Charlie Brooker of The Guardian makes a very interesting point about the MacBook commercials playing for the UK audience. The UK version is similar to the US version but swap Justin Long and John Hodgman with David Mitchell and Robert Webb of the “Peep Show.” Brooker finds the choice of Webb (Mac) and Mitchell (PC) very odd:
The ads are adapted from a near-identical American campaign - the only difference is the use of Mitchell and Webb. They are a logical choice in one sense (everyone likes them), but a curious choice in another, since they are best known for the television series Peep Show - probably the best sitcom of the past five years - in which Mitchell plays a repressed, neurotic underdog, and Webb plays a selfish, self-regarding poseur. So when you see the ads, you think, “PCs are a bit rubbish yet ultimately lovable, whereas Macs are just smug, preening tossers.” In other words, it is a devastatingly accurate campaign.
And Brooker ads: “I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don’t use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.”
Here’s the rest of his article.
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swiftarrow
March 1st, 2008 at 3:42 am
i fucking hate pikeys…but not as much as them macs, mac users. and mac wishers… here here!
swifterarrow
March 13th, 2008 at 1:16 am
swiftarrow… the phrase is “hear, hear!”: Unless maybe you are sitting next to buried treasure and meant for mac wishers to dig “here here.”
As for me, I hate some Mac users, some Windows users, some Linux users…. Actually, I tend to hate people for a many reasons; I don’t care what computers they use. And I hate you.