Then there is Apple, whose current 'Get a Mac' ad campaign just started here a few weeks ago. Like the American ads, PC users are shown as ugly, tie-wearing, nerdy, hopeless people and Mac users are shown as young, hip, and dressed in expensive casual designers garbs, who spends the majority of more time preaching on how good their Macs are, than actually using it. Owning a Mac (or Ipod) automatically change your lifestyle, if Steve Jobs would have you believe. It is fine by me if you want to worship your Mac but please stop acting like the typical evangelical Christians.In Apple's defence they did hire Robert Webb to play as the Mac guy. Webb, for those who doesn't live in the UK, is famous for playing a smug, unlikeable and pretentious tosser in my favourite telly comedy Peep Show. I guess Apple is implying that Mac users are smug, unlikeable and pretentious poseurs. How fitting.
6 comments:
As an Evangelical Christian. I feel it necessary to defend my choice of a Mac.
We can't help but feel justified these days because for years we have been persecuted by Windows users everywhere we went. If it wasn't the IT guy at work who rolled his eyes and snidely said "we don't support Macs", it was the simple fellows at the computer store who told me they wouldn't advise buying the orginal iMac I was looking at because there wasn't any software availible for it. My broker even discouraged me from buying stock in Apple Computer since the experts said they would probably be going out of business soon.
I did purchase that Bondi Blue iMac and I haven't looked back since. It wasn't an impluse decision. I carefully looked at the advantages and disadvantages and had been a Windows user prior to the purchase. So, I had an experience to compare to. I now run my business on Mac Pros and an typing this on a Macbook Pro. In addition, that apple stock I purchased after buying that first iMac has put two of my children through university with some left over.
I know of few things in life that so many people have been so wrong about as to the inferiority of Apple Computers
Any Mac user will tell you he has been treated badly for his choice of computers and operating system for years. So don't be too prickly about someone else pointing out the shortcomings of Windows. As Christ said, "What soever a man sows, so shall he reap."
We should totally come up with counter-ads that illustrate the saying, "all hardware sucks, all software sucks". I mean, seriously, vendor lock-in and a serious lack of free tools and early access to games and software libraries?
I mean, if you don't have problems with your tool, you're just not working hard enough.
Oh, and when I mean "we", I mean "people who understand what I'm talking about, and who have infinitely more free time and resources". Hint, hint.
While I agree that the Get A Mac dverts are over the top, I think you misunderstand them. They are not portraying PC users as nerdy or Mac users as cool. The people represent the actual machines, that is to say the PC or the Mac. Not the users. the adverts are trying to say that PCs themselves are boring etc. and that Macs are the opposite.
Great link article and comic too- it's one of my all-time favourites.
Being the fan that i am of Mitchell & Webb I was horrified to find them portraying two different computers in an advert, but like many promotional work today, the message is completely skewed and laughably absurd.
Ignoring that for now though and following the message set by Mr Webb, just why is a Mac "fun"? There's no evidence in the advert (or indeed anywhere else) to suggest they are. Oh wait, they're "fun because all the cool kids have one" etc etc?
How can they say something as strong as that statement of fun and not back it up with evidence?
Some of the last posts were outright hysterical! Those who know Brooker's humor (as well as his love for Macs) will immediately realize that it's rather windows users who were being baited. It becomes evident towards the end of the Guardian's comments section (as well as the end of the article itself!)
I use both Macs and PCs at work. I find Macs very dumb-downed. It is reliable because it is easy to use. PCs on the other hand seems to be far more advance and customisable, which explains why 'geeks' prefer Windows and Linux.
I love to tinker with my computer and sadly there isn't much one can do with a Mac unless happens to be a graphic designer. Seeing yuppies use Microsoft Word on their £1500 Apple Powerbooks in Starbucks just cracks me up. It is far too obvious that the only reason they are using them is to look cool and trendy.
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