Stupid Mac vs. PC Commercials

[octothorp]

I think they've reached a point where they've really maxed out on what they can do as far as converting PC users to Mac, but they still have advertising value in terms of defining Apple's brand and helping to retain customers. In a lot of ways, they were as a diametric opposite to the ipod commericals, which have no dialogue, lots of colour and lots of up-tempo music, and the two play off one another really well for brand identity.

[Got Miikka?]

The problem with these Mac ads is the same one that the stupid Telus ads have - they're played out! How many times can you dredge the same well? It's like, guys, is this really all you've got? Really? After all these years, you don't have the creative wherewithal in your ad department to come up with something fresh? Which I suppose, for the Mac ads at least, is almost ironic, given that they seem to be hawking their product as this colorful, creative tool. But, something must be working- either that or the demographic is so built in and the revenue so foregone that the advertising slant doesn't even matter. Clearly Mac and Telus are doing OK for themselves, even if their commercials are nauseating, annoying, and soooo stupid.

Still, as bad as they are - and I really hate the Telus ads, with so much of my soul - nothing can annoy the piss out of me these days like that new truck commercial with the idiots singing Hi-Ho. Lord help me, if I am ever walking down the street and I hear a kid singing that song because he just saw Snow White, I am going to strangle that kid. Is this what Ford wants? They want to make murderers of gentle, peace-loving folk like me? I can't even watch that commercial anymore, it fills me with such rage. I have to mute it and avert my eyes, or I become uncontrollably filled with violent anger. I don't know what I might do. /derail

[MaxPower]

Originally Posted by Got Miikka?

The problem with these Mac ads is the same one that the stupid Telus ads have - they're played out! How many times can you dredge the same well? It's like, guys, is this really all you've got? Really? After all these years, you don't have the creative wherewithal in your ad department to come up with something fresh? Which I suppose, for the Mac ads at least, is almost ironic, given that they seem to be hawking their product as this colorful, creative tool. But, something must be working- either that or the demographic is so built in and the revenue so foregone that the advertising slant doesn't even matter. Clearly Mac and Telus are doing OK for themselves, even if their commercials are nauseating, annoying, and soooo stupid.

Still, as bad as they are - and I really hate the Telus ads, with so much of my soul - nothing can annoy the piss out of me these days like that new truck commercial with the idiots singing Hi-Ho. Lord help me, if I am ever walking down the street and I hear a kid singing that song because he just saw Snow White, I am going to strangle that kid. Is this what Ford wants? They want to make murderers of gentle, peace-loving folk like me? I can't even watch that commercial anymore, it fills me with such rage. I have to mute it and avert my eyes, or I become uncontrollably filled with violent anger. I don't know what I might do. /derail

Seek help.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Got Miikka?

Still, as bad as they are - and I really hate the Telus ads, with so much of my soul - nothing can annoy the piss out of me these days like that new truck commercial with the idiots singing Hi-Ho. Lord help me, if I am ever walking down the street and I hear a kid singing that song because he just saw Snow White, I am going to strangle that kid. Is this what Ford wants? They want to make murderers of gentle, peace-loving folk like me? I can't even watch that commercial anymore, it fills me with such rage. I have to mute it and avert my eyes, or I become uncontrollably filled with violent anger. I don't know what I might do. /derail

LOL. That's me with the Wiskas commercials with the loser pretending to be a cat.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by 4X4

LOL. That's me with the Wiskas commercials with the loser pretending to be a cat.

No meat? No Hubert.

[schnee]

Originally Posted by worth

I really don't think the problems with Vista are as bad as they are perceived. I think those mac commercials have swayed a lot of people sub consciously that Vista is a poor operating system. Vistas problems cam from no driver support in the early days.

I have run vista for over a year and it is the most stable operating system i've ever run hands down. There are annoying features with it, but they can all be turned off or customized. Once you've done that, the thing is a rock IMO.

Apple has done a great job of persuading people that vista is horrible.

I banished you. You are banished.
(I've never used Vista.. so have not clue.. but that commercial did make me laugh).

Wasn't the PC guy in the movie Jeepers Creepers?

[Got Miikka?]

Originally Posted by MaxPower

Seek help.

Isn't it funny - this has all been after therapy.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by schnee

I banished you. You are banished.
(I've never used Vista.. so have not clue.. but that commercial did make me laugh).

Wasn't the PC guy in the movie Jeepers Creepers?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0519043/

A likable, boyish-looking actor with thick eyebrows and a friendly smile, Justin Long is a native of Connecticut.

[Bill Bumface]

I helped my parents set up their new computer this year (Vista SP1) and bought myself a MacBook a couple weeks ago to see what all the hype was.

Vista was WAY easier to get everything configured/running (getting my MacBook to print was a 4 hour exercise) and I've had more crashes already with my MacBook than they have with Vista in a few months.

The biggest problem with Vista is third party software/drivers. No one that programmed windows apps for years knows how to program for a system that has a locked down OS. They are use to everyone being an administrator and being able to change whatever system files they want (which caused a lot of instability in Windows). That's why you are inindated with those annoying security popups. OS X has them too, but they come up rarely because people that program on a Linux/Unix based system aren't used to being allowed to change system files.

The Mac is pretty cool and there are many things I really like about it, but also many that drive me nuts. It's not light years ahead of a windows machine like most mac users (who always seem to act like they invented the Mac or own a billion shares in the company and therefore defend them to the death) will tell you.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by troutman

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0519043/

A likable, boyish-looking actor with thick eyebrows and a friendly smile, Justin Long is a native of Connecticut.

That's the Mac guy.

[Resolute 14]

The first round of these mac vs. pc commercials were very well done, and pretty smart.

The latest round is stupid beyond belief.

If I was considering buying a computer today, the latest batch of commercials would have been enough to turn me away from Apple.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

Vista was WAY easier to get everything configured/running (getting my MacBook to print was a 4 hour exercise) and I've had more crashes already with my MacBook than they have with Vista in a few months.

The biggest problem with Vista is third party software/drivers.

It's not light years ahead of a windows machine like most mac users (who always seem to act like they invented the Mac or own a billion shares in the company and therefore defend them to the death) will tell you.

1. If your Mac is crashing, as you put it, there is something wrong with the Mac, period. They are very stable. Most of the applications you find out there are pretty stable to. On the whole, I find that the Mac shareware scene has consistently higher quality apps for what you pay, although that's a landscape also littered with awful apps on both platforms too.

2. The biggest problem with Vista is not third party drivers, its a broken driver model that puts drivers in the kernel where failures (and failures happen, no matter how well written a driver is) can take down the whole system. This is actually getting better in Vista than it was in XP, with more driver code running in user space (print drivers, especially), but there is still a good chunk of driver code that runs in kernel space.

3. I agree, the Mac isn't light years ahead. Lots of features that people crow about, like Time Machine, are already in Windows. Microsoft calls it "Previous Versions" and "Volume Shadow Copies", and as a result, the average user has no idea what they do, where to find them, or how to use them effectively. The key value that the Mac platform brings is the integration and polish of these features. I can ship a USB hard drive to a computer newbie in another province, tell them to plug it in, flip the huge Time Machine switch in preferences (and its literally a huge visual toggle switch), and now they have backups, and I don't have to worry anymore.

Printing on the Mac does suck, its terrible. No argument there.

[iggypop]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

(getting my MacBook to print was a 4 hour exercise)

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Printing on the Mac does suck, its terrible. No argument there.

Really? Why?

All the printers I have used, I just plug them in (USB or Ethernet) and hit print. Bam, it prints. No software to load or anything. Just hit print, and it prints.

Maybe I've been lucky.

[Mike F]

The ads amused me for a while, mainly because of John Hodgman, but they've grown stale and repetitive, and as someone who has run a Vista machine since April with no crashes or other problems, they're completely inaccurate insofar as my experience.

[ricosuave]

^ word. i've been running vista since its lognhorn beta days with nary an issue. I dont know what the fuss is all about...

also, I cant take the mac guy seriously because of his performance in die hard 4.

edit: although I do find the buzzer one amusing, the way the pc guy says 'oh' at the end when he misses a vista buzz.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by iggypop

Really? Why?

All the printers I have used, I just plug them in (USB or Ethernet) and hit print. Bam, it prints. No software to load or anything. Just hit print, and it prints.

Maybe I've been lucky.

Try network printing...it can be a bear.

Edited for more detail - stupid stuff like trying to change the IP address or DNS name of a networked printer once you've defined the queue

[Burninator]

The ads were funny at first, but they have been running them for way too long. The ship has sailed on the humour of this shtick long ago.

Like others in this thread Vista has been great for me. Hardly any issues. It's been the best OS I've used. I have more problems with my iPhone than Vista.

[V]

Originally Posted by ricosuave

also, I cant take the mac guy seriously because of his performance in die hard 4.

He was in the TV show Ed, so I will be a fan for life. No matter how bad he was in die hard 4.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

1. If your Mac is crashing, as you put it, there is something wrong with the Mac, period. They are very stable. Most of the applications you find out there are pretty stable to. On the whole, I find that the Mac shareware scene has consistently higher quality apps for what you pay, although that's a landscape also littered with awful apps on both platforms too.

I'm a mac user at work. I was very resistant to introducing them to the work place but I'd have to say that I'm impressed. However, they aren't as stable as people make them out to be. They aren't perfect, they crash too. Right now we have 7 Macs deployed in our office and I know that 3 of them have crashed at least once, and 3 others have had a couple of minor bugs. Overall the Mac OS is more stable than windows though, but it ain't perfect.

[I-Hate-Hulse]