AdWeek: Apple's 'Get A Mac' is Campaign Of The Decade

AdWeek has named Apple’s ‘Get A Mac’ campaign as the Campaign of the Decade in its best of the Noughties round-up.

Praising the effectiveness of the TBWA\Media Arts Lab's/Apple ad, the ads industry bible says: “Apple always diverged from the "speeds and feeds" ads associated with the computer category, but the brand really defined itself with the 2006 launch of TBWA\Media Arts Lab's "Get a Mac" campaign. That series of 60-plus ads brought some humanity into the equation by turning the machines into live-action cartoons. In so doing, the comic spots offer transparent understanding of the aspirations of its audience and how people identify—and connect emotionally—with technology.

“The genius is in the casting. The Mac guy, Justin Long, is a younger version of Steve Jobs who is casual and comfortable in his skin. PC, personified by John Hodgman, as a rounder, paler Bill Gates, is a well-meaning geek with all kinds of operating problems. For Apple, the campaign managed the neat trick of making the brand look laid back and cool while it mercilessly skewered its rival.”

Last week we also saw hints that Apple may plan to rekindle its ‘Think Different’ campaign for the company’s future Apple tablet. Our moles at TBWA Chiat's MediaArtsLab have confirmed that there has been lots of 'Think Different' talk lately but nothing specific has emerged.

AdWeek also points out that Apple slipped to third place in the annual reader poll, eclipsed by the “Truth” anti-smoking ads and Mastercard’s ‘Priceless’ campaign. Apple’s ‘Get A Mac’ campaign did beat the US ‘Get A President’ campaign - Barack Obama’s presidential campaign was in fourth place. (Based on 7,358 reader votes).

Describing the decade, AdWeek said: “If you happened to be frozen in cryonic suspension over the past decade, you missed a lot.
“Steve Jobs and the iPod reinvented the music business. Sergey Brin and Larry Page tamed the Web. Ad shop Goodby, Silverstein & Partners rewrote the creativity book. And this thing called social media put amateurs in charge of just about everything else.”