Apple Brings An End To Its “Get A Mac” Microsoft Slamming Ads

It is the end of an era. For the last four years, Apple has been slamming anything and everything that Microsoft releases, says or does in its “Get A Mac” television advertisements. And now, Justin Long, the star of the ads who plays “Mac”, has revealed that the advertisement campaign has probably came to a close.

Although he can’t say “definitively”, he revealed in a recent interview with The A.V. Club, that his co-star, John Hodgman, who plays “PC”, has told him that Apple are “going to move on”. For the tiny minority of you out there who haven’t seen the television campaign, it’s as simple as it can get. A Mac and a PC are represented by two men, taking the stereotype of the two operating systems and the two companies to the extreme. As you’d expect, PC is a well-dressed, suited and booted middle-aged man who is dedicated to everything to do with work, but never loosens his neck-tie and doesn’t know the meaning of the word “fun”. On the other hand, Mac is a young guy, casual and happy-go-lucky, hailed for his “customer satisfaction”, his durability in design and his versatility, with incredible fun and useful software in iLife, to his work capabilities in iWork. In every new ad, Apple plays on the faults and problems that Windows users suffer, and how it’s much easier and a much better choice to “Get A Mac”.

If there’s one thing that you can say about Apple’s public image, it knows how to draw attention to itself, and its certainly considered the coolest technology company in the industry by the majority of people, so much that Fortune Magazine named Apple the most admired company in the United States in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The campaign was so successful, that all of the ads, along with some web only exclusive ones, have been uploaded to the Apple website, and an entire Wikipedia article is dedicated to the much-loved series. The campaign was even extended here in the UK, with one of our duo comedy pairs, and into Japan. Apple is not afraid to play on every fault that Microsoft and Windows have made, with good wit and taking the definition of stereotype to the extreme.

Although at times I do think that the situations were slightly exaggerated, in most cases Apple are on the money with the problems that PC users suffer. With everything from multiple editions, to hundreds upon thousands of viruses, Apple was skilled in highlighting the cracks in Windows (yes, I know, really bad pun). In any case, “Get A Mac” is one of the best advertising campaigns that I’ve ever been subjected to, and provided some great laughs during those long, boring commercial breaks.
We want to know, which “Get A Mac” ad was your favourite? Did the “Get A Mac” ads push you into purchasing a Macintosh computer? Do you admire Apple’s PR skills? Are you sad that the “Get A Mac” campaign is coming to an end?  Any other thoughts? Let us know, in a comment.

You can watch all of the “Get A Mac” ads at the Apple website by clicking here.