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Posted on 02/05/2007 2:17:25 PM PST by Vermonter
I hate Macs
Charlie Brooker Monday February 5, 2007 The Guardian
Unless you have been walking around with your eyes closed, and your head encased in a block of concrete, with a blindfold tied round it, in the dark - unless you have been doing that, you surely can't have failed to notice the current Apple Macintosh campaign starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb, which has taken over magazines, newspapers and the internet in a series of brutal coordinated attacks aimed at causing massive loss of resistance. While I don't have anything against shameless promotion per se (after all, within these very brackets I'm promoting my own BBC4 show, which starts tonight at 10pm), there is something infuriating about this particular blitz. In the ads, Webb plays a Mac while Mitchell adopts the mantle of a PC. We know this because they say so right at the start of the ad.
"Hello, I'm a Mac," says Webb. "And I'm a PC," adds Mitchell.
They then perform a small comic vignette aimed at highlighting the differences between the two computers. So in one, the PC has a "nasty virus" that makes him sneeze like a plague victim; in another, he keeps freezing up and having to reboot. This is a subtle way of saying PCs are unreliable. Mitchell, incidentally, is wearing a nerdy, conservative suit throughout, while Webb is dressed in laid-back contemporary casual wear. This is a subtle way of saying Macs are cool.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Please ping the usual suspects
Interesting.
What's all this venom that anti-Mac people have over the second mouse button? I've seen several people list that as the primary reason not to get one.
I read it all the way through. I use a mac, and will be the first to say I dislike the ad campaign.
But the bile and stereotypic drivel this guy writes, and apparently is paid for writing, is dumber than the Apple ads.
I read it all the way through, as you suggested. Was there a particular passage you thought had something that made it worthwhile?
The last 2 sentences;
Besides, that's what we PC owners are like - unreliable, idiosyncratic and gleefully unfair. And if you'll excuse me now, I feel an unexpected crash coming.
Ahhh. Is that the same as spitting out a lengthy diatribe on something and then at the end, when people are offended, saying "I was only kidding-can't you take a joke?"
Those ads are pretty funny but I do agree, the ad campaign isnt exactly fair.
The Mac is supposedly hip but i believe I saw that a poll thought the guy was a pretentious asshat and people felt somewhat sorry for the PC and identified themselves with him.
Not exactly the goal in mind when making the ad.
LOL, he nails it!
"What's all this venom that anti-Mac people have over the second mouse button?"
Look at the number of PC/MS bashing articles posted here and then tell me about venom.
What's REALLY sad is the fact that it matters so much someone.
I thought these ads were going to be pulled. I am sure I read about it on FR, a month or two back. What's up? Did Apple, like a Democrat would, just lie to us?
I don't know if I feel sorry for the PC guy but every time I see the ad I can't think of anything else other than the South Park episode on hybrid cars.
One of the funniest things I've ever seen...
It is definitely a classic example of marketing to a target demographic. It's clear that they are going after the younger set (probably figuring that the middle-age set are too set in their ways to ever change from PC to Mac)
Quiet, only the Mac users in the ivory tower wing of the world may be cool and insult the otherside.
Wow he nailed it!
Except my PC doesn't ever crash unless I overclock it too far.
No, you confused a columnist's opinion with actual fact. It's not just the MSM that blends the two - the Internet press often confuses them.
I've been on the threads for a while, and I see very few people saying "I hate people who use PCs."
There is venom towards the software, and even the company, but not towards all the users in general. That's what baffles me.
February 5, 2007 01:23 AM
Hello. Charlie Brooker here.
I wrote this piffle. Then it was subbed. And whoever subbed it decided to add a bit describing Doom as “the first shoot-em-up game”.
Words fail me.
They also changed every abbreviation -– so “they’re” becomes “they are” and “it’s” becomes “it is”, and so on -- presumably in an attempt to inject a bit more plodding, impersonal joylessness to the whole thing.
Bet they did it on a Mac, too.
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First comment following article. Funny stuff.
(Is it inappropriate to use a "Larry the Cable Guy" reference when discussing classic British dry wit? Oh well. In any case, it's brilliant writing.)
It's ironic that the don't realize that this "shortcoming" can be fixed with a $10 USB device from the local big box store.
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