Localized Switch ads on TV

[gotohamish]

I see that Apple Japan has done its own Switch ads...

http://www.apple.co.jp/switch/realpeople/

and I was wondering what the MacRumors community thought of this. I know a lot of you are outside of the US, and would like to see specific ads for their country.

I myself am in the UK, where no television ads have appeared since the iTunes cinema ones, and I've always felt that the American accent Goldblum ads didn't go down very well here as they're so clearly American, and that's actually quite rare for UK advertising - we, evidently, like to hear a friendly, local voice.

Perhaps we should all write to our local Apple divisions, UK, Europe, South America etc, and push the idea!

PS: please note, for the purpose of posting on a US website, I've used the US English spellings of Localised and rumours!;)

[TheFink]

I'd like to see localized commercials for some of my backwoods friends. Showing Cooter use his iMac as a spitoon or talking about how he can get on the web to talk about skinning beavers. THAT would move some units.

[Hawthorne]

These people aren't all just employees of Apple Japan's PR company?

Oh yeah, because it's not an ad for Microsoft (http://news.com.com/2100-1001-961994.html) , that's why.

[beez7777]

the new japanese switch ads are funnier than the american ones :D

[solvs]

Originally posted by Hawthorne
These people aren't all just employees of Apple Japan's PR company?

Oh yeah, because it's not an ad for Microsoft (http://news.com.com/2100-1001-961994.html) , that's why.

Ha.

Good one.

[springscansing]

http://www.apple.co.jp/switch/realpeople/momokokikuchi_tvad.html


OOoOoOooOOOO1O!O!OO!O!O!O I Like her.!!!! KO{SKs

[ddtlm]

That's a lot of iPods.

[Dr. Distortion]

Let's see what irmongoose's comments on these ads are... he will certainly understand Japanese better than a simple Dutchman...

Not that I don't know a thing or two about japanese... for example, I heard one of the guys calling himself by his family name first, and then his name; whereas we usually tell our name and then family name :)

-Dr. D.

[j763]

give us more localized switch ads apple!!

mac15 can be our aussie stoner dude (kind of like a male ellen feiss) ;) j/k :)

[Hawthorne]

Originally posted by j763
give us more localized switch ads apple!!


I can just see one localized for Arizona...

"I used to use a PC, just like I used to live in Wisconsin. But I switched to a Mac last year. I keep moving back and forth between my retirement home in East Mesa and my grandkids house in Madison, though."

"My name is George Wilson, and I'm a snowbird."

[irmongoose]

Originally posted by Dr. Distortion
Let's see what irmongoose's comments on these ads are... he will certainly understand Japanese better than a simple Dutchman...

Not that I don't know a thing or two about japanese... for example, I heard one of the guys calling himself by his family name first, and then his name; whereas we usually tell our name and then family name :)

-Dr. D.

hehe.. well that weird woman, who springscansing mentioned, is the Japanese version of Ellen Feiss. She's saying almost the exact same thing... she talks about her paper half vanishing. I'm sure that one was at least a little made up by Apple.

The others are pretty good.. the doctor is actaully a psychiatrist... explains why he talks like that... (shiver). But, one problem. Japanese just doesn't produce the same casual feeling English can, and it just makes it sound more forced... more like it's all made up, even if it's obvious that it's not.

Overall, they're good. And they're bound to be more effective, since the Mac community in Japan is much larger in ratio compared to that in the US.. And since many many Japanese people know what Macs are great for, these Switch adds just might convince them that the actaul "switch" is the only hard part...

I'm just waiting to see some on TV.. this is gonna be great! :D




irmongoose

[komi]

i can translate and post what these people are saying, if anyone is interested.

k

[greenplasticcup]

komi- that would be very great!

[gotohamish]

Well, no one's expressed any interest to my original idea of writing to our local Apple's.

Was it a dumb idea?:confused:

[phgreer]

Those Japanese look too similiar to the orginal American switchers! Heck one lady looks a lot like that wierd lady who waves here hands around saying how the Mac "thinks" like she does...

That woman is creppy!

[warmd]

funny. i speak japanese, and the "switch" ad featuring the girl is almost exactly the same as ellen feiss' ad. she worked really hard on an english email, and just as she was finishing it, it disappeared on a windows machine, etc., etc.

probably the japanese producers decided to find someone feiss-like, as that seems to be the most popular ad here. this girl, though, isn't terribly charming ;)

ah, i see i'm not the first to point this out, sorry for the redundancy.

[Blackcat]

Originally posted by gotohamish
Well, no one's expressed any interest to my original idea of writing to our local Apple's.

Was it a dumb idea?:confused:

No, we need to do it here too. Mind you, Macs sell well here anyway despite no adverts.

[Blackcat]

Originally posted by warmd
funny. i speak japanese, and the "switch" ad featuring the girl is almost exactly the same as ellen feiss' ad. she worked really hard on an english email, and just as she was finishing it, it disappeared on a windows machine, etc., etc.

probably the japanese producers decided to find someone feiss-like, as that seems to be the most popular ad here. this girl, though, isn't terribly charming ;)


I think it may just be that Windows does that quite often, the similarity is there because all Windows crashes lose something!

[IJ Reilly]

Nobody bows in the US ads. Too bad -- it's a nice touch.

seiji hongo (http://www.apple.co.jp/switch/realpeople/seijihongo_tvad.html)

[chromos]

Originally posted by irmongoose


Overall, they're good. And they're bound to be more effective, since the Mac community in Japan is much larger in ratio compared to that in the US.. And since many many Japanese people know what Macs are great for, these Switch adds just might convince them that the actaul "switch" is the only hard part...

I'm just waiting to see some on TV.. this is gonna be great! :D


Apple should actually show a screenshot of a Mac OS X and Windows webbrowser side by side. Those expensive fonts that Apple licensed look absolutely amazing in Quartz (try www.apple.co.jp in a CSS-enabled browser like Chimera (not OW though)). That alone should get some aesthetic-conscious Japanese to switch!

[vniow]

Originally posted by warmd
funny. i speak japanese, and the "switch" ad featuring the girl is almost exactly the same as ellen feiss' ad. she worked really hard on an english email, and just as she was finishing it, it disappeared on a windows machine, etc., etc.

probably the japanese producers decided to find someone feiss-like, as that seems to be the most popular ad here. this girl, though, isn't terribly charming ;)

ah, i see i'm not the first to point this out, sorry for the redundancy.

No kidding.

She even has that 'stoned' look.:p

Did anyone else notice that the music was called 'Spit'?

[irmongoose]

Originally posted by IJ Reilly
Nobody bows in the US ads. Too bad -- it's a nice touch.

seiji hongo (http://www.apple.co.jp/switch/realpeople/seijihongo_tvad.html)

Ugh.. he's not bowing...



irmongoose

[IJ Reilly]

Originally posted by irmongoose


Ugh.. he's not bowing...

Ugh, sure he does. Just a little one near the end.

[Macmaniac]

So if the iPod made up 43% of mp3 player sales then how many is that? By my guess that has got to be a s&$^ load. They are the Japanese:) I bet Steve wishes he had 43% of something else;)

[buffsldr]

Originally posted by gotohamish
I see that Apple Japan has done its own Switch ads...

http://www.apple.co.jp/switch/realpeople/

and I was wondering what the MacRumors community thought of this. I know a lot of you are outside of the US, and would like to see specific ads for their country.

I myself am in the UK, where no television ads have appeared since the iTunes cinema ones, and I've always felt that the American accent Goldblum ads didn't go down very well here as they're so clearly American, and that's actually quite rare for UK advertising - we, evidently, like to hear a friendly, local voice.

Perhaps we should all write to our local Apple divisions, UK, Europe, South America etc, and push the idea!

PS: please note, for the purpose of posting on a US website, I've used the US English spellings of Localised and rumours!;)


I just got back from Japan. i did not see any ads on tv for mac, but just outside Tokyo's Shinkansen (bullet train) station, there is a huge ad for "The New iMac". It is likely the biggest imac you will ever see. Additionally, i sat by a kid on the train who had an ipod. Apple definitely has appeal in japan

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by Shrek
Can anyone here speak Japanese and tell us what these Japs are talking about?

How about we lay off the racist american (or other) WWII slang? they're human beings of a different nationality than you, not an inferior one, so if you must categorize them, call them "Japanese" or at least "asian" or something. "jap" is horribly offensive.

[adminedit: Shrek's original post deleted]

[djscott]

I'll take apple.co.jp at their word that these are real people, but the young girl and the shrink seemed like actors to me. At least they seemed to try too hard to be animated. As others have remarked, this is probably just an attempt to mimic the look and feel of the US ads.

In contrast, it was interesting how apple.co.jp used more subtle means to project that "Mac user as maverick" image. Case in point, the young sales guy who got rid of his company-issued PC in favor of using his own Mac at the office. It would be an interesting footnote to know if his boss pulled the plug on this display of individual expression (the disk that sticks out gets formatted?)...

The Japanese ads are okay (haven't seen any on TV yet), but I wonder if our Japanese colleagues will find them persuasive enough to make the switch... There are a lot of Mac users in my university (both computer labs in our department are Mac-only), but businesses still seem to rely on PCs pretty heavily.

Cheers, ds

Originally posted by irmongoose


The others are pretty good.. the doctor is actaully a psychiatrist... explains why he talks like that... (shiver). But, one problem. Japanese just doesn't produce the same casual feeling English can, and it just makes it sound more forced... more like it's all made up, even if it's obvious that it's not.

Overall, they're good.

irmongoose :)

[katana]

I'll take apple.co.jp at their word that these are real people, but the young girl and the shrink seemed like actors to me. At least they seemed to try too hard to be animated. As others have remarked, this is probably just an attempt to mimic the look and feel of the US ads.
Here is one blogger's theory (http://www.errant.org/lago/archives/000012.html#000012). Interesting observation. They sure look alike, but there's no real way to be sure, unless Momoko wears the same outfit. :D

[phgreer]

Is anyone going to do a Japanesse version of the Monkey switch ad? :D

[medea]

I thought someone was going to post what the people were actually saying....please do if you can because Id like to know what the younger japanese guy is saying.
thanks
oh and windows affects a lot of people in the same way, its a disease of sorts, so when someone happens to have a similar story of what happened to them using windows its just like saying "yeah when I had the flesh-eating virus my skin turned black and fell off."

[djscott]

Okay. Here's a quick and dirty (almost sloppy) translation of the "younger guy's" (hope I got the right one) Switch ad. Corrections appreciated. Cheers, DS

Have you ever used a Mac? How about giving one a try? The first time I ever used one, I was like, ÒYeah, this is it!Ó When you use a PC, connecting cables isn't enough; there are a lot of complicated settings you have to deal with. With a Mac, the icon just pops up on the screen. I canÕt think of anything thatÕs easier. Really. My nameÕs Hiroatsu Takekura and I run a bandÕs fan club.

http://www.apple.co.jp/switch/realpeople/hiroatsutakekura_tvad.html