Apple Ends "Get a Mac" Ad Campaign

[Paul Daniel Ash]

The "Get a Mac" campaign, featuring the stodgy, witty John Hodgeman and the dopey, hipster-y Justin Long, appears to be finally over. Apple has quietly removed the Get a Mac section from their website and now redirects apple.com/getamac/ to a new "Why You'll Love a Mac" page. As there had been no new Get a Mac ads since October of last year, many had speculated that Apple was retiring the campaign, which started way back in 2006, when the first Intel-based Macs had just appeared. These rumors were amplified when Justin Long said "I think they might be done" in an interview.

In 2006, when the ad campaign started, the Mac struggled to get about a 3.5% market share in the US. Four years later, Apple has doubled that to a (still small, but much larger) 8% market share. The ad campaign, though it may have annoyed as many people as it amused, probably played a significant role in building public awareness of the Mac and positioning it as a "cooler" alternative to Windows-based PCs. Many criticized the ads for their snarky tone, however, and Microsoft themselves connibalized the meme directly with their "I'm a PC" campaign, which featured a broad range of Windows users. And the focus on "identity" as a brand had as many risks as advantages. Since I'm typing this on a hackintoshed computer that's 100% non-Apple components, am I a "Mac" or a "PC"… or something else?

The new "Why You'll Love a Mac" campaign, by comparison, seems to focus more on the claim that a Mac is a better computer, "designed and built to be as reliable as it is beautiful." The Apple site exhorts buyers to " upgrade your entire computer experience," touting the innovative features of Mac OS X and Apple hardware, and bragging about things like battery life and even the company's environmental policy. It may be that the negative reactions had finally reached such a crescendo that Apple felt they needed to shift their strategy. Justin "I'm a Mac" Long told the A.V. Club website last month that he thought the campaign was over. "I heard from John, I think they’re going to move on," he said, adding that "not only am I going to miss doing them, but also working with John... he’s one of my dearest, greatest friends."

Advertising is, by its very nature, filled with nonsense and puffery. However, as these campaigns have typically lasted for several years, it's interesting to get a glimpse at how Apple intends to position itself. through the middle of this decade, extolling quality over style. If they can back it up with good products, it'll be interesting times indeed.

[FoxiPhoneHelp]

As there had been no new Get a Mac ads since October of this year, many had speculated that Apple was retiring the campaign

Since October of this year, am i working off a different calander lol...

[darkrom]

Due to Windows 7 and the latest Ubuntu releases kicking so much ***...Apple promptly inserts foot into mouth.

[adrian1480]

gonna need to fix that October typo.

also, the last comments suggest Apple's current products aren't "quality"?

"If they can back it up with good products..."

they haven't been?

[djnikk]

Since October of this year, am i working off a different calander lol...

What he said :P

Due to Windows 7 and the latest Ubuntu releases kicking so much ***...Apple promptly inserts foot into mouth.

Lol...Dude, Apple doesn't give a rats *** about Ubuntu... and windows 7 seems to have been based on a plecostomus.... Have you even seen the windows "control panel"....

[whereswaldo]

I lol'ed at the hackintosh part

[v1shal]

Interesting

[extremzocker]

i love the ads, they are so funny

[dennder]

I'm gonna miss the ad's. The best (IMO), was about money on advertising / fixing vista... Even all of my friends, hardcore windows users laughed hard.

Anyways life i a change, i only hope that apple will be hit hard enough to realize their nowadays mistakes and will correct itself. I do really love my Mac's so i want to get more and want them to be even better. Otherwise, well, maybe i'll get back to linux and more conventional custom-build computers.

[CaptainChaos]

What he said :P



Lol...Dude, Apple doesn't give a rats *** about Ubuntu... and windows 7 seems to have been based on a plecostomus.... Have you even seen the windows "control panel"....

Are you serious? Surely you can't be. You mock Linux which, by the way, has a more advanced GUI than Windows and Mac. Most of the eyecandy we have come to love was running on Linux distros first looooong before it came to other OSs. I am still waiting for a 3D desktop on my PC, but have learned not to hold my breath.

There is nothing wrong with Windows 7 Control Panel. It works and it works well.

Stop being such a fanboi during a time where your favorite OS and OS's hardware are showing huge flaws.

[lolcats1]

quietly removed the "get a mac" section

because it got to the point where getting a mac wouldn't improve anything

[darkrom]

Are you serious? Surely you can't be. You mock Linux which, by the way, has a more advanced GUI than Windows and Mac. Most of the eyecandy we have come to love was running on Linux distros first looooong before it came to other OSs. I am still waiting for a 3D desktop on my PC, but have learned not to hold my breath.

There is nothing wrong with Windows 7 Control Panel. It works and it works well.

Stop being such a fanboi during a time where your favorite OS and OS's hardware are showing huge flaws.

Agreed. Also, windows control panel is perfectly fine...also note you can CHANGE things about the UI if you don't like it. Apple doesn't let you change **** about anything. That's why it "just works" because it only allows you to do things one way. It's like taking software, removing all advanced options so moronic users who can't figure out anything on their own can point and click and feel smart thanks to their overpriced dummy hardware that is basically a specialized piece of garbage with limited operations.

I mean damn it took a while for you Apple fanbois to get used to using two mouse buttons for christ's sake. And for a Mac user to bash linux...well I won't even make a comment about that. Anyone who has been using computers long enough, has done a little bit of research, or has even half a brain will realize why that is ironic.


Do yourselves a favor and look up this ancient "POS" operating system called unix and then see if you can read about it without getting confused.

It's a shame that this iphone (with its great hardware and jailbroken capabilities) always gets lumped in with all this Mac ****. Apple sells wonderful media devices (ipods and the like), artistic ****, video and imaging software and some sweet phones. If you want a computer for anything else...build your own pc for less than half of the cost and be able to use a computer for anything you want. Oh and running OSX in a virtual machine could save you a few hundred or a few grand and prevent you from being bottlenecked by apple's hardware restrictions at least.

If you disagree...cry about it.

[RF1]

i like windows, and macs are the bomb, but linux is getting more and more interesting as i learn more....

[dennder]

Are you serious? Surely you can't be. You mock Linux which, by the way, has a more advanced GUI than Windows and Mac. Most of the eyecandy we have come to love was running on Linux distros first looooong before it came to other OSs. I am still waiting for a 3D desktop on my PC, but have learned not to hold my breath.

There is nothing wrong with Windows 7 Control Panel. It works and it works well.

Stop being such a fanboi during a time where your favorite OS and OS's hardware are showing huge flaws.

Man, you can't be serious... in the times of XP and first versions of Mac OS X, i had to configure RedHat in terminal or DOS-like gui
Speaking of 3D desktop, first version of Compiz was released in 2006 by NOVELL.
For XP on the other hand, it was long before Compiz a very good russian software known as Aston Shell, which allowed you to do really cool stuff with your desktop (sadly except for 3d), and i would not be surprised, if those ideas implemented in it were used as foundation for compiz (maybe not, i cant know that).

So, if your post was a sarcasm, so be it, but if it wasn't..., stop being fanboy/hater yourself and go grab some facts first.

P.S. sorry for the OT, but posts like that make me want set things right...

[santaf]

I dont think there has been an october of this year yet but I know what you mean

[biofail]

Is anyone else tired of listening to pc users and mac users ***** at each other? Go ahead and like whatever computer you want to like but just shut up about it. It's almost as bad as reading the comments on youtube lol.

[CaptainChaos]

Man, you can't be serious... in the times of XP and first versions of Mac OS X, i had to configure RedHat in terminal or DOS-like gui
Speaking of 3D desktop, first version of Compiz was released in 2006 by NOVELL.
For XP on the other hand, it was long before Compiz a very good russian software known as Aston Shell, which allowed you to do really cool stuff with your desktop (sadly except for 3d), and i would not be surprised, if those ideas implemented in it were used as foundation for compiz (maybe not, i cant know that).

So, if your post was a sarcasm, so be it, but if it wasn't..., stop being fanboy/hater yourself and go grab some facts first.

P.S. sorry for the OT, but posts like that make me want set things right...

I wasn't implying that Linux had a GUI first...IBM had the first GUI. I was saying that widgets, preview panes of minimized windows in your takbar, etc were ported to Windows/Mac after. Compiz on Windows? There isn't a Windows comparable version that can realistically be compared to Beryl or Compiz.

Yes, It was released by Novell, but not for Windows or Mac. I used Suse and Opensuse by Novell(which I really liked). I also liked Aston Shell, Style XP, and Windows Blinds.

I am by far not a fanboi. Quite the opposite. I get bored running one OS so I use multiple. The ugliest of them all? Mac. Hands down.

[SquareWheel]

Aww, I loved John Hodgeman. And their terrible ads "Lol macs dunt get virusis!!!" made it all the better.

[cpkirkley]

The best part of those commercials were the rash of youtube remakes...

Classic stuff right there.

[CaptainChaos]

^those were better than the original comercials