New Mac Ads: V Word and Bean Counter

[djellison]

Excuse me, but I can't think of a single Microsoft ad that has ever extolled the virtues of their software - not a single one. Its always crappy pop music like 'ray of light' with some crappy screen shots, people dancing around, some 30 year olds trying to act like 'hip 20 somethings' and some pathetic tag line at the end which is apparently meant to extol some sort of optimistic future.

So? Microsoft does it, so it's OK for Apple to do it? is that your argument?

Chances are 85%+ that whoever sees a Microsoft ad uses the product regularly anyway. They might not use the latest and greatest, but they know what it's about.

Chances are 85%+ that whoever sees an Apple ad goes "Who's that smug *£#* and what is he trying to sell - I don't have the problems that he's picking on the cuddly IT guy about"

Apple need to show people why their solution is better.

 

[jakesteramma]

My response to "Bean Counter".

This is what I sent to Apple in response to the "Bean Counter" ad.

Dear Apple,

I'm writing to let you know that I'm concerned about the direction Apple is moving with their ads. I have always enjoyed Apple's ads. They can be witty and funny. The latest Ad "Bean Counter" worries me that Apple is going in a direction that goes against what the company has been about: great product and great customer service. This ads to me is a obvious slander ad and in no way reflects the quality of Apple. Apple, I'm sure, also spends millions in advertising along with many other companies that could suspend such investments and contribute the money to good causes such as solar power, wind power, cancer research and other things that would improve this world more than slander ads. I, along with many people I know, would rather see ads about the good things that Apple does instead of the bad things that Apple's competitors do.

Thanks for your time and I hope this message is passed on within Apple and taken seriously.

Sincerely,

 

[MattV87]

Man, I really do not like this. I was raised, for the most part on pc's, got an iphone the day it came out, which then resulted in me buying a macbook (love it), at the same time I also have a vista desktop at home.

Apple did a good job in converting me to a mac user, but this subject is getting beaten to death, and is actually a big turn off for me, do they realise that some people adopted macs once they put in intel chips? That some people use both? That a lot of this new marketshare is from being diverse/open minded?

Its like cool/hip to hate on Microsoft, its getting really old, vista is not crap, I really like it, substantially more than xp, I always wonder all of these people that claim all of the problems it has, have they used it? do they have a desktop with vista?

What I am really getting at is that I went into the mac community with an open mind, and love my macbook, but also realise that it is restricted, some very basic things I want to do, I can not, or some basic programs I would like for free, I have to pay for. Iphoto anyone? It is needed to import iphone pics on a mac, but automaticially imports them on windows, for free. Drag and drop Music files? Print in gray scale! ha I was trying to print something on gray scale on my mac, "will not print we detected your missing a color printer cartridge" yes i am but just print the damn thing in gray scale, hook it up to windows, the computer realises Im not a dumbass, and prints the document in gray scale, with only 1 cartridge!

These ads are a big turn off for users like me, that see in the pros in both, when xp came out, all it got was hate as well. Its like politics in here, people constantly hating on this product, like they hate on democrats or republicans or the war in iraw or george bush, it gets old, especially in this case when I know that Vista is not this horrible operating system.

I meet so many more people, like my teacher in my CIS class right now, that hate on microsoft everyday, a lot more mac fans hate on microsoft on a daily basis % wise than PC users wasting their time hating on macs.

it gets old, especially for open minded people trying to experience the best of both worlds.

 

[MH01]

This is what I sent to Apple in response to the "Bean Counter" ad.

Dear Apple,

I'm writing to let you know that I'm concerned about the direction Apple is moving with their ads. I have always enjoyed Apple's ads. They can be witty and funny. The latest Ad "Bean Counter" worries me that Apple is going in a direction that goes against what the company has been about: great product and great customer service. This ads to me is a obvious slander ad and in no way reflects the quality of Apple. Apple, I'm sure, also spends millions in advertising along with many other companies that could suspend such investments and contribute the money to good causes such as solar power, wind power, cancer research and other things that would improve this world more than slander ads. I, along with many people I know, would rather see ads about the good things that Apple does instead of the bad things that Apple's competitors do.

Thanks for your time and I hope this message is passed on within Apple and taken seriously.

Sincerely,

Great e-mail, as a longtime mac user I am ashamed that apple would lower itself to political style low punches. At least Microsoft has enough dignity not to get involved in this BS style advertising.

I am even more frustrated at these ads cause i would prefer apple to spend money on fixing my ongoing iphone bugs then pissing away $$ on ads that attack a competitor product.

As a side note, my vista is working just great, my Iphone keeps crashing all the damn time!

 

[MH01]

Well, your mileage may vary. I've already had one Vista disaster (unfortunately for the one remote family user I am supporting) and it has been very difficult and painful to recover. The difficult recovery is mostly due to the lack of knowledgable, available Vista experts, but the fact that a full recovery was needed in the first place (this was a new and lightly used machine, completely malware free) is unforgivable.

But that's just my own personal life and opinion. Meanwhile, professionally, I work for a $10B IT company that has taken a hard look at Vista, and as a result has put off the upgrade from XP indefinitely. BTW, I am not a total Windows hater-- I find XP to be quite solid, though clumsy in quite a few ways compared to OS X.

Would you consider upgrading from Tiger to leopard resulting in your Powerbook getting corrupted and loosing all your data as a disaster? Well that happened to me, ***** happens, its not only microsoft.

No major company IT company will run the latest version of any software, most are a generation behind. If you jump on the latest software when it comes out your just asking for security issues. Most (all) smart major companies will run the previous version on an operating system. Its all about a stable and secure OS (no new os has that). You might also want to add that your company did not even consider running OS X, especially if you do any IT development. Government agencies may even run three generation behind.

 

[MH01]

The majority of corporate users don't choose Windows, they use it because it's put in front of them and they have no choice. So not only is your 95% figure wrong in terms of actual market share, it's wrong in terms of general accuracy. And regardless of what figures you pull out of your ass, the OP is correct in that a great many Windows users have a frustrating experience using Windows, whether they chose it or not.

And do you know why they choose to run windows?? There is in fact a really good reason (ill let you work it out), actually want a challenge?, name one top 20 company in the world that runs OS X as their main corporate OS (excluding Apple - Though i doubt their infrustracture is run on OS X anyway).

 

[Superdelphinus]

Is there any empirical evidence that Vista users ARE switching to mac BECAUSE of Vista?

 

[Superdelphinus]

It's also quite funny for a company like Apple to critisise another company's advertising habits. WTF! It's hard to watch any mainstream US TV show without seeing about 2000 imacs or macbooks strategically placed about the sets.

I really love the apple computers I have, but as a company i often find them quite irritating and arrogant. For a company that relies on advertising and brand image as strongly as Apple does, it's amazing for them to have a go at another company for doing the same thing - whoever they are

 

[queshy]

Um, do you really think Apple is spending more than $300 Million for their advertising?

All together? It could be

 

[Doctor Q]

Wirelessly posted (holmes/3.10.1 (OnetSzukaj/5.0; +http://szukaj.onet.pl) QTEK S100)

Apple need to show people why their solution is better.

I don't agree. Although I personally look for the best solution when I'm shopping, I think a lot of consumers don't. They buy what they recall hearing about.

Consider iPods and iPod advertising. I don't remember a single iPod billboard or TV ad that told why iPods are better than other MP3 players, yet people flooded into stores asking for iPods. Some of them paid so little attention to details that they didn't know what company made iPods; they just knew they wanted one. That was from advertising, popular culture, name recognition, peer pressure, word of mouth, and other influences that weren't based on a proper comparison with competing products. Other MP3 vendors have had to promote by comparison (lower price, builtin radio, lovely brown color ) but Apple doesn't have to.

With ads for Macs and Mac OS X, Apple is again light on the details, preferring to deliver a simple message. While they are using comparisons ("Mac" over Vista) at a superficial level, they seem to think that's all they need. I presume that they do this because their marketing research tells them to, and that if this ad campaign stops working they will change their strategy.

 

[digidude]

If Msoft had a better product, you can rest assured they'd be more than a little cocky. And I bet you'd be bitching about that too.

You're totally missing the point, which is that it really is a better product. Why not SHOW that, instead of being so obnoxious about it? Who, besides mac users, even knows that M$ spent $300M on their campaign - and if they did, why would they care? If we're going to attack Microsoft directly, why not take on a "Mojave experiment" ourselves? Tell people it's better and they don't care. Show them how it can improve their life and they will stop by a store.

Apple used to be very elitist in the early 90s. I remember going into the Apple-run area of computer store chain to buy a Mac in a t-shirt and nobody would give me the time of day - in fact they asked my friends and I to leave once. Another time, I came in with a suit on and they suddenly were interested... and the Mac back then was a VERY expensive machine. These snotty ads remind me of those days, and that mentality.

 

[kaiwai]

So? Microsoft does it, so it's OK for Apple to do it? is that your argument?

I'd sooner sit there watching an ad take the piss than some pointless ad with no use what so ever. Someone flying around in the sky to 'ray of light' makes instantly change the channel.

Chances are 85%+ that whoever sees a Microsoft ad uses the product regularly anyway. They might not use the latest and greatest, but they know what it's about.

So why even advertise then? why advertise Windows XP with a person flying in the sky? why not show montages of people doing neat stuff with it?

Chances are 85%+ that whoever sees an Apple ad goes "Who's that smug *£#* and what is he trying to sell - I don't have the problems that he's picking on the cuddly IT guy about"

Apple need to show people why their solution is better.

Here is something to that - bulls*hit. Every person I know can relate to all the things which are raised. You may have your head up Bill/Steve Balmers behind, giving him a turbo rim - but for the average Joe and Jane, they can relate to the frustration and the 'out of touch' nature of Microsoft. You're the one who is precious - grow some thicker skin.

PS. One begs to ask, why the hell are you even here if you're not even a Mac user? or are you one of those parasites who considers themselves an Apple user by virtue of purchasing an el-cheapo iPod?

 

[ageha]

You are either a troll, or not very exposed to the real world.

Totally depends on the the specific industry.

 

[BongoBanger]

Sure, but there's always going to be exceptions. Since analogies need to be simple, we need to speak in generalized terms.

No, we don't. Since a Celeron based Windows PC clearly isn't in the same class as a Macbook we need to be comparing, well, Apples to apples.

Realistically, how significant/frequent of a problem this is depends on your end needs and applications.

Well, yes, exactly. If you need to run Windows based applications then buying a Mac isn't the brightest idea.

Agreed, but that observation isn't profound, because the argument also works the other direction too, namely that OS X unique Applications that can't run on Windows also 'force' you to keep around two OS's.

I agree with this point but the subset of OSX only apps in general usage where there isn't a Windows compatible version is very small indeed.

It's horse for courses - I suspect most home users aren't going to have an issue with the paucity of applications because there are sufficient available of a good enough quality to meet their needs. The problem, as you point out, is in enterprise or some parts of academia.

 

[chagla]

The majority of corporate users don't choose Windows, they use it because it's put in front of them and they have no choice. So not only is your 95% figure wrong in terms of actual market share, it's wrong in terms of general accuracy. And regardless of what figures you pull out of your ass, the OP is correct in that a great many Windows users have a frustrating experience using Windows, whether they chose it or not.

When you buy a Macintosh computer, you dont' have a choice of operating systems, do you? So, if Macs must have osx on them when you purchase, what's wrong with PCs having windows on them when you purchase? Following your logic, macintosh buyers are also forced to use osx?\its amusing when fanboys says marketshare doesn't mean anything, yet they tout about few college kids using macs as #1 laptop.

With all due respect, just how well do you know OS X? Because I've been using Windows since 3.1, I can safely say I know the ins and outs of every OS since then (MS elitist for a while haha), and honestly my jaw was on the floor the first time a good mac user friend of mine showed me what he could do with OS X. Now I work at an Apple Store. I dunno, I still use both but... Apple has a right to be a bit cocky about their OS IMHO. Just my two cents.

p.s. I think the ads are a bit harsh but they definitely gave me a laugh.

maximizing a window! resizing a window by any corner. performing most functions by keyboard shortcuts. (try browsing on Finder by keyboard only)volume shadow copy? group policy object. etc. windows is much more flexible in terms of centralized management. if you can do it properly, it's very smooth. and i always say, a bad workman quarrells with his tools.

 

[stainlessliquid]

Excuse me, but I can't think of a single Microsoft ad that has ever extolled the virtues of their software - not a single one. Its always crappy pop music like 'ray of light' with some crappy screen shots, people dancing around, some 30 year olds trying to act like 'hip 20 somethings' and some pathetic tag line at the end which is apparently meant to extol some sort of optimistic future.

note to self: when making an ad dont use metaphors, not everyone will understand

 

[demiphonic]

Bloody hilarious …the advertising one is great! other favs of mine are “Choose a Vista” & “Fatal Error”

 

[jav6454]

New ad on Apple's website. Ad name: Bake sale

It was entertaining, made me hungry for cupcake though...

 

[ViViDboarder]

I found them amusing. Honestly though, What do you expect Apple to do? Take the Microsoft approach and advertise nothing concerning their brand?

I think this whole thing is getting ridiculous. Where you serious? Apple is doing EXACTLY that. They are advertising "Don't get Windows! Hey look! We're not Windows! Try us!" Why does that make a good commercial? I hate it. I run a Mac laptop and I can't stand it. I think that these make people that don't have Macs NOT like them.

Why can't apple just run commercials like the iPhone and Macbook Air ones? Ones where you show off the products? The Apple hardware and OS sell themselves! They are brilliant designs!

Enough with the "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" ads. Microsoft finally did something good with their I'm a PC rebuttal. Lets see Apple flex a little and show off the good stuff.

 

[stainlessliquid]

The "bake sale" one is even more sad and pathetic than the money stacking one.

Makes me wonder how many more theres going to be. This is the worst comeback Ive ever seen.

 

[Chicagomac08]

Great e-mail, as a longtime mac user I am ashamed that apple would lower itself to political style low punches. At least Microsoft has enough dignity not to get involved in this BS style advertising.

I am even more frustrated at these ads cause i would prefer apple to spend money on fixing my ongoing iphone bugs then pissing away $$ on ads that attack a competitor product.

As a side note, my vista is working just great, my Iphone keeps crashing all the damn time!

So the recent MS "I'm a PC" isn't falling in line with what apple was doing? give me a break.

Guess what the I'm a Mac & I'm a PC are a long running, memorable group of commercials that is WORKING for Apple.

isn't that the point of Advertising... to sell product?

Many companies compare their product vs. competition...doesn't that only make sense?

I still find it hilarious and quite the complement that MS/Vista people take the time to register on this board and comment about a product/company that they hate so much.

As George Bernard Shaw once said “Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated.”

Quit hating and get your own life.....

 

[djellison]

Many companies compare their product vs. competition...doesn't that only make sense?

So where's the comparison? Essentially Apple is behaving like the child who responds to questions by saying "BECAUSE" - without ever explaining how or why or when or what.

I'm becoming increasingly embarrassed to be an Apple user.

 

[Superdelphinus]

I'm not a 'vista user'. I use OS X predominantly (in my spare time at least) i'm just not as dogmatic with Apple love as many in the mac community seem to be

ps - the new macbooks look crap in the flesh

 

[MH01]

So the recent MS "I'm a PC" isn't falling in line with what apple was doing? give me a break.

Guess what the I'm a Mac & I'm a PC are a long running, memorable group of commercials that is WORKING for Apple.

isn't that the point of Advertising... to sell product?

Many companies compare their product vs. competition...doesn't that only make sense?

I still find it hilarious and quite the complement that MS/Vista people take the time to register on this board and comment about a product/company that they hate so much.

As George Bernard Shaw once said “Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated.”

Quit hating and get your own life.....

Mate, how about you ACTUALLY watch the Microsoft ads, never do they name a competitors operating system, the ads are not even about an operating system. For your information PC is not only Windows.

Owwww we are not MS/Vista lovers, a large number of us use both systems. And know the virtues of using both. We are just more open minded then some it seems.

As Lisa Edmondson once said “He who is humble is confident and wise. He who brags is insecure and lacking.”

 

[MH01]

I'd sooner sit there watching an ad take the piss than some pointless ad with no use what so ever. Someone flying around in the sky to 'ray of light' makes instantly change the channel.



So why even advertise then? why advertise Windows XP with a person flying in the sky? why not show montages of people doing neat stuff with it?



Here is something to that - bulls*hit. Every person I know can relate to all the things which are raised. You may have your head up Bill/Steve Balmers behind, giving him a turbo rim - but for the average Joe and Jane, they can relate to the frustration and the 'out of touch' nature of Microsoft. You're the one who is precious - grow some thicker skin.

PS. One begs to ask, why the hell are you even here if you're not even a Mac user? or are you one of those parasites who considers themselves an Apple user by virtue of purchasing an el-cheapo iPod?

When you done with your evening prayers to Steve jobs, finish with "Lord, i am humble, and not worthy.....but why did you remove firewire?" this seems to be causing lots of frustration for long term apple uses....."out of touch" maybe....

You are right, looking from your reply you have to put in some blinkers, become very arrogant and obnoxious to be a real user Apple user. Read the actual posts and you will find that many of us use both systems. I work in a very large multimedia company and we need both. And to be honest we could not do without the PCs but we could replace the macs, but we choose to use the macs for what they are better at. The issue with macs is that they cannot do alot of things that a PC can (IT development), but they rock on video and design.

On these forums, the worst users are the individuals who own a mac as a fashion accessory and the individuals who lack IT knowledge. And it funny how these are the first to have a go at vista without using it.