I recently saw a couple of new installments in the Apple vs PC guy campaign. Here, you have the PC guy hiring a PR person to 'smooth' over some cracks. Here, you have the poor PC guy trying to promote Vista, but things turn out bad.
Now, I'm a fan of this campaign. It has very pointed humor that cuts through to the things that are indeed irksome about Windows. It doesn't make me want to switch to Macs, but I can attest that it has had an impact on other Windows users I know.
However, there just aren't many places you an take a campaign like this. It's dependent on popular Mac/PC issues. When those run out it feels like the juxtaposition is grappling at straws. The latest installments are a good example of this.
I find Vista easy to use. It has some quirky traits, but it doesn't take a lot to get over those. It's far superior to XP. Most of the problems people have is in upgrading and third party software and drivers, not the OS itself.
Comparing Vista to the new Mac OS is fine. But bashing Vista just for the sake of bashing Vista is, well... nasty. And that's not what the Mac guy is about. If anything, his persona is overly nice. He's always trying to help.
By all means compare the security environments. Poke fun at the bloated PC 'freeware' . Laugh at the abysmal peripheral compatibility. Make fun of the nasty reviews. But when the substantive comparisons run out and the best thing you can say is 'you suck', it's time to stop.
Don't jump too far over that shark Apple, you were doing such a good job.
3 comments:
Peripheral nightmare is supposed to be a Windows thing? These ads don't ring true for me at all . . . just switched to Mac and trying to get my printer to work required new cables, drivers, and is turning me into the PC guy "no, no, no, no, no."
Still isn't working.
You know, I have never seen any solid data on issues with the two systems. But Macs aren't without their problems.
If you just switched though, sounds like it may have worked?
It wasn't the ads that convinced me, but that my new job will only give tech support to Macs. That was pretty convincing!
A lot of the debate, like these ads, seems more ideological than substantive: as you suggest, solid data would be nice.
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