Filed under: Apple Corporate, Video
New Apple ad "Misprint" cites PC World on fastest Vista laptop
Back in early November, PC World magazine gave a wet, sloppy kiss to the MacBook Pro, noting that "[t]he fastest Windows Vista notebook we've tested this year--or for that matter, ever--is a Mac." Apparently this rousing endorsement of a laptop so freakishly powerful, so undeniably force-of-nature fast that it flat-out screams while running an OS that it happens to support only in 'bridesmaid mode'... well, that is the sort of thing that causes marketing executives to cock their heads and listen like extras in an E.F. Hutton ad.
Apple's new "Misprint" ad, appearing online and on TV now, features an irate PC calling the editorial offices of PC World to complain about this obvious benchmarking error. It's a funny ad, but along with the recent Podium and PR Lady ads, this new spot provokes some fascinating cognitive dissonance. We're told that Vista is undesirable, that users are 'upgrading' back to XP -- but hey, if you're gonna run it, you could run it awful quick on a Mac. Is it just me, or is that somewhat weird?
Thanks Alex
Get a WordPress.com Blog
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Daryl Gregg said 12:20AM on 12-04-2007
I think these ads are funny but its getting old. I Love my Macbook, But sometimes enough is enough, Somethings are just slower on osx. I dont know about any of you guys but at night im usually home on my mac and at work im on my Thinkpad. Both are core2duos and both have 2 gigs of ram.
Browsing in IE seems alot faster to me than safari on my mac. I hit back and it just sits there reloading. On my xp pc its almost instantanous. Back to the page i was on and scrolled down to where I left off.
Do I like my Mac more? Hell Yeah, is it always faster ? Absolutely not. Is it prettier duh!
Reply
thomas said 12:54AM on 12-04-2007
Hell, I wish my t60p was as fast as my MBP... That t60p sucks. I hate it.
philipp Aschauer said 3:43AM on 12-04-2007
I don't think they are getting old. It's just that they managed to establish the "I'm a PC and I'm a Mac" dialogue, so they now have time to play with the roles that they created.
ABProbe88 said 12:33AM on 12-04-2007
I don't think it is really it is that contradictory, I use my macbook pro whenever I can because I much prefer it, but I also use vista to run programs that I need which are not unavailable on OS X and I appreciate that it can run it fast.
PS the reloading thing is safari not mac, if it bothers you try firefox
Reply
Russell said 12:37AM on 12-04-2007
I don't see what the big deal with judging desktops on speed is. I could, for all practical purposes, browse the web, play my music and type of a document just as fast on a PC in 1997 as I can on my MBP in 2007. The difference is in usability. It isn't noticeably faster, simply more powerful.
The problem with Vista is that it attempts to trade speed for usability, as nearly every operating system I can think of always does in a new release, but it fails with the usability. Thats why I like OS X. I don't have to spend a lot of time waiting for anything on my computer now, and I never have. Its simply that I can do way more on my computer now than I ever could before.
Reply
Daryl Gregg said 12:43AM on 12-04-2007
I agree. I do feel more productive on my Mac. I can navigate through multiple projects at once. Using spaces and the feature that shows all open windows open currently.
Those 2 features together are great. I will try Firefox.
Thanks
Russell said 12:50AM on 12-04-2007
Yeah, spaces is far and away my favorite Leopard feature. I used similar features in various Linux distributions for years, and they worked well, but in terms of ease of setup Spaces absolutely blows the similar features in both Gnome and KDE away.
I have a 3 button mouse (plus scroll wheel), and I have it configured so button 3 shows my spaces and pressing the scroll wheel triggers expose. A neat feature that I have only seem commented on a few times is that if you press your spaces key *then* the expose key it will do expose within each space so you can see every window in every space. Good stuff.
Russell said 12:46AM on 12-04-2007
Oh, and I forgot: All a Mac is is a "PC" (whatever that is) built by Apple running OS X.
There is nothing magical about the hardware, nor is there any reason I can possibly think of that it should run Vista any slower than any other PC. And again, who cares how fast it can run Vista? Any decent computer that manages to run Vista without blue screening will run it fast enough for most applications except for games, and a MBP is obviously unsuitable for that (an 8600GT is neither new, nor top of the line - there were more powerful graphics cards in laptops made in 2006).
I guess these commercials are kind of funny, but seem to only appeal to idiots. If your laptop is too slow then either you need to run older software, or you should be rendering your movies or whatever you are doing on a Mac Pro.
Reply
quandmeme said 11:28AM on 12-04-2007
Agreed. I vote that Apple start advertising features instead of taking potshots at the marketshare leader.
Liquidmark said 5:29PM on 12-04-2007
- All a Mac is is a "PC" (whatever that is) built by Apple running OS X. -
All a Mercedes is is a CAR built by Mercedes with Mercedes parts.
Just because a Mac is a computer, doesn't make it the same as a Dell or Gateway.
Jeff Brown said 12:49AM on 12-04-2007
I think you might be missing the point - to me the message if "if we can run THEIR stuff better than they do, imagine how well OUR stuff runs". And I think the move to Intel/Windows compatibility was a HUGE move for Apple - the security blanket of having Windows available if you need it makes switching easier. Letting folks know it isn't some shoe-horned, snail paced emulation but functionally equal to PC's is good info to dispel any misconceptions left over from Virtual PC days.
Reply
Fourbin said 1:12AM on 12-04-2007
I think after a commercial about a notebook computer they should show a MacBook Pro in the end.. not an iMac.
Reply
philipp Aschauer said 3:32AM on 12-04-2007
I agree. I guess Apple wants to promote their new iMac. I have the feeling that not a lot of people know the new silver-black iMac. iMac still is associated with something iPod-ish.
:)
Mike said 1:13AM on 12-04-2007
I love this ad! It made we laugh out loud!
Reply
Jon said 2:42AM on 12-04-2007
They're good ads but I feel like it's the same thing over and over again. They need to come up with something new.
P.S. I agree with commenters saying that they feel more productive on a Mac. Whenever I use a Windows machine, I feel like I'm working against it rather than with it.
Reply
Beau said 3:37AM on 12-04-2007
Anyone noticed Mac's new clothes? w00t :D
Reply
Lorenzo said 3:54AM on 12-04-2007
Well, that's not about features, it's about performance.
Reply
shakdang said 4:38AM on 12-04-2007
I am an ex-windows user and only switched to mac one year ago and already I find it painful to go and work on windows machine for my university labs .. I love my macbook but as the first guy said, macintosh has its shortcomings as well .. and a load full of them .. no denying the fact that indeed macbooks are better PC's but they are not the final word in any sense of the matter ..
make an add with no dialogues at all! and show PC using latest office while mac sits there messing around with pages/open office and ppc office ... this single add will pawn mac till the office 2008 gets released for mac
Reply
LoganT said 7:51AM on 12-04-2007
Or the AD could have Mac using iWork 08 to make a keynote presentation and the PC could be making a powerpoint presentation in Powerpoint. Then the AD could say how much better iWork 08 is then Microsoft Office and cheaper.
WickDC said 8:27AM on 12-04-2007
Or actually have "Mac" and "PC" bring in "Jane" and "Sally". Real world people off the street to try using Keynote versus PowerPoint. (Kinda would mix in the real world iPhone concept.) Meaning let's back up all the cute little one liners with some real stuff, let's see how it works.