I went to the CNN website this morning to see how the Large Hadron Collider's first test went (If you missed hearing the controversy, there was a good chance that this crazy particle accelerator in Switzerland, which was attempting to create the conditions just prior to the big bang, was going to open up a black hole that would suck up the earth, killing us all, when it fired up for the first time while we slept last night here in the US...needless to say, this didn't happen. But still!) when I saw one of the most clever online advertisements I've ever seen, and I wasn't the least bit surprised that it was an ad by our friends at Apple, called Stop Switching to Mac! (their exclamation point, not mine)The Mac-PC campaign, called the "Get a Mac" campaign, has been brilliant since the beginning in 2006. While I am a notorious DVR user (I know, I know, I'm a traitor to my industry, but really, I don't have time to watch things live anymore), I will always stop fast-forwarding through commercials when I see a new Mac-PC commercial zipping by. The Mac and PC characters are perfectly cast, the writing is hilarious and, as a Mac user myself, the messages are SO TRUE! Not to mention the use of white space (every designer's dream) and the recognizable music (come on, you know you can hum along with it in your head).
The interactive Get a Mac ad I saw this morning on the CNN page used the banner at the top of the page, along with a wide skyscraper ad down the right side of the page. At the top was "Mac" talking to "PC" on the side, who had written an article entitled "Stop Switching to Mac!" Hilarity ensues.
Here is a YouTube of the live action from Stop Switching to Mac! (give it a few seconds and they will turn the sound on):
Who needs static online advertising when you can so cleverly use live action in a non-obtrusive way? The Stop Switching to Mac! ad doesn't "bug" you (one of my pet peeves) until you turn the sound on, and you even have the option to replay the ad when it's over, which of course I did...several times. Isn't that exactly what you want your customers to do? In a saturated media environment, Apple's Get a Mac ads are some of the few that actually break through the clutter and make me take notice. And while I'm already a customer, I feel like I still learn new things about one of my favorite brands every time I watch their ads, which as a customer, I appreciate.
Well done, Apple. If you've missed a couple of the Get a Mac ads, you can watch all of them here on the Apple website.
