Apple Ad Smugness

[Shawn]

I agree that Apple's new ads can be interpreted as smug. I wrote the following in my column for my user group's newsletter:

Apple has finally started to advertise Macs instead of iPods, but there is a bit of a mixed story here. The ads feature a man in a business suit and a scruffy-looking young man as anthropomorphized versions of a Windows PC and a Macintosh. The man exhibits symptoms of being a PC -- getting viruses (sneezing and a runny nose), crashing (fainting), inability to communicate to new devices, e.g. a digital camera from Japan played by a Japanese woman by speaking Italian to her, while the Mac speaks Japanese, etc.

The scruffy youth as the Mac is courteous to the PC, but allows the PC to look foolish. This technique was used by Galileo in his 1630 work "Dialog on the Great World Systems", putting the Copernican system into the mouth of Salviati, the sage, and the Aristotelian system into the mouth of Simplicio, the simpleton. It didn't work well for Galileo, and may not be the best technique now, either. Some people I have talked with identify with the characters as if they were a PC user and a Mac user, instead of a PC and a Mac, and take offense being portrayed in that manner.

Honestly, as a Mac user, I feel that the ads are humorous and to the point, but I can see their points of view. I hope this isn't how most PC users feel about these ads, or Apple's campaign will backfire.

Of course, Apple isn't alone with this style of advertising. Volkswagen is currently airing their new "Lowest Ego Emissions" Passat ads:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18Bpy4EvivI

They drive me nuts.

Bob Studer

[OurBill]

They're ads man!!

[Aaron]

I can tell you from first-hand experience, people take ads very seriously.

I get the feeling that anything Apple says when comparing its product to the competition will be interpreted by a certain self-involved, insecure, critical, perspective-less segment of viewers as an "attack" against PC users (because, ya know, Apple means to attack them personally). Advertisements work these people into some kind of frothy, pointless anger, and by definition, that makes them life's losers. Perhaps they should be grateful that the worst thing they have to rave about in their sheltered, spoiled lives is a series of ads that means very little in the grand scheme of things.

[Shawn]

[quote="Aaron"]I can tell you from first-hand experience, people take ads very seriously.[/quote]
LOL Yes - yes you can.

[Lesa]

I think the ads are hilarious. They're funny, timely, and gloriously blunt. IMHO, anyone who is bothered by them lacks a sense of humor.

My name is Lesa, and I'm a MacMac
_________________
Lesa King
The Graphic Reporter
Chief Evangelist, iStockphoto.com

[Fish Wheels]

You might find this one funny or not
http://www.bestweekever.tv/2006/07/07/bwe-mac-ads/

[Lesa]

LMAO!!!!
_________________
Lesa King
The Graphic Reporter
Chief Evangelist, iStockphoto.com