None really... If Apple were to switch it all up tomorrow and replace Justin and John with two different actors, it would all work just fine. The only real catch is that their replacements better do just as good of a job or better. And that catch is bigger than one might think... Apple is willing to pay a lot of money to keep these guys doing this because it works. As soon as they try it with someone else, they're taking a gamble and would probably feel more comfortable changing the whole ad campaign if it involves new actors... And I don't think they're ready to do that just yet. They'll milk this one for all it's worth.
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Justin Long Still Doing Mac Commercials, Holiday Ads Coming?
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None really... If Apple were to switch it all up tomorrow and replace Justin and John with two different actors, it would all work just fine. The only real catch is that their replacements better do just as good of a job or better. And that catch is bigger than one might think... Apple is willing to pay a lot of money to keep these guys doing this because it works. As soon as they try it with someone else, they're taking a gamble and would probably feel more comfortable changing the whole ad campaign if it involves new actors... And I don't think they're ready to do that just yet. They'll milk this one for all it's worth.
<Snip> Anyway I really wanted John Hodgman (PC) to take over the role of Mac - because he's switched!
Maybe he will and we will have two Mac Guys on one side and a new dorkish PC Guy -- and John will be dressed differently, have a nice haircut and look a little slimmer.
John will be the 'Pro' to show how Macs can be used for business while Justin continues his cool iLife personna...
I'm quite sure Apple is targeting their computers to more than Christians.
The term 'Holiday Promotion' generally means a promotion that is available as early as Thanksgiving (since the day after Thanksgiving is considered the biggest shopping day of the year) and concludes on or about New Years Day.
So aside from Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day, there are several other 'holidays' in that time period.
By referring to that time as 'holidays' you cover any conceivable holiday held within that time period.. Kwanza, Hanukkah, etc.
I don't see how he's not arrogant. The message from Justin always seems to go something like... "Oh you get viruses, oh, ouch, that sucks, because, um, I don't."
You know, on second thought, you're right, he's modest.
Oh, PLEASE. Don't tell me you think he's arrogant because of his script. He doesn't write the damn thing and if he did, the commercials would be in severe trouble. Did you read the frickin' blog? He sounds like a 14-year-old girl on AIM. "OMG, i so totally ddnt quit the apple commercials, LOL!!!1! tehy payz me real good. *tee hee* well 2day i 8 toaster stroodul (i dont kno how to spell that!) 4 breakfast. it was yummy! i drew a dollar sine w/the frosting! LOLOL! peece out!"
*rolls eyes*
Maybe he really did graduate from "South Harmon Institute of Technology."
Humanity embarrasses me.
-Clive
wish they would call them Christmas ads
uh, yeah... cuz who cares about the other 68 million people in the USA? If you're not a Christian, too bad, right?! All ads should be aimed solely at Christians that celebrate Christmas, not some other crazy made-up holiday celebrating some silly fictional fairy tale!
Wow, yikes...
I wasn't aware you were talking so much about the person Justin Long (whom none of us actually know, mind you) but rather the character he played in the ads. I assumed we were talking about the ads. I did not mean to get you so riled up. I'm sorry our misunderstanding caused you to be embarrassed of humanity. I didn't realize it had such far reaching implications! I really hope you can forgive me and move on.
-Rocksaurus
It's a blog. If you don't like it, then don't read it.
It's humanity. If you don't like it, remove yourself from it.
No. Steve Jobs has consistantly talked about the Mac Culture having class. The Windows culture doesn't. The ad about the Mac home video illustrates this point, with Gisele. That Dell has some random pothead trying to sound hip and the Get a Mac ads have Justin Long, a successful actor and purported teenage-heart-throb, further illustrates this point. This is the same reason Apple spend $4M on the 1984 ad and had Jeff Goldblum and Richard Dryfus narrate their TV ads while PC ads usually have spinning text and always end with the Intel doorbell.
Apparently I mis-read. *shrugs* oh well. I enjoyed ripping on his illiteracy
banarby said:
I read his one entry. I plan to never read it again. As it was traumatizing, it hasn't moved me to suicide, so I'll be here tomorrow to post more riveting celeb. bashing.
-Clive
I almost ran over Justin with my car once
We were pulling into a parking space at Z Tejas on 6th St in Austin and as I was approaching the curb this guy walking on the sidewalk sort moved towards us like he was going to step off the curb. He had just recognized some friends of his and was greeting them and I guess didn't notice our car (it's quiet). I had to stop and wait for him to move out of the way. I turned to my wife and said "If my foot had slipped I would have run over the guy from Ed!" It was Justin Long.
He is very, very skinny BTW. The pant legs of his jeans were the size of shirt sleeves. I was that skinny once - when I was a fetus.
We were pulling into a parking space at Z Tejas on 6th St in Austin and as I was approaching the curb this guy walking on the sidewalk sort moved towards us like he was going to step off the curb. He had just recognized some friends of his and was greeting them and I guess didn't notice our car (it's quiet). I had to stop and wait for him to move out of the way. I turned to my wife and said "If my foot had slipped I would have run over the guy from Ed!" It was Justin Long.
He is very, very skinny BTW. The pant legs of his jeans were the size of shirt sleeves. I was that skinny once - when I was a fetus.
To be fair, Christmas, as such, has really become something of a secular holiday in the US, and I've known plenty of non-Christians who celebrate Christmas. So, calling it Christmas does not really limit it to Christians...
Even if you believe that Christmas has become a universal holiday, do Christians and those who celebrate Christmas not celebrate the other Holidays around the Holiday Season?
My Major gripe with the whole "Holidays" vs "Christmas" is this...
Yesterday I received a verbal warning at work for organizing a Christmas party. The term christmas is oppressive to those of another faith. I was therefore purposely oppressing work colleagues and this is a sack-able offense. I just laughed the whole thing off.... that was until... I got an email from the MD. This year....
NO Christmas decorations (they are offensive)
NO Christmas Tree (they are offensive)
NO MistleToe (it is offensive)
NO Christmas cards (they are offensive)
I was so angry I walk out of work and came home. To have my brother tell me my nephew who is at a catholic school is no longer having christmas holidays... but festive holidays. As they're had been complaints made about the term Christ being used on letters sent to local residents informing them of the children's holidays times. The local council will also put up holiday lights, not Christmas lights... even though 90% of the lights are of Santa, Reindeer etc and won't be lit till the last week before christmas.
It seems in todays society the Term Christ is the most offensive word u can use. I try to be tolerable to other religions but when mine is being repressed so badly its very hard to be understanding.
Yesterday I received a verbal warning at work for organizing a Christmas party. The term christmas is oppressive to those of another faith. I was therefore purposely oppressing work colleagues and this is a sack-able offense. I just laughed the whole thing off.... that was until... I got an email from the MD. This year....
NO Christmas decorations (they are offensive)
NO Christmas Tree (they are offensive)
NO MistleToe (it is offensive)
NO Christmas cards (they are offensive)
I was so angry I walk out of work and came home. To have my brother tell me my nephew who is at a catholic school is no longer having christmas holidays... but festive holidays. As they're had been complaints made about the term Christ being used on letters sent to local residents informing them of the children's holidays times. The local council will also put up holiday lights, not Christmas lights... even though 90% of the lights are of Santa, Reindeer etc and won't be lit till the last week before christmas.
It seems in todays society the Term Christ is the most offensive word u can use. I try to be tolerable to other religions but when mine is being repressed so badly its very hard to be understanding.
The MikeRant
My Thoughts...
Some of you people here seriously need to **** and chill.
Justin's portrayal of the Mac platform is immeasurably more dignified than Benjamin Curtis' portrayal of Dell hardware. And while I happen to believe that anytime someone communicates in public they have an intrinsic responsibility to do so in a way which casts themselves in the best possible light, I'm certainly not going to rip him to shreds, mostly because of the public perception of the function of blogs.
Moreover, I have never given any thought to the subject of whether he had his own web site or not (many celebrities do). I haven't visited it myself, and therefore am totally unaware of it's content. But I do thank you folks for your attempts at bludgeoning me and trying to drive spikes into my skull over the content there.
Regarding Justin's Mac character being arrogant...
Justin's portrayal is usually pretty neutral and flat with respect to those qualities. He's simply reporting accurate information. Do you think your dictionary is arrogant because it has the exact definition for every word you ever find in it? Is your copy of iTunes arrogant because it has all the precise info on all of your favorite music, including numbers of times played, frequency of playback, etc?
Mac OS X doesn't have any viruses in the wild for it. Mac OS X has no spyware. Mac OS X as a platform is somewhat less severely impacted by pop-up web browser windows, and due to it's design is completely un-impacted by pop-ups not directly related to specifically-viewed web pages. Being a BSD variant and therefore drawing upon the many strengths of F/OSS development community, it is a better-engineered OS. These are not opinions; they are facts. They are demonstrable and quantifiable. The fact that Justin's character states them (which he definitely does do) is nothing more than an accurate representation of our present reality.
Regarding the reference to holidays; and of their general celebration...
Why don't you atheists and non-Christian followers grow a pair already? You want us to respect the fact that you walk the Earth, too, and don't share our religious beliefs, so how about you do the same, ok? And for the record, this country was founded by white, anglo-saxon men who were all of some Christian faith. It wasn't founded by pagans, or Muslims, or Taoists or Shintoists or Buddhists or Atheists or anyone else. It was "God-fearing" Christian men who thought it best to write a document (the Constitution) wherein the rights of each individual person to believe as they wished should not be abrogated by the Government. However, we're referring to society here, not the U.S. Government.
December 25th is Christmas. It has been for hundreds of years, and it continues to be so to this day. Kwanza is a made-up, essentially non-religious holiday for hyphenated Americans who's distant ancestors were from Africa. Chanukkah is a Hebrew holiday, and in fact there are also other Jewish-specific holidays earlier in the year. And even though I don't specifically celebrate them, I will respect them out of respect for those of my fellow human beings who do.
And considering where we are, we really should celebrate January 24th, as it is the day the Mac was released in 1984. You know, I'm going to mark that one down on my calendar and celebrate it. Would anyone here like to propose some suggestions on how that observance (one which is culturally and technologically significant, btw) might be held or handled? I'm serious about this, and am open to any positive, constructive suggestions from anyone without regard to age, race, gender, national origin, or religion. Terrorists and other agents of chaos are, of course, excluded.
</rant>
My Thoughts...
Some of you people here seriously need to **** and chill.
Justin's portrayal of the Mac platform is immeasurably more dignified than Benjamin Curtis' portrayal of Dell hardware. And while I happen to believe that anytime someone communicates in public they have an intrinsic responsibility to do so in a way which casts themselves in the best possible light, I'm certainly not going to rip him to shreds, mostly because of the public perception of the function of blogs.
Moreover, I have never given any thought to the subject of whether he had his own web site or not (many celebrities do). I haven't visited it myself, and therefore am totally unaware of it's content. But I do thank you folks for your attempts at bludgeoning me and trying to drive spikes into my skull over the content there.
Regarding Justin's Mac character being arrogant...
Justin's portrayal is usually pretty neutral and flat with respect to those qualities. He's simply reporting accurate information. Do you think your dictionary is arrogant because it has the exact definition for every word you ever find in it? Is your copy of iTunes arrogant because it has all the precise info on all of your favorite music, including numbers of times played, frequency of playback, etc?
Mac OS X doesn't have any viruses in the wild for it. Mac OS X has no spyware. Mac OS X as a platform is somewhat less severely impacted by pop-up web browser windows, and due to it's design is completely un-impacted by pop-ups not directly related to specifically-viewed web pages. Being a BSD variant and therefore drawing upon the many strengths of F/OSS development community, it is a better-engineered OS. These are not opinions; they are facts. They are demonstrable and quantifiable. The fact that Justin's character states them (which he definitely does do) is nothing more than an accurate representation of our present reality.
Regarding the reference to holidays; and of their general celebration...
Why don't you atheists and non-Christian followers grow a pair already? You want us to respect the fact that you walk the Earth, too, and don't share our religious beliefs, so how about you do the same, ok? And for the record, this country was founded by white, anglo-saxon men who were all of some Christian faith. It wasn't founded by pagans, or Muslims, or Taoists or Shintoists or Buddhists or Atheists or anyone else. It was "God-fearing" Christian men who thought it best to write a document (the Constitution) wherein the rights of each individual person to believe as they wished should not be abrogated by the Government. However, we're referring to society here, not the U.S. Government.
December 25th is Christmas. It has been for hundreds of years, and it continues to be so to this day. Kwanza is a made-up, essentially non-religious holiday for hyphenated Americans who's distant ancestors were from Africa. Chanukkah is a Hebrew holiday, and in fact there are also other Jewish-specific holidays earlier in the year. And even though I don't specifically celebrate them, I will respect them out of respect for those of my fellow human beings who do.
And considering where we are, we really should celebrate January 24th, as it is the day the Mac was released in 1984. You know, I'm going to mark that one down on my calendar and celebrate it. Would anyone here like to propose some suggestions on how that observance (one which is culturally and technologically significant, btw) might be held or handled? I'm serious about this, and am open to any positive, constructive suggestions from anyone without regard to age, race, gender, national origin, or religion. Terrorists and other agents of chaos are, of course, excluded.
</rant>
Excuse me, I'm an Atheist and I'm not even American, I celebrate Christmas not because of religion but because of the family union that it represents and generates and that keeps getting harder to mantain, I am an atheist and I don't hate Jesus Christ, I respect his name, was probably one of the greatest people who lived, I just don't believe in god, that's all.
However, your country was founded by (and this is the part where you forgot some elements) ensalvering, native american killers, catholic (not christian) whites. Catholicism that made the inquisition so no one else could have their religion so don't talk about being opressed and disrespecting other people's rights because that's what's being done for centuries in the name of Christ, even he had no ideia of how people would distort his words to do so much harm. Of course that I agree with you when you say people should **** sometimes, Christmas represents a happy time and whatever, people shouldn't remove the word from everything, that's just stupid and I'm sure a lot of people from other religions have no problem with that so let's not generalize. There's nothing wrong in having different beliefs but believe me, Catholics have a lot of stains in their history.
Ah, just one more thing, the constitution was wrote after decades of slavery, when the black people finally started stepping up, forcing the whites to give them some rights. Otherwise, we would still have slavery.
Celebrate Christmas...OR ELSE
Isn't it funny how Christians consistently seem to think respecting 'the fact that you walk the Earth, too' means forcing retailers to celebrate their holiday? Meanwhile, Kwanzaa is respectfully declared to be 'made-up' while the birth and resurrection of Jesus are declared indisputable historical facts.
Quite a few of the founding fathers were not Christian, by the way. Notably Thomas Jefferson.
Sorry to divert the thread, but the little baby's Christian rant caught my eye.
Isn't it funny how Christians consistently seem to think respecting 'the fact that you walk the Earth, too' means forcing retailers to celebrate their holiday? Meanwhile, Kwanzaa is respectfully declared to be 'made-up' while the birth and resurrection of Jesus are declared indisputable historical facts.
Quite a few of the founding fathers were not Christian, by the way. Notably Thomas Jefferson.
Sorry to divert the thread, but the little baby's Christian rant caught my eye.
I guess some Americans really don't know much about their history.
But thanks for showing that I wasn't the only one to see the discriminative speech that MikeTheC gave.
Even if it is completely off thread, it deserved a response.
But thanks for showing that I wasn't the only one to see the discriminative speech that MikeTheC gave.
Even if it is completely off thread, it deserved a response.
hmmm I wonder what Steve celebrates.
I think it should be noted that Kwanzaa is often celebrated by the same people as Christmas. Its is considered to be a cultural celebration designed to allow african-americans or africa-anglos etc to celebrate origins rather then a being a religious festival.
If you think Kwanzaa is made up what would clebrating the 24th of january be then?
I think it should be noted that Kwanzaa is often celebrated by the same people as Christmas. Its is considered to be a cultural celebration designed to allow african-americans or africa-anglos etc to celebrate origins rather then a being a religious festival.
If you think Kwanzaa is made up what would clebrating the 24th of january be then?
For the record, the date around Dec. 25th was celebrated by European pagans for thousands of years before it was spuriously slapped with the label: Jesus' Birthday.
Also for the record, you're ignoring the fact that many of the founding fathers were nothing more than Deists, and that from the very first colonies on this continent the stage was set for religious tolerance. Thomas Jefferson himself edited the Bible to remove all the 'hocus pocus.' No really, research the Jefferson Bible. I wouln't categorize someone who had the cojones to alter "God's Work" as someone who is particularly "God fearing."