Apple "Mac vs PC"

In 2005 Macs were trailing far behind PCs in the battle for marketshare. That all changed with this campaign, which very simply and lightheartedly illustrated the many benefits of Macs…and pain-points of PCs. The TV and digital campaigns ran for four years in three different countries and spawned hundreds of parodies, including one by their biggest competitor, Microsoft. By the end of the campaign’s run Apple set new sales records, computer marketshare went up nearly 50% and the campaign was listed among the best of all time.

Awards: Campaign of the Decade - Adweek // Campaign of the Century - AdAge // Grand Effie // Cannes Gold x4 - Cyber, Film // One Show Gold x6 - Interactive, Film, Campaign // Art Directors Club // Clio Gold x2 // Worlds Best Ads of All Time, The Drum

We shot 393 ads and only ran 93. Below are a few of my personal favorites from the campaign.

Steve Jobs was never a fan of digital media. But these contextualized banner ads changed his mind. These were the first digital ads that Apple ever ran, and they generated just as much interest as the TV campaign.

Here are a few personal favorites from the digital campaign.

The campaign ran globally with different duos playing the parts in the UK and Japan. For four years, the script writing never seemed to end.

And in the UK we created an outdoor campaign that accompanied the TV. We had to craft our messaging carefully, given that competitive advertising in the UK is heavily audited.

The campaign spawned tons of parody videos. People used the visual device to argue religion, civic issues, TV shows, flies vs bees…you name it. It was amazing to watch the campaign become pop culture fodder so quickly.

HOWEVER, we knew this campaign was truly making an impact when Microsoft released a parody campaign dubbed “I’m a PC” in 2008 to combat the dwindling marketshare and changing perceptions.

I recently got to revisit the campaign and catch up with my old teammates, as well as John Hodgeman and Justin Long during podcasts for Clio “Tagline” and Campaign Live. As is true with many things in life, you don’t know how good something is until its gone.

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