After a long and successful run of advertising the Mac and Justin Long, the "I"m a Mac", Apple marketing series has been discontinued, according to Mac Rumors. The long-running campaign featured various conversations between a "Mac" and a "PC" in which the PC consistently came under passive-aggressive attack from the Mac, eventually pointing out that the flaws inherent in PCs don"t exist in Macs. Many were upset by this oft-debatable Windows brow-beating by Apple, and Microsoft eventually launched their own "I"m a PC" ad campaign to answer Apple"s challenges.
It now seems that Apple wants to take the high road. Their new ad campaign, "Why you"ll love your Mac" doesn"t revert to PC-bashing to make is point. It stays away (mostly) from comparisons to other hardware/software platforms and sells you a Mac because, well, it"s a Mac. The main points of the ad campaign are:
- It"s designed to be a better computer
- It comes with software you"ll love to use
- It comes with the world"s most advanced OS
- It comes with award-winning support
- It runs Office and works with your existing PC files
- It"s compatible with your stuff
- It doesn"t get PC viruses
- It"s loaded with the latest technology
- It runs Windows and Windows applications
It"s a decidedly more peaceful selling tactic, and while it will still rile up the PC fans simply because it"s Apple, many, like Paul Thurott of WinSuperSite.com, are welcoming the change. Although he believes that the sudden shift in direction is directly related to Microsoft"s successful release of Windows 7 to critical acclaim (the fact that the last "I"m a Mac" ad aired in the same month as the release of Windows 7 notwithstanding), he still likes the tactic, and is glad that Apple is deciding to sell their products to the public as "good products" and not just as "products that are better than PCs".
Image courtesy of Stormfront.co.uk