Tyler Cicardo

February 2, 2015
Intro to Advertising
Assignment #1

After reviewing a handful of the Mac vs. PC advertisements, I feel that their campaign

was in fact quite successful. It showed the consumer Justin Long, a young, fresh face actor, who

portrayed the Mac, and John Hodgman (who I personally do not even know) as the PC.

Hodgman is dressed in a suit with glasses, and has a bit of a bland personality, while Long looks

cool, hip and young, inferring that those who use Mac’s will in turn be that way as well.

I think all of these elements are important to this ad’s success. Perhaps not so much the

music, but the actors, dialogue, setting and tone all play an important role. By portraying a

young, fresh popular face as the Mac, it automatically engages the viewer and immediately has

them favoring Mac as opposed to PC. The dialogue for Mac is much cooler than the PC, which

has the audience in Mac’s favor as well. Their clothing and personality types also play a huge

part. The setting is simple and focused on the actors, occasionally bringing in some outside

sources for emphasis or to make a point. The actor’s personalities and clothing also play a role in

setting the overall tone of the commercials.

I feel that Apple is trying to reach not only a young audience, but also an older audience.

They’re attempting to inform the youth that Mac’s are cool and the older audience that they look

uncool by having a PC. Mac’s tend to be more popular amongst college students and young

adults. Considering the older audience probably still use PC’s, Mac wants to encourage them to

make the switch to their machines.