Get a Mac
The "Get a Mac" campaign is a television advertising campaign created for Apple Inc. (Apple Computer, Inc. at the start of the campaign) by TBWA\Media Arts Lab, the company's advertising agency, that ran from 2006 to 2009. The advertisements were shown in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany. Synopsis. The Get a Mac advertisements follow a standard template. They open to a plain white background, and a man dressed in casual clothes introduces himself as an Apple Macintosh computer ("Hello, I'm a Mac."), while a man in a  more formal suit-and-tie combination introduces himself as a Microsoft Windows personal computer ("And I'm a PC."). The two then act out a brief vignette, in which the capabilities and attributes of Mac and PC are compared, with PC—characterized as formal and somewhat polite, though uninteresting and overly concerned with work—often being frustrated by the more laid-back Mac's abilities. The earlier commercials in the campaign involved a general comparison of the two computers, whereas the later ones mainly concerned Windows Vista and Windows 7. The aim of this commercial film series is to associate  PC users (namely Windows users) with the "unpopular nerd" cliché, while representing Apple Mac users as young, creative, attractive, and lucky. The original American advertisements star actor Justin Long as the Mac, and author and humorist John Hodgman as the PC, and were directed by Phil Morrison. The American advertisements also aired on Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand television, and at least 24 of them were dubbed into Spanish, French, German, and Italian. The British campaign stars comedic duo Robert Webb as Mac and David Mitchell as PC, while the Japanese campaign features the comedic duo Rahmens. Several of the  British and Japanese advertisements, although based on the originals, were slightly altered to better target the new audiences. Both the British and Japanese campaigns also feature several original ads not seen in the American campaign. The Get a Mac campaign is the successor to the Switch ads which were first broadcast in 2002. Both campaigns were filmed against a plain white background. Apple's former CEO, Steve Jobs, introduced the campaign during a shareholders meeting the week before the campaign started. The campaign also coincided with a change of signage and employee apparel at Apple retail stores detailing reasons to  switch to Macs. The Get a Mac campaign received the Grand Effie Award in 2007. The song in the commercial is called "Having Trouble Sneezing" by Mark Mothersbaugh. On November 10, 2020, John Hodgman returned and portrayed a PC at the end of Apple's "One More Thing" event, criticizing the upgrades made to the Macintosh lineup earlier in the event. Advertisements. The ads play on perceived weaknesses of non-Mac personal computers, especially those running Microsoft Windows, of which PC is clearly intended to be a parody, and corresponding strengths possessed by the Mac OS (such as immunity to  circulating viruses and spyware targeted at Microsoft Windows). The target audience of these ads is not devoted PC users but rather, those who are more likely to "swing" towards Apple. Apple realizes that many consumers who choose PCs do so because of their lack of knowledge of the Apple brand. With this campaign, Apple was targeting those users who may not consider Macs when purchasing but may be persuaded to when they view these ads. Each of the ads is about 30 seconds in length and is accompanied by a song called "Having Trouble Sneezing," which was composed by Mark  Mothersbaugh. The advertisements are presented below in alphabetical order, not chronological order. North American campaign. The following is an alphabetical list of the ads that appeared in the campaign shown in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Web-exclusive campaign. Several advertisements have been shown exclusively in Flash ad campaigns running on numerous websites. Unlike the ads shown on television, these advertisements have not been posted as high-quality QuickTime videos on Apple's website. These ads run for approximately 20 seconds each and reference specific online advertising features (such as banner ads), making it unlikely they will  ever appear on television. The titles are taken from the Flash-video file names. UK campaign. For the British market, the ads were recast with the popular British comedy double act Mitchell and Webb in the lead roles; David Mitchell as PC and Robert Webb as Mac. As well as original ads, several ads from the American campaign were reshot with new dialogue and slightly altered scenes. These ads are about 40 seconds long, which is slightly longer than the US advertisements. The following ads are exclusive to the UK: Several American ads were modified for the UK market. In  some of these ads, the events that occur in the narrative differ significantly from the original American campaign. Others follow the original ads more closely, with only minor differences (many based on the differences in characterization from the actors involved or language differences between American English and British English). These ads are also performed by Mitchell and Webb. The adapted ads are Japanese campaign. On December 12, 2006, Apple began to release ads in Japan that were similar in style to the US Get a Mac ads. The Mac and PC are played by the Rahmens, a Japanese comedy duo . The ads used to be viewable at Apple's Japan website. The following ads are exclusive to Japan: Several American ads were modified for the Japanese market. In some of these ads, the events that occur in the narrative differ significantly from the original American campaign. Others follow the original ads more closely, with only minor differences (many based on the differences in characterization from the actors involved). The adapted ads are Keynote videos. While not strictly a part of the ad campaign, Hodgman and Long appeared in videos during Steve Jobs's keynote addresses at the 2006, 2007, and  2009 Worldwide Developers Conference and the 2008 MacWorld Expo. Hodgman also appeared in the November 2020 Apple Event. Release dates (U.S. campaign). The different spots were released gradually: Effectiveness. Before the campaign's launch, Apple had seen lower sales in 2005–06. One month after the start of the "Get a Mac" campaign, Apple saw an increase of 200,000 Macs sold, and at the end of July 2006, Apple announced that it had sold 1.3 million Macs. Apple had an overall increase in sales of 39% for the fiscal year ending September 2006. Criticism. In an article for "Slate" magazine, Seth  Stevenson criticized the campaign as being too "mean spirited", suggesting, "isn't smug superiority (no matter how affable and casually dressed) a bit off-putting as a brand strategy?". In an article in "The Guardian", Charlie Brooker points out that the use of the comedians Mitchell and Webb in the UK campaign is curious. They both star in the sitcom "Peep Show" in which, to quote the article's author, "Mitchell plays a repressed, neurotic underdog, and Webb plays a selfish, self-regarding poseur... So when you see the ads, you think, 'PCs are a bit rubbish yet ultimately lovable , whereas Macs are just smug, preening tossers.'" Differentiating between a Mac and a PC. Many computer experts have argued over the definition of PC, or personal computer, which can raise questions about the actual differentiation between a Mac and a PC. Editor in Chief of "PC Magazine", Lance Ulanoff states in a 2008 column in "PC Magazine", "Of course, the ads would then be far less effective, because consumers might realize that the differences Apple is trying to tout aren't quite as huge as Apple would like you to believe." Projectory "Japanese Camera" advertisement. The commercial ""Network"" has been  criticized as being projectory and blame shifting, because Apple is notorious for having proprietary systems (vendor lock-in), isolated from open standards (e.g. no support for Bluetooth file sharing, WiFi Direct, NFC file sharing; no USB charging connector on the iPhone, lack of modularity (no MicroSD-expandable storage in iPhones), historically poor support for codecs and file systems other than those developed by Apple themselves, etc.) and poor repairability (historically poor iFixit scores). I'm a PC. Microsoft responded to the Get a Mac advertising campaign in late 2008 by releasing the I'm a PC campaign, featuring Microsoft employee  Sean Siler as a John Hodgman look-alike. While Apple's ads show personifications of both Mac and PC systems, the Microsoft ads show PC users instead proudly defining themselves as PCs.