Comments on David Alison's Blog: The role of Apple marketing in my switch

I don't watch TV, but I like checking out the Web'...

2008-07-31T13:08:00.000-04:00

I don't watch TV, but I like checking out the Web's Apple commercials once in a while. The UK ones are pretty funny.

I liked the Sony Vaio "Don't work at home" commercial from a couple of years ago. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrniNjTnWsk

Love the blog. Apple fanboy myself but I was impr...

2008-07-25T00:53:00.000-04:00

Love the blog. Apple fanboy myself but I was impressed by the HP "hands" ads that came out a couple years ago. They had celebrities shot from the neck to the waist. One had Jay-Z but apparently he's an apple guy when HP isn't paying him. Here's one with Shaun White the snowboarder for those that haven't seen them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K8GYl5-xrM
-j.cob

@Carl: Interesting point you bring up. There will ...

2008-07-24T07:42:00.000-04:00

@Carl: Interesting point you bring up. There will always be people that can only feel superior by putting down others; their happiness and sense of self are determined not by themselves but is relative to the people around them.

I found a very different tone in the Apple community when I made my switch at the beginning of this year. At least on Mac-Forums I was always treated well when talking about the switch and when people posted with questions they rarely got anything but helpful replies, even the trolls that bated others.

It was that community that actually played a key roll in my interest in moving so quickly and thoroughly towards Mac. You made your switch a couple of years ahead of me so perhaps that's why we're seeing it a little differently.

carl said...i think apple's advertising is excelle...

2008-07-24T04:05:00.000-04:00

carl said...

i think apple's advertising is excellent. phrases like "the legendary superdrive" (really? legendary?) and "it just works" are part of a sophisticated marketing effort. long before i bought a mac, the marketing kept calling out to me to give it a try (but it was the intel switch and windows compatibility that did it for me).

but i don't like the mac/pc commercials. why? b/c they remind me of the part of the "apple community" i find tremendously annoying. before i purchased my first mac two years ago (and i still use windows via vm ware), my brother suggested that i go to some of the apple sites and hear what people were saying. after a while, i came away with the feeling (several feelings, actually) that a big part of the apple allure (for many) was this sense of exclusivity, of being smarter people, etc. now, many luxury products work hard to create such feelings re: their product -- but they don't belittle others for using other products. a good example concerns the whole trojan issue: i regularly see mac "fans" state/suggest/hint that windows users are less intelligent/less computer savvy/near luddites because they click and open when they should ignore and delete. and some of these commenters lament, ironically, that as apple gains wider usage among the great unwashed, these people will mess it up for everyone else. now, i suspect that as more people give apple a try they probably won't read the "fan sites" as i did. i guess i see apple and microsoft and similar companies as just that: profit-making machines. they don't represent religious philosophies, illuminate questions of good and evil, etc. i suspect that as more users come to apple, some of this, yes, superiority, will evaporate or, better, assume a more mature expression.

Apple actually does use banner ads. I see them fre...

2008-07-22T14:40:00.000-04:00

Apple actually does use banner ads. I see them frequently at the New York times site. In fact, they're often fairly elaborate (for banner ads) in that they often show up as two banner ads, with the characters in the vertical ad interacting with action in the horizontal ad above.

You can find some on Youtube. Here's one to start you off: youtube.com/watch?v=IhWiyBmVQbI&feature=related

Microsoft's attempts to counter Apple's adds can b...

2008-07-22T14:34:00.000-04:00

Microsoft's attempts to counter Apple's adds can be compared to Bill Gates' PowerPoint Presentations with Steve Jobs' Keynote Presntations!!! They are Bogus and Empty like the Sky. Perhaps that is the reason why they selected Bogusky (Bogus + Sky)!!!

@Chris: Cool - thanks for the link, interesting st...

2008-07-22T14:02:00.000-04:00

@Chris: Cool - thanks for the link, interesting story. MS has the money, the problem is that ultimately they have to count on others to sell their products. This is where Apple has a huge advantage. Selling both hardware and software—something once thought to be a liability—gives Apple the ability to set the tone for the entire relationship.

According to Fast Company, Microsoft is indeed goi...

2008-07-22T10:39:00.000-04:00

According to Fast Company, Microsoft is indeed going to start taking on Apple directly in their advertising.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/believe-it-or-not-hes-a-pc.html

As far as Alex Bogusky's job of making Microsoft "cool," good luck with that. Andrew Keller's claim that "to try to be cool is to not be cool," describes Microsoft to a T, with its lame hipster early Zune marketing and a prominent entertainment division executive going so far as to shave his head, undertake an extreme wardrobe makeover, and legally change his name to "J" - all in the hope for street cred with the tech kiddies.

Yeah, we can smell the desperation.