Truth and Lies

What happens when you create an ad campaign that talks about things that differentiate your product from the competition? It should tell consumers why you're a better choice and lead to increased sales, right?

Right, but there's a catch: the differentiators need to be real. Or at least perceived as real. Otherwise, you've got an expensive mess. That's my prediction for this set of Mac vs PC ads from Apple.

They're cute. They're clever. And for anybody who's used a PC and a Mac, they're obviously a bunch of crap.

Macs never need to be restarted? I nearly spat up my coffee watching that one. PCs don't talk to digital cameras? Huh? Macs don't get viruses? Not as much, it's true, but if a consumer has been watching the news lately, they're hearing a different story.

The ads reek of a marketing team that's been talking to themselves and their most devoted customers, and nobody else. I expect that most PC users will see the ads, think "that's cute," and go out and buy a new PC in the future.

Of course, Apple has a lot of great selling points for their computers. They are sleek, attractive machines. The desktop models offer a lot of power for the price. If you're looking for a machine to surf the web and manage photos and music, they're a good choice (though a lot of Windows machines are good choices also).

None of that is evident in the ads: it's the same old "We are cooler and better than you" nonsense that's given them a tiny market share and forced the company to rely on iPod sales to make its numbers. The next time Apple's ready to do some new advertising, they might want to talk to their potential customers and find out what might really make them purchase something from them. This isn't it.