Sour Apples

I often see things in life as test and/or challenge to one's path in life. The test or challenge can be extraodinary as saving people from a burning building or simple as withholding your fist from knocking out a person that is annoying you. Lately, I have viewed a new campaign of ads for Apple that test my patience. For those who haven't seen these commercials I will briefly describe what these ads are like. The commercials always start with two guys, one guy that is dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and one guy that is dressed in business suit. The well groomed business suit guy represents the p.c. while the slightly less groomed casual dressed guy represents Macs. The guys in the commercials always are friendly to each other, but the Mac is always amazed at the many flaws that his p.c. friend has. In one commercial both guys are talking about the fun things they can do, Apple says that he can do movies, podcasts (oooh an Ipod plug sneaky) and music; then the p.c. guy says he can do fun things like timesheets and spreadsheets, and pie charts. Needless to say the ad ends with the p.c. guy looking like a nerd thus all p.c. users are portrayed as nerds. I could go and describe other ads but I think you get the idea.

These ads remind me back when I was younger and when I belonged to the "Apple sucks" crowd. Today, I don't consider myself a part of that crowd, and for two good reasons. One, I own an Ipod, and two, my brother in law owns several Macs and I have seen what they can do. When I used to be anti-Apple I owned a mp3 player that was a major competitor to the Ipod, but I quickly decided to quit being so snobbish to Apple when my old mp3 player broke for no apparent reason. I am glad that I made the switch. I am not go on about the features of my Ipod, because I don't want to sound like I am being compensated by Apple, which I am not. My brother-in-law runs a graphic arts business from his home, and he uses Macs only. I asked why only Macs and I was told that Macs have the best software for graphic artists. This made sense to me and the answer was confirmed by my dad, who is a long time p.c. user.

When I begin to be more open about Apple products, these ads come out and really test me. I want to talk back to the t.v. and say something like, "Oh come on, a p.c. can do that as well and maybe even better." Whoops did I think that? Yes, yes I did, but I can't say that unless I want to fall back into that old "Apple sucks" crowd. I definitely, I want to avoid that, because I have seen the "p.c. sucks" crowd. Talking to members of this crowd, really gives one a perspective on things. I have talked to people from this crowd and basically they went into a long lecture of why p.c.s are infinitely inferior to their beloved Mac. If you haven't experienced this and you have a bad temper, I wouldn't recommend this experience. Having someone bragging about something they have and basically laughing at what you have is really demeaning. That's the main gripe I have with this new ad campaign. It seems to resonate the beliefs of the "p.c. sucks" crowd. I am not sure if this was really intentional by the writers of the ads, but one begins to wonder. I know that the ads sole purpose is to sell Macs, and their target audience is probably people that are Mac users or people shopping for their first computer. Personally, I could care less if one owns a Mac or p.c. I say go with what works best for you, and if that is Mac, then peace be with you and do the same for us p.c. users.