Advertising and the “Opposite Effect Syndrome”
No, I have no idea what "Opposite Effect Sydrome" actually is. I just made it up. I guess what I mean is when, in an advertising context, an advert has the opposite effect from what is intended. Adverts, in general, are designed to make us consumers want to buy a product...not the other way round.
So I suppose my being increasingly turned off by the current Apple "Mac and PC" ad campaign means Im getting Opposite Effect Syndrome.
Now, granted, being a long term PC user I am unlikely to buy a Mac anyway, and Im probably pretty biased...but these ads are really beginning to get on my man-boobs.
You'll probably know the ones I mean. Man in a suit on the left, representing the stodgy old PC, man in jeans and T-shirt on the right, representing Macs. They have a sort of "this is what I can do" conversation thats intended to be sort of funny, and to show how hip, user-friendly and fun Macs are compared to the lumbering, no-fun PC.
It aint working for me. I might just be getting the wrong end of the stick, but Mr Mac (or whatever hes called) just comes across as kinda smug and well...up himself. Instead of making me want to buy a Mac, its making me want one less. "Look at me" he says "I have this funky doody photo-editing thingy that makes holiday snaps so much more fun and easy to manage in my virtual photo album." While Mr PC blithers on about Pie Charts and so on. The inferance being (I think), PCs can't do fun stuff, Macs can.
Except..when I see that advert, when Mr Mac lists all the things the Mac can do with this funky doody photo software, im sitting there thinking...."But PCs can do all that stuff too. In fact, I bought my Mum one of those programs last Christmas and even SHE can use it."
Maybe I havent been watching the right ads, but so far Mr Mac hasnt said he can do anything that I know that PCs cant do as well. I know that the idea is to make Macs look better than PCs (maybe they are, im not going to argue that cos I dont know for sure...im talking about the ads here....), but misrepresenting the PC as some bumbling dinosaur isnt doing the Mac any favours in my eyes. Sure, even I can see that Apple have been able to write a better user interface than Microsoft for years...but instead of highliighting THAT sort of advantage, these ads are playing cheap shots and making MR Mac, in my eyes, look like a smug git.
Maybe Im missing the point. Feel free to say so. Either way, I'll quit whinging now
April 25th, 2007 - 10:38
I have to agree from the other side I am not a big fan of the latest add campaing from Apple. I love my computer and I am in general a big fan of the product. Part of the problem maybe that this is an American add serise simply with the key figures replaced. In general I find computers seem to be a very hard thing to advertise. I have never liked the Dell ads and the current intel on is fine until the man with over blue eyes appears.
April 25th, 2007 - 23:40
Personally I find the ad’s amusing (not funny, just amusing), but I’ve really only seen them once or twice that I can thinks of.
In respect to your views on the “smugness” of the “Mac Guy” Keith, you may find this funny… or not.
http://www.pvponline.com/article/3248/fri-apr-06
May 3rd, 2007 - 09:05
First you have to remember macs are aimed at the arty types, so smug and up their own arse probablly goes down well.
You did however hit on one major point “I bought my Mum one of those programs last Christmas”. You had to buy a decent photo / image tool for your mum to use. The mac comes with a decent photo tool that everyone can use. The mac comes with a decent web browser (its security level is far better than internet explorers in terms of the number of discovered exploits). The mac also comes with a decent easy to use video tool for your home videos and a bunch of other simple and powerful utilities that the windows box lacks (or has pathetic versions of).
On a geekier side its also a fundamentally more secure architecture. If you look at all the hassle they have had adding restricted user rites to Vista in an atempt to lock the system down from hackers you’ll see how anoying all the dialogs and interface changes are, compare that to OS X with arguablly better controls and protection against hackers and which has a much tidyer and neater interface.
I honestly believe that mac use will continue to grow, but I don’t see it beating windows due to how heavilly entrenched it is. I do think however if both Microsoft and Apple were starting from scratch with no established consumer base apple would win hands down.