Category Archives: Business & Marketing

Apple ditches “Mac Guy” in new ads

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Apple’s “I’m a Mac” campaign is almost perfect: It’s funny, memorable, and efficiently lays out the advantages of Macs over PCs. Its only defect: Virtually everyone who watches it comes away liking the “PC guy” while wanting to push the “Mac guy” under a bus.

Justin Long (the “Mac guy”) is out. The campaign’s other principals, director Phil Morrison and journo-humorist John Hodgman, are both returning for another round of spots.

According to Seth Stevenson, ad critic for Slate, Long is “just the sort of unshaven, hoodie-wearing, hands-in-pockets hipster we’ve always imagined when picturing a Mac enthusiast…. It’s like Apple is parodying its own image while also cementing it.” Of the polymathic Hodgman, Stevenson writes, “Even as he plays the chump in these Apple spots, his humor and likability are evident.” — Radar Online

I didn’t find the Mac guy ‘a smug little twit.’ Hmmm. I shudder to think what that says about moi.

Scott Adams: Knowing when to quit

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“You usually have to try a bunch of things before luck has an opportunity to find you. So how do you know when to bail out of a losing idea? … I heard a useful rule about predicting success during my (failed) attempt at creating a hit Dilbert animated TV show: If everyone exposed to a product likes it, the product will not succeed. The reason that a product “everyone likes” will fail is because no one “loves” it. The only thing that predicts success is passion, even if only 10% of the consumers have it. … Great ideas catch on immediately, and passionately, at least with the early adopters.”

— Scott Adams

New Get a Mac ads (2006)

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Get a Mac adsIf you haven’t seen the new series of Get a Mac ads you probably will. The Better Results ad hits close to home for me because I used Windows apps to create videos for the three or four years. It worked, but…

Counselor and Self Pity both make their respective points very cleverly. I have never seen a campaign bring out so many different versions of an ad, so quickly, and keep the quality so high. [link above is to a compilation of all the ads]

Google going forward with radio plans

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Will Sell Advertising for FoodGoogle CEO Eric Schmidt says Google’s plans to begin placing radio ads by the end of this year remain on schedule, contradicting recent talk within the industry that the company had postponed the project.

“The tests are going extremely well,” said Schmidt, who added Google eventually plans to employ about 1,000 workers in its radio division. [E-Commerce Times via Hear 2.0]

My kind of contract

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Roger brought back a copy of the affiliation contract for The Davey Ramsey Show (financial advice?) from the recent meeting of the National Association of Broadcasters. They shove all kinds of promotional stuff under the door to your hotel room every night and this was in Roger’s pile one morning. I’m not familiar with the program but I love the contract. One page (front only). I spent my youth (okay, my middle years) trying to get people to sign affiliation contracts with our networks.

I did my best to keep them simple and understandable. But our attorneys never let me go this far. Here’s the full contract (PDF) and here are a few paragraphs:

Thank you for deciding to include The Dave Ramsey Show as part of your station lineup. Are you looking for a big, detailed contract? They are a pain and quite frankly, we don’t feel like dealing with them. Below you will find afew points that will guide our relationship. Please initial each one and return the contract via fax to 615-372-0573 (confidentiality assured).

1. You like us and we like you and therefore are agreeing to work together. You are going to start airing the program on station (station info)

3. Now that you have decided to carry The Dave Ramsey Show we will not be available for another station in your market. Don’t know why we have to state that we are not interested in cutting our legs out from under ourselves, but I guess this market exclusivity thing is a big deal.

5. Let’s try this. The Dave Ramsey Show should be carried LIVE. We think it is a mistake if it is not aired live. However, we understand that some stations are not able to make this happen. For now that is acceptable. All we want you to do is let us know that after we start winning for your station, that you will consider us for a live slot. You are not guaranteeing us this slot, you are not promising this slot, you are simply letting us know that you will consider it. Come on, is that too much to ask? We should be live anyway.

I don’t know how good this is from a legal standpoint, but it’s good marketing or PR or something. And in my experience, most contracts with radio stations weren’t worth much. My hat is off to whomever wrote this agreement.