Wearing thin
The dogged single-mindedness that has driven Apple to create so many successful products continues to be applied to its advertising.
With the increasingly tired insistence that it is "still number one in customer satisfaction", whatever that means, Apple claims that loads of people are switching to Macs rather than go through the hassle of upgrading their PCs to Microsoft's Windows.
While Macs do seem to be gaining share in some markets, Apple's unsubtle marketing tactics are taking on an increasingly snide and hysterical tone. Just a few weeks ago we saw Apple's latest TV ads, which were generally thought to have over-stepped the mark when it came to smugness. Unperturbed, Apple has extended the concept to video banner ads.
In these, the cool Mac and the dorky PC personifications witness supposed CCTV footage of PC users walking into an Apple store to "switch". Of course, this inevitably leads to an undignified panic from the PC guy as his pleas to the PC users not to defect fall on deaf ears.
Our feeling is that Apple may be in danger of defeating the object of these ads by driving away users with the sheer weight of its smugness. But make your own mind up, here's a YouTube clip of the ad on the homepage of the NYT.
