John Gruber Nails the Apple "Get A Mac" Ads and Microsoft's Response

John Gruber @ Daring Fireball posted ★ Digging Deeper, saying exactly what I have been thinking about Apple's Get A Mac ads and Microsoft's response ad.

There are a ton of people, and I usually see this from people who's career depend entirely on Windows, that believe Apple's ads are in fact making fun of PC users. That's not just wrong, it's a stupid conclusion. I am not saying people that think this are dumb, but they have lost the plot. In addition to Apple's ads telling the viewer that Macs are special PCs, all other PCs are generic, as Gruber says, they are also showing the viewer there is a choice in computers. That is job #1, since for years, most people didn't even know Macs still existed. If you are trying to sell Macs to people, you won't do that by telling them they are dumb. Apple shows how Macs are special in three ways:

1. What Macs have that generic PCs don't (Leopard, Time Machine, iSight camera, etc.)
2. What Macs and PCs have in common (Office, file format compatibility, both run Windows)
3. What PCs have that Macs don't and is bad (viruses, upgrade hassles, hardware and software compatibility problems)

The headline on the Get A Mac site right now is Why your next PC should be a Mac. I don't think the point could be much clearer, the Mac IS a PC, the only one that is different than all the others. Microsoft's ad has attempted to co-opt Apple's "I'm a PC" part of the message by, as Gruber puts it, only emphasizing Apple's ads, because it incorrectly puts the emphasis on PC, and doesn't emphasize what's special about PCs that aren't Macs. It couldn't be more obvious that Microsoft believes PC in the Apple ads is about users than the part of the montage where people are talking about their glasses. Microsoft has only shown the first ad, so it will be interesting to see if they course correct out of this, or continue down this path.