Farewell, Get a Mac campaign

For those who don't know, Apple ended their long-run series of "Hello, I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" commercials this past May. It was definitely one of the more impressive run of TV advertisement in recent memory. So, as a tribute to Apple and their awesome ads, I will dedicate this post to them by dissecting Apple's marketing strategy.

BTW, for those who haven't seen all of them, the good people at AdFreak.com has them all packaged neatly on one page, here, http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/get-a-mac-the-complete-campaign.html.

Mac has long since given up the fight to compete head to head with Windows, and has embraced the role of the underdog. It they adopts a differentiated positioning strategy to market itself as the cool, hip, fun computer as oppose to the robust, nerdy, uncool Windows. Whereas the giant Microsoft tries to create a system that would fit everyone's needs in one package, Macs target specifically the young and the artistic crowd with its easy and intuitive features that simplifies a lot of the mundane tasks required to navigate the operating system.

Although I liked the Get a Mac ads for its humorous and clever ways to exploit PC's weakness, I also disliked it for pretty much the same reasons. The routine of Justin Long poking fun at John Hodgman gets old. It is like watch a smooth talking music kid repeatedly making fun of the nerdy keener. What seemed tongue-in-cheek fun slowly feels more and more like mean-spirited, passive-aggressive bullying. The problem with the ads are, Mac embraced the role of underdog too much, and almost seems to use PC users' frustration with Windows as an competitive advantage over Windows, which is not a good idea. Hey look, Windows is complicated. Hey look, Windows has viruses. Hey look, this Windows feature is useless. At first, the ads were careful not to mention Windows specifically, even though it is obvious who they are poking fun at. But later on, the brain trust behind the campaign seems to lost all humility as the ads became more and more popular. In the very last group of ads, they were as bold as to attack Windows 7 directly, just before its release, as if to launch a preemptive strike. They either got really stupid, or risked on a huge gamble. Either way, they lost the bet, because Windows 7 is everything that they have to offer add more. Sure, there are some minor lingering issues, but they are minor, and Apple can no longer capitalize of people's frustration of Windows.

The Get a Mac campaign was a success in sense because it generated a lot of publicity and interest in Apple computers. However, it was also a failure, because the message it sends across deviated from what Apple stood for. Apple stands for innovation, creativity, simplicity, and fun. I rather see an add that is pro-Apple as oppose to anti-Microsoft. Instead of spreading a positive message about why buying a Mac is in your best interest, the campaign felt more like a smear tactic about why Windows sucks.