It's official, the Mac is history."I'm a PC."
"I'm a Mac."
"Not anymore, you're not."
Justin Long, the actor who plays the Mac in Apple's latest rather mean-spirited series of commercials, is no longer doing the ads.
It seems public opinion, along with his movie acting career, dictated the changes. Long, known for his role on television's Ed a few years back, as well as roles in movies such as Dodgeball and Herbie: Fully Loaded apparently was just a bit too much of a Mac in the biased ads and the audience sympathized with the PC, played by John Hodgman.
Although the ad spots caught my attention, as a PC user I was a bit offended. I'm a creative sort into photography, photo-editing and more. The series of commercials brought back all the snobbiness, smugness, and self-appointed superiority I've seen in Mac/PC debates for well over a decade. I kind of wanted the PC to just cuff the Mac atop the head and send him for a timeout.
An article from Fresh Intelligence: Radar Online about the commercials ending was even a bit more strident about it. They claimed the audience wanted to push the Mac under a bus. Well, yeah. I could see that, too. The article quotes an ad critic from Slate as saying, "[Long is] just the sort of unshaven, hoodie-wearing, hands-in-pockets hipster we've always imagined when picturing a Mac enthusiast. It's like Apple is parodying its own image while also cementing it."
Hodgman, the PC, and the director of the spots, Phil Morrison, will be back to do a new series of commercials for Apple. While this has been confirmed, no details regarding content for the ads have been released.
I'm a PC. And, if I were a Mac, I wouldn't slump in a hoodie with a five-o'clock shadow that probably took two weeks to grow.
4 comments:
PC guy here. I love those commercials. They're the best, the best series ever, definitely. I thought the only lame one was the movie one where PC has a guy in a dress come out as his movie.
At first in viewing the series, I thought to be offended a little, but I brushed it off because the debate is already what it is.
Obviously, it's not going to be the same now. It could get better, it could easily get worse. At first I thought they could have chosen a better Mac, but it's created a personna that I was really likable. But ya know, it was likable to me because I *did* find myself in sympathy for the PC. PC director is going to have to be a lot more dorky and less soft. The softness always curries favor.
I've been on and seen both sides of the debate for 2 decades. And to invoke the debate a little, Mac is probably better as it used to be. Mac was better in quality but didn't have the software. Then, until recently, PC was better by increasing quality and being faster. Recently, Mac has use of PC's (Intel's) CPUs. So Mac is probably better again, especially considering graphics and bugs again. But the difference is getting more and more neglible! Interestingly, when Microsoft comes out with the succession to XP, Vista, it's going to be two years behind what Mac can already do. Same ol', same old.
So, Jackie, I am very curious. Where would you put yourself in terms of "mean-spirited" and of "smugness, self-appointed", etc. Not to provoke contention at all, only to provoke insight into your worldview.
quistian - I'm a firm believer in using whatever system works best for you. I've known folks who like both platforms and folks who've had trouble with both. So, I advocate using what makes you feel most comfortable and does what you want it to do.
As for me being mean-spirited, if that was the question, I don't think I am. Sometimes I write for effect or reaction.
How random........
But the movie "Accepted" with Justin Long was pretty funny.
Jackie. Cool. I didn't think you were. You like to get reaction. I like to get insight. Cool beans.
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