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Apple ends 'Get a Mac' ad campaign

By | May 21, 2010, 8:40am PDT

Summary: Apple has finally ended its snarky, long-running “Get a Mac” ad campaign featuring “PC” and “Mac” as characters.

Apple has finally ended its snarky, long-running “Get a Mac” ad campaign, which featured actors Justin Long and John Hodgman as frenemies “Mac” and “PC.”

Long first hinted that the campaign would end in an interview with The Onion’s A.V. Club last month, and today, the company removed all the ads from its website, redirecting users to its new “Why You’ll Love a Mac” page.

The award-winning campaign, produced by Media Arts Lab\TBWA, has been quiet for some time — its last direct shot at Microsoft’s Windows 7 occurred last October with a trio of PC-bashing spots.

Now, it seems Apple is focusing on its mobile platform, where it expects to see impressive growth. Its most recent ad for the iPad, a frenetic, colorful affair, has as much in common with Palm’s Pixi ad spots as it does its former campaign.

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Topics

Apple Macintosh, Advertisement, Apple Inc., Desktops, Advertising & Promotion, Hardware, Marketing, Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca is editor of ZDNet and SmartPlanet.

Disclosure

Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca does not hold any investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Andrew Nusca

Editor

Andrew J. Nusca is an editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.

He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. He lives in his native Philadelphia with his wife, cat and Boston Terrier.

Follow him on Twitter.

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Cylon Centurion 21st May 2010
@bobiroc

I keep telling people this too. Macs don't get Windows malware, but what about Mac malware? Yep, it's out there. Apple has only contributed to use ignorance...
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Snarky is putting it kindly.
Cylon Centurion 21st May 2010
Smug is what I would use. Only Apple would make commercials that bash the competition, and do little to nothing to highlight the Mac platform.
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RE: Apple ends 'Get a Mac' ad campaign
bobiroc 21st May 2010
@NStalnecker

Like how politicians bash each other. While I found the commercials semi-entertaining I hated the repercussions that it caused. I have said this many times before and I know some fanboys will say I am a liar but I know more than a handful of people that were mad at their $399 special PC and spent $1000 plus on a Mac or MacBook with the belief that Macs never break/crash/have issues or that a Mac is invincible to viruses and spyware. Since many of these people wanted or needed windows to run their software they either purchased or pirated Windows and were completely shocked when they got some sort of infection. They said (and I quote) "I thought Macs didn't get viruses"
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Cylon Centurion 21st May 2010
@bobiroc

I keep telling people this too. Macs don't get Windows malware, but what about Mac malware? Yep, it's out there. Apple has only contributed to use ignorance...
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They were about more than their literal content.
Lester Young 21st May 2010
Anybody who scrutinized it would see that it was ridiculous and be turned off. The real message was that Macs make you hip and will help you meet hot chicks, while Windows makes you into a pudgy dork. That resonates with a certain shallow American consumer mentality.
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Guess the ads stung you, ha!
GoPower 21st May 2010
@Lester Young

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