Apple’s Mean-spirited ad campaign

Lew, given some email I’ve received from Mac cultists who for some reason took my post as Apple bashing, let me make sure I am clear that I’ve never been an Apple basher and my post was not meant to engage in this at all. I’m in complete agreement with what you say. Our family has three iPods and I recently got a MacBook for my wife. I’ve long been an admirer of Apple’s beautiful and clean design (for some reason I group in my mind companies like Apple, Bose, and Google). Even their packaging and boxes are beautiful (funny video mocking how Microsoft would have done the iPod packaging design). I’m tempted to go Mac myself and may.

I also like Apple’s triumph in the silly trademark lawsuit with Apple records, and how they come as close to the line as possible with FTC “made in XXX country regulations” which require them to label their products as “made in China”–their label and packaging states this, but states it boldly and proudly, along wiht: “designed by Apple in California.” Not designed in America–but in California. I love that. (Annoying Mac cultist geeks now, that’s another story.) I also like the ads–they are brilliantly done and funny. As the article I linked notes, the Apple

campaign is a marvel of clarity and simplicity. No slogans. No video effects. No voice-overs. And lots of clean, white space. It’s like a bath of cool mineral water when these ads come on after a string of garish, jam-packed spots for other products.

But the author put his finger on some things about the ads I had noticed. One was that the PC guy is very likable and funny (and as the author notes–aren’t nerds the “new cool”?). Even in the ad where the smart hipster is teaching the affable dweeb how to use “touche’” properly, the Mac guy does come off as just a bit condescending, and the PC guy as the one you sort of want to identify with.

Now usually the use of the term “mean-spirited”–usually trotted out by leftists who attack positions based on their emotions–makes my trigger finger itchy. But this piece in Slate about the Mac v. PC television ads is brilliant.