OK, OK, Not All Commercials Are Bad

One of my earliest blogs was all about why I hate commercials. Nothing's changed on that front, but I'll admit that the odd ad will actually provide some enjoyment. The "Mac vs PC" campaign that's underway now is quite amusing, and very intelligently written, to boot. It's probably the exception that proves the rule, since it stands head and shoulders above its contemporaries in terms of quality, to my eyes at least. The latest one I saw involved the two avatar-like embodiments taking counselling together. The last line, something like, "Perhaps we should consider going to two sessions a week" as delivered by the shrink after "the PC" couldn't quite manage to deliver a straight-up compliment to "the Mac", was perfect.

I've heard of, but haven't seen, a Canadian comedy parody of the series in which it's "Liberal vs PC", which of course works beautifully, as anyone familiar with Canadian politics could attest to.

I find I'll actually rewind to watch one of these if I spot a new one while zipping past the commercials.

The ultimate irony, though, is that the ad campaign would lead one to believe that it's Apple leading the market, since clearly they have the cooler, better and more relevant product compared to the stodgy environment ruled by Microsoft. And of course nothing could be further from the truth, as Macs continue to take around 5% of less of the market share. It's a remarkable achievement that the creators of these commercials can actually make us forget that for 30 seconds at a time. And who knows? Maybe they'll actually create an impression that's so strong that it'll remake reality to fit it, over time.