Get a Mac ("Mac vs. PC")
Apple2006
Get a Mac ("Mac vs. PC") is a 2006 television campaign (66 spots, 2006–2009) for Apple, created by TBWA\Media Arts Lab.
The line
Hello, I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC.
Why it works
Sixty-six spots, one white void, two guys. Justin Long's laid-back Mac and John Hodgman's endearing, malfunctioning PC turned a feature-comparison chart into a sitcom — every product difference (viruses, crashes, iLife) became a character beat. Running from May 2006 to October 2009, the campaign won the Grand Effie after driving what the Effie organization described as 42% market-share growth, and Adweek named it the best advertising campaign of the decade. It is studied for personification as strategy — making the competitor a lovable loser rather than a villain, so the mockery never curdled — and for serial discipline: the format was so sturdy it sustained three years of weekly comedy without exhausting the joke.
Techniques
- Comparison Personifies Mac and PC as two men side by side, turning every product difference, from viruses to crashes, into a direct swipe at the rival.
- Humour Plays the comparison as a deadpan sitcom in which the endearing, malfunctioning PC is a lovable loser, so the mockery never turns nasty.
- Mascots and characters The laid-back Mac and endearing PC return across dozens of spots in the same white void, becoming characters viewers instantly recognise.
Sources · 2
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