| They’re real people who switched from Windows to the Mac, and Apple Computer is using them in an attempt to get the PC crowd to “Think different” about Apple.
In a series of television and print ads, Apple uses actual customers who describe why they switched from computers running Microsoft’s Windows operating system to Apple’s Macintosh. “It doesn’t crash, I don’t have the blue screen of death anymore,” said political consultant Patrick Gant in one commercial. In another ad, computer programmer Dave Haxton says the Mac is “not just for pointy headed intellectuals from California.”
The Cupertino company said the campaign is the largest since its “Think Different” ad series began in 1997. The latest campaign was designed by Apple’s longtime agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day, and the commercials were directed by documentary filmmaker Errol Morris (“The Thin Blue Line”).
Charles Wolf, an analyst for Needham & Co., said the new campaign is “much smarter” than the vague themes of the past because it does a better job focusing on consumer features such as digital media programs iDVD, iMovies, iTunes and iPhoto. “Apple is at least trying to get customers to come in and look at the Mac,” Wolf said. |
