Tit for Tat

I've never liked the Mac vs. PC commercials, and while my hate for Apple has gone from a fiery inferno to just a simmering discontent, I still despise the Mac vs. PC commercials because they have an especially notorious spin. Such as this one:







Or this one:








Or the one I absolutely hate the most, this one:






The reason why they are so odious to me is that they take really awesome things about PCs and then spin them in a completely different way. The first one pokes fun at Vista's penchant of having you approve everything you're doing for security reasons. How is that not a good thing? I've had my computer saved several times when some site on the internet tries to install or run a program on my computer and Vista alerted me of the trouble, saving me a whole lot of hassle further down the road. The Mac commercial insinuates that the Mac OS has better security and thus doesn't require such paranoid approval, yet reality proves otherwise when the Mac is hacked fastest in a hacking contest, over the Windows and Linux run computers.

Or consider the fact that PCs are really good for business. That in itself is not a bad thing at all; ask my accountant wife, who probably dreams of me getting her Microsoft Office for Christmas so she can use Access. I have no idea what it even does - something about databases, I think. Dantzel and Quinton often chatter endlessly of how Excel is going to save the world (or in Quinton's case, cut the time required to do a project at his work from two hours to 20 minutes). And to imply that because PCs are already good at business applications, they are somehow not as good as capturing videos or photos as a Mac seems rather...dubious. Easier, perhaps, sure, because that seems to be the market share Apple is targeting and that is perfectly fair, but just because your computers specialize in one area doesn't mean you can assume PCs do as well. The beauty of a PC is that you can adapt it to just about anything you need, swapping out parts and programs to do what you need to do, or even do everything you ever wanted at once. The truth is, even the simplest computer nowadays can download, open and print photos, or watch YouTube. I've never had trouble downloading, editing and sharing photos on my PC, nor my dad, nor even my mother, who has never been terribly comfortable around computers.

And of course, Mac pokes fun at all the different choices Vista offers - as if choices were a bad thing. The Apple business program is very insular, and this is perhaps the brilliance of their business plan. If you buy an iPod, you don't just buy an iPod - you have to download iTunes and then iTunes often suggests that you start using Safari, and so forth and so on. They essentially control how you receive your music, and from there, your information. Unfortunately, PCs, lacking the "cool" factor of Apple, rely on open technology. This obviously isn't perfect, but you can run just about every computer program made on a PC, a claim Apple can't make. And Microsoft, offering their services not to just those who want to be hip, but both home and business computers, split their products up into different editions, tailor made for each of the markets. I will never need Vista to link up my computer with a whole network of others, or use Microsoft Access. My wife's laptop, however, may, and so the choice of me opting out of those options and getting a less expensive version of Vista that works for me while my wife can buy an edition that works for her is actually really convenient. I don't have to waste money buying things I'll never use, and my wife doesn't have to buy extra products when she can just get them all at once. Now that's convenience. No single computer user, Apple or PC, ever has the same needs, and the more customization available, the better. Nobody walks into Best Buy and tries to buy a version of Vista by spinning a wheel; the concept would be ridiculous.

If Apple had their way, they wouldn't allow us to choose between candidates to vote for; they'd just pick the choice for us, because choices are bad, and look at that! Isn't it so much easier to vote now?

Generally, commercials do not take their competitors directly and then trash talk them (or smack talk them, depending on your lingo). That's reserved for politicians. But Mac vs. PC ads broke that generally unspoken rule and began to assail with little mercy on PCs in general. And, like political ads, there really wasn't a whole lot of truth in them, just a lot of spin. Of course, all commercials are spin, but they're usually how awesomer their product is. The Mac vs. PC ads however attack their competitors directly with misguiding accusations, and then take Apple deficiencies (such as lack of security, the fact that they don't seem to have any reputation in doing well in the business world, lack of choices) and spin them vigorously into good things, which to my overactive moral compass, is somewhat appalling. And certainly incredibly pretentious. Convince me why Apple is better, not how much my computer sucks, especially when the reasons you give me aren't really good reasons at all. In the end, what you've done is degraded me into a stereotype, much like the cheerleaders and jocks would attempt to do in high school, and then hope that, when thoroughly humiliated and broken down, I would come groveling for your approval because, gosh, you're just so cool and awesome and beautiful and I'm just so, so...boring and a nobody. Unfortunately, for those of us who survived high school and adolescence with our dignity intact, this type of advertising is offensive, not convincing.

And apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so. The (in)famous "Mac vs. PC" commercials have thusly pissed Microsoft off so much that they've launched a salvo of their own. Their tactic is to take the deflated stereotype of PCs Apple has so proficiently propagated, and inject a little humanity and put a face on those who aren't Mac users, which I think is pretty brilliant, and I'm incredibly grateful for.