads probably were back firing because of what I had read on Slashdot.

        This was pretty obvious to me because the ads are actually not mean spirited at all, unless the viewer is reading all kinds of things into the ads that simply are not there.

        Think of the experience these women probably have, PC's at home that they have to get viruses and spyware cleaned off of, mysterious things that the computer tells them they do not really understand when they just want to hook up a printer. What about these ads would be untruthful to them? To someone who knows how to keep a PC clean by using firefox and firewals and so on and so forth the Apple ads appear untrue because that user has no spyware. But again, these women and most other consumers do see the spyware, and virues, and things that these ads talk about - so why would they have reason to doubt the pro Mac arguments the ads offer when the statements made about the PC are 100% true to them?

        It's also pretty obvious the ads are working because Apple keeps making them and also paying a fair amount for good timeslots (like the emmys for the msot recent ones). An ad campain that was going south would have been pulled by now if it was not seeing some results.

        Slashdot is a really bad filter to try and descern how Apple products are perceived, just look at the iPod when it came out. You can almost delcare Slashdot a comically bad judge of Apple products to the extent the direction of groupthink here is probably always the opposite of what the general market thinks.

        • Re:Only mean spirited if you are reading between l (Score:5, Insightful)

          by noewun ( 591275 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @02:31PM (#15995349) Journal
          Slashdot is a really bad filter to try and descern how Apple products are perceived, just look at the iPod when it came out. You can almost delcare Slashdot a comically bad judge of Apple products to the extent the direction of groupthink here is probably always the opposite of what the general market thinks.

          I think you can go further: Slashdot is a horribly bad predictor of the success of technology meant for the average computer user, because no one who posts here is an average computer user, me included. When I think of average computer users I think of my brother, who asked me if I would help him fix his Powerbook. He had dropped the thing from a good height more than once and had so bent the case that he couldn't plug in the power cord. His idea of 'fixing' the thing was to take to computer completely apart, take a hammer and bang the case back into shape. I tried to explain to him that taking apart a laptop is not a small thing and that banging the case back into shape was no easy thing. I told him to take the thing to Tekserve [tekserve.com] and have them do it, because I wasn't going to take on the responsibility of possibly ruining someone else's computer.

          The difference, I think, is that the average computer user thinks of the machine as a monolithic thing: it's a magic electronic box. When something goes wrong with the machine, it's universal. It's not that the USB has fried, or that a software update has choked, but that the whole magic box is now sick. This explains a couple of things. It is why people throw out perfectly good computers after two or three years rather than upgrade; if you think of the computer like a microwave (the principle of which most people don't understand) then there's no way you'd ever think of upgrading one. It explains why Slashdot was dead wrong on the success of the iPod; Apple created the mp3 player as magic electronic box, something your average user could relate to. Attach to computer, manage in iTunes, music appears on iPod. It's monolithic and, for someone who thinks of technology that way, simple.

          And it explains the success of Apple's ads, and the displeasure they cause here. Apple is selling the computer as magic monolithic box and saying, essentially, our magic box is easier to use than someone else's. Most on Slashdot know that computers aren't magic boxes. Many here take great pride in how deep that knowledge runs, and take great joy in delving deep into the guts of their machines and OSes. But your average computer user doesn't want to, and doesn't care. That is the target audience for these ads, and for devices like the iPod. Beyond that, your average computer user wants a magic electronic box, something which functions more as an information appliance than anything else.

          Most Slashdot readers don't want a magic box. But Slashdot users are the minority.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by GeckoX ( 259575 )
      Agreed. They are so condescending it is disgusting. They are funny like standing around laughing at the kid being bullied in the schoolyard is funny.

      I for one would expect Apple to take a higher stance than this. These are lower than any advertising MS has ever put out there. Makes you feel for the poor windows guy. Yeah, windows guys are nerds, but mac guys are F*#%ing A$$*&)#$. Real good image to portray.

      If I ever start acting like that mac guy, shoot me please.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by RedBear ( 207369 )
      I think Slate got it right when it comes to these ads. They're kinda funny, but really mean-spirited. They're "Haha...you suck!!"-ads that don't appeal to me. That, and the fact that they kinda make me happy that I'm running windows (not right now, right now it's Fedora all the way, I double-boot) instead of apple.

      I disagree. To me they are cleverly hitting on a lot of percieved and real weaknesses of the PC world, which is good marketing strategy. They don't seem particularly mean-spirited either, to me. I

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Paul Slocum ( 598127 )
      I think the ads are pretty good. But I really think I'd feel more comfortable hanging out with the nerdy PC guy than the hipster Mac dude.

  • these ones are better (Score:5, Funny)

    by muftak ( 636261 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @07:54AM (#15992975)
    http://tv.truenuff.com/mac [truenuff.com]
    • That is some seriously funny shit, especially the 'upgrade' one. Wish I had some 'interesting/funny' mod points to give ya.

  • "Make You Cry"? But I Thought... (Score:5, Funny)

    by RobotRunAmok ( 595286 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @07:55AM (#15992978)
    ...that Hemos was the point person for slashvertisements? [slashdot.org]

    Now I'm confused. If I want to get my ad on slashdot is or is not Hemos the person I am supposed to contact? If the policy has changed, we should be notified, no?

    • Re:"Make You Cry"? But I Thought... (Score:5, Funny)

      by cowscows ( 103644 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @08:30AM (#15993092) Journal
      Spend twenty years designing (mostly)quality computers, develop an operating system and a multitude of other software apps that are highly regarded by just about everyone, and maybe in your free time create a portable music player and an online store that gets the ball rolling on a new form of media distribution.

      Then, perhaps, a website primarily for computer nerds might feel compelled to talk about your ad.

  • Irony (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The irony is that the PC Guy is actually the one who's interesting and funny. He's more memorable. The Mac Guy is the actual dweeb. So thanks for the ads Apple, I'd rather go with the PC Guy. The Mac Guy exemplifies everything I hate about Apple: How they market for I'm-better-than-you cool-rich-kids with bleacher jeans that go to starbucks and are a part of that race of MTV drones who somehow have a smug feeling of superiority for being ignorant.

  • This is what they call "guerilla marketing"... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RexRhino ( 769423 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @12:26PM (#15994434)
    "What is a great way to promote the new Apple product to geeks? I know, we will have a story posted on Slashdot featuring the new ads, the geeks love Slashdot! And it will have real 'street-cred' as it will be coming from Slashdot so they will think it is from other geeks. Perfect."

    It isn't a question if Apple is doing paid advertizing on Slashdot - They most certainly are. The question is:

    1. Will Slashdotters fall for it?

    2. Is someone at Slashdot really getting paid? Or are they getting a free ipod or something totally lame like that. If Commander Taco isn't getting at least $30,000 for this "article", then I lose all respect! It is one thing to sell out, it is another thing to sell out like a total buster!

  • Makes me cry.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Roadmaster ( 96317 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @01:30PM (#15994947) Homepage Journal
    posting ads makes you cry? hell man, you must cry a hell of a lot, then..

  • Pet Peeve... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jwiegley ( 520444 ) on Monday August 28, 2006 @03:56PM (#15995897)

    I pretty much hate all advertisements based on the fact that they are almost always lies and they use every phallacy in the book to knowingly trick people. TiVo is my friend.

    I'm ok with somebody highlighting positive qualities of their product while downplaying negative ones. It's just a fact that all products have good and bad points and you're lucky if your good points vastly outwieght the bad ones and you've got some hard marketing to do if you're faced with the opposite scenario.

    My pet peeves is that advertisers don't highlight and downplay. They actually use logical fallacies to trick people into believing that a negative doesn't exist, is actually a positive or that all products share a worse negative. And they do this knowingly or negligently.

    Take the "Get a Mac" commercials. First off. Why is one of the characters dressed drastically different from the other??? One is dressed in stereotypical corporate fashion while the other in stereotypical hip, loose fashion. This has nothing to do with the capabilities of the products compared. But it was clearly an intentional selection. Why?... In order to have the consumer identify the products as having all the negatives we typically associate with corporate america and the positives of youth and freedom in a favorable fashion for Macs. But I know lots of corporate people who use and love Macs for business purposes and I know lots of artists who use PC platforms for creative work. Why not swap age and wardrobe on the two actors and play the exact same commercial?? shouldn't make a difference should it?

    second: Why is the Mac proponent sharp and pithy while the PC champion is rather dull witted? Again, they are trying to send the message "you'll be stupid if you buy a PC" which has absolutely nothing to do with the actual merits of the product. Yes. People come in a variety of flavors including stupid and smart. I've seen plenty of stupid people using Macs and a lot of smart people using PC platforms. Again, why not switch the intelligence/insight capabilities of the two characters?

    Third: Everybody seems to be all gung-ho about the humor of these ads. Does making a funny ad make the product any better? No. But they rely on this to get you to buy a product. Hey I like commercials with hot, semi-naked women in them too, but that doesn't make the product better; neither does a funny ad.

    fourth: They rely on common ignorance in order to propogate lies. Macs can do spreadsheets just fine and PCs can do graphics just as well. I have yet to see anything done on a Mac that I can't do on a Windows machine. Nothing. In fact you can usually get whatever software package you want for either platform. For software not made for both there is generally a suitably similar alternative. And for every instance where you can say: "But not this package/application!!" I can find you an example for the other platform. Basically, I can do graphics, spreadsheets and application development on both platforms equally well. But the commercials specifically imply that you cannot. relying on the ignorance of the consumer to agree. And I hate people who rely on a person's ignorance in order to manipulate them into a desired behavior. This is no different than con-artists.

    So, no. I don't really find these commercials particularly insightful, helpful, ethical or even funny. But that is my opinion of almost all advertising and marketing

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by be-fan ( 61476 )
      Most of your post is innane overanalysis of what is really a fairly straightforward and quite funny set of ads. One point does, however, stick out.

      I have yet to see anything done on a Mac that I can't do on a Windows machine.

      A given user might be able to do a lot of things on a Mac that they can't on Windows. My mom figured out how to video conference with me on her Mac, but could never have done it on Windows. Not because Windows lacks video conferencing software, but because video-conferencing in OS X is

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by admactanium ( 670209 )

        I have yet to see anything done on a Mac that I can't do on a Windows machine

        okay, how about this. organize a photo slideshow with music and full-motion titles and transitions. then preserve all those transitions, music, image adjustments and motion graphics into a dvd authoring apps and burn a viewable dvd that can be popped into a consumer dvd player and burn it. also, do it in an hour with the software that is bundled with the computer.

        this "i can do that on my pc" argument is really tired when nobo

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by argent ( 18001 )
      I have yet to see anything done on a Mac that I can't do on a Windows machine. Nothing.

      Show me something comparable to OsiriX (no, Osiris ain't it), and I'll kiss you.

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