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Apple Mac/PC Ads With a UK Twist
leppi writes "Japanese isn't the only language barrier Apple's decided to cross with its 'I'm a Mac, I'm a PC' ads. Those Brits love their 'shenanigans and tomfoolery' just as much as the next guy. Watch the Peep Show's Mitchell and Webb do the honors as PC and Mac, respectively."
With some truth in them, too...
Bollocks - they completely ignore the fact that a mac is a PC.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Because you can never have too much karma. ;)
Here, here, here and here.
Shouldn't that be
Apple Mac/PC Ads With a Twist of Limey?
Japanese isn't the only language barrier Apple's decided to cross with its 'I'm a Mac, I'm a PC' ads. Those Brits love their 'shenanigans and tomfoolery' just as much as the next guy.
It's almost like they've got General Peckem describing his platform preference to Yossarian.
Push Button, Receive Bacon
Perhaps Apple's marketing consultants need to go on a quick computer course - after all, only a Windows PC is vulnerable to the "140,000 viruses" and whilst, using Crossover Office, it's possible to run MS Office on Linux, this is not the norm.
In the UK, we have an Advertising Standards Agency that should stop misleading adverts - this looks to be a prime example for them now...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Are the ads funny? Yes.
...not so much.
Are the ads true?
Come on, these ads try to suggest that photo albums and videos/music are only available on the Mac. Please.
You can see them here in QT instead of YouTube
http://www.apple.com/uk/getamac/
-- I doubt, therefore I might be.
One advert makes the point that the 'PC' is a boring machine designed for boring office activities and the Mac is the free-spirited bundle'o'fun that'll bring joy an amusement to your home.
Then a couple of adverts later, they proudly tell you how your Mac'll run MS Office, a package which pretty much defines 'non-fun office stuff'
Today our contestants are Simon, who's a PC, and Julie who's also a Mac...
quote: "Generally though all the sex is rather retarded or twisted. Jeremy even shags Mark's sister, so I wonder what that's like"
That's tickety-boo!
For those left wondering, Peep Show is a British comedy from channel 4. If any of these ads even made you smirk I'd suggest watching an episode or two, they're fantastically original!
No. They do suggest that this stuff is easier on a Mac. Which is true.
Exactly what I thought when I saw this - Jeremy is funny not because he's "cool", but because he's trying so desperately hard to be cool (and quite often just ends up looking silly). So in essence, they're saying Macs are for people who aren't especially cool but want to look/act like they are (and don't mind parting with more money to achieve it), which is perhaps not the message they were aiming for. Maybe by choosing this pairing for the ads, Apple themselves are trying to be cool and missing the point somewhat, too? (On a sidenote, I love Mitchell and Webb, for all their faults).
I was thinking exactly that, when I first heard of these ads...
I think the Apple marketing team has missed one essential point:
Both of the main characters of Peep Show are wankers!
That's one of the things that dawns on you as you watch the show is that the two characters are equally worthless human beings. You start off siding with Jeremy because he's cooler, but then realise he's a wanker, so then Mark appears slightly better because he's on the surface a bit more kind... but then he turns out to be a prick as well.
Which I guess is spot on. Computers are a pain no matter which one you use!
Daniel
Carpe Diem
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
and I would include the mac ones. I am a mac user and always have been, but the way these ads are presented does nothing but perpetuate the fanboi propoganda.
Hmmm.... I think the real advert would have featured 4 people.
1 I'm a Windows PC. I'm a crappy, bug riddled, OS which crashes frequently and is prone to getting "pwned" by 6 year old kids using copy & paste scripts. I'm a slut with syphilis.
2 I'm a MAC PC. I'm a reliable, pretty OS that only runs on overpriced hardware. I'm an effete snob.
3 I'm Linux. I'll run on almost anything but most of my desktop applications are simply not as good or usable as their Windows/MAC equivalents. I don't need consistency because everyone should "just do their own thing". I'm a hippy.
4 I'm *BSD. I spend most of my time locked in a cupboard quietly and reliably running all the important things on some old crappy hardware. I'm that weird guy down the road with an IQ of 260 and who's building a space shuttle out of old car parts.
Bah... If you ask me all PC operating systems are a bit crappy. If only we could have something which combined the development speed and hackability of Linux, the reliability and security of *BSD, the beauty of OSX and the consistency of behaviour and range of desktop programs of Windows. All running on commodity hardware. Maybe one day ?
Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !
ITT: The truth about Mac vs. PC.
"
Mac: I'm a Mac.
PC: And I'm a PC.
Mac: And I'm a PC.
PC: What?
Mac: Oh, I can run the latest version of Windows XP just like you!
PC: But wouldn't that make me more secure than you, since I've got an Nforce4 Ultra motherboard, so I get Nvidia ActiveArmour installed from the moment my network card starts to function?
Mac: But I AM very pretty."
"
Mac: I'm a Mac.
PC: And I'm a PC. I'm just trying to talk to the latest peripherals.
Mac: I can do that too..
PC: What?
Mac: Oh, I can talk to that sexy little camera from Japan!
Japanese Girl: Ohaiou Gozaimashda!
Mac: Domo!
PC: Hey Samsung-san, what operating system were the people who created you using?
Japanese Girl: windosu ecksupee-san!
PC: Ah, arigatou.
Mac: But I AM very pretty."
It's been a long time.
Mitchell, and Webb, for the non-UKians here do a very funny show called Peep Show which I only found out a few months ago, and have been raving about ever since!
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"but the pair do a good job of spicing up the commercials with a bit of dry British humor and sexy good looks"
I'm sorry but I'm British and although we've always got a joke to hand, we're simply not the best looking people in the World...
--- "We've always been at war with Eastasia."
Yeah, I got an Nforce4 motherboard, and I had to disable all that ActiveArmour stuff because I kept getting errors in just about every file I downloaded. Tried firmware and software updates and everything, problem still exists. Maybe next time I will buy a Mac, because they just work.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Bah, minor dialogue changes. The plot was the same.
At least one ad should have had techno/trance playing in the background....
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
(shrug) fair enough.
I was excited about being able to use iPhoto, after hearing great things about it. But I found its photo management options poor.
Maybe I'm using it wrong, but - _what_ photo management are you trying to do? Categorize into albums & books? Got that. Sort by roll, or by date? Got that. Sort by filname or whatever metadata? Got that. Not sure what else I'd need. Maybe this is just a "your workflow habits would change going to a different tool", but that's hardly specific to iPhoto.
Picasa's or ACDSee's are better. And IrfanView is a better quick browser and slideshow viewer, with greater basic photo editing options than iPhoto. Everything about iPhoto is better in freeware or cheap Windows apps.
Well, I guess that's debatable. I'd rather have one app that does 90% of what I want, and, when I want to go outside, just right click on "edit with -> photoshop" to do the rest. Not sure what problem you have with the slideshows etc, I use irfanview on my windows systems, and iPhoto on my mac, and I don't see any functional difference. Far as that goes, if I just want a quick & dirty slideshow, apple's "preview" app is faster. But whatever.
iTunes is available for Windows, so I'm not sure why you're bothering to insist that it is something that makes Macs better.
Perhaps you have me confused with someone else. I was responding to someone (you? Another AC? It's _so_ hard to know/care) bringing up WinAMP and WMP, not someone talking about iTunes for PC vs iTunes for Mac.
Nevertheless, I use WinAMP more than iTunes because it has a great minimal interface usable while browsing the web. Ah. I use this button up in the corner that shrinks the window down when I'm not using it for that purpose. Meets my needs...
You still haven't said anything actually better about the bundled apps than the free alternatives, so I'll continue considering the statement that "[Photos, video, and music are] easier on a Mac" to be bullshit.
Well it's not my statement, so I didn't know I had the onus to support someone else's point. Maybe you have me confused with someone else? ut in any case, YES, they are easier. You don't have to download 7 different programs from 5 different sources just to get a freshly loaded system ready to go. Also, the apps have a consistant user interface, very intuitive to use if you are able to break your workflow habits. It's fine if you don't _get it_, but that doesn't mean it's inferior, it just means you don't grok it, or just don't grok it yet.
Or are you now going to turn around and tell me that the Intel processor in Macs is somehow better at videos and music than the Intel Core 2 Duo in my PC?
I sense a lot of hostility, and quite frankly, have no interest in countering that. I have no idea why you'd assign a point of view to me on a topic that I haven't even touched on. CPU flavor has _nothing_ to do with application and OS usability. As you undoubtedly know.