Branding and marketing moves very quickly these days. Just check the Queen bee’s last post on Flash Beer and Boony. Apparently the Flash Beer commercial got over 40,000 hits in the first few hours it was unleashed online. Unbelievable! This lead me to another advertising campaign I’m very fond of.

It just so happened I was wondering around town today again in one of my “should I or shouldn’t I” moods. I’ve been contemplating buying a new Mac for sometime now and while it’s only a matter of time, I watched the Mac TV commercial in the Mac store and noticed something I had previously missed ignored.

If you don’t know which campaign I am talking about, it’s the one that features a typical, dorky, chino wearing guy – The PC and a noticeably younger, relatively laid back, creative wannabe – The Mac, both arguing with each other who is better etc etc. (Pictured above)

I have decided this is a very odd piece of marketing. Undoubtedly, it plays into the very soul of the Apple devotee. But, truly, I don’t think they need any more encouragement? If Apple ever bought out self-administered tattoos, these guys would lap it up without any evidence of contemplation. This brings me to my question, if the ads are not directed at Apple owners (they obviously already know they’re onto a good thing), then who? PC owners? Surely not?

The series of ads blatantly makes fun of non-Apple owners. It declares them as monkeys in oversized suits, obsessed with pie charts, clueless ‘yes’ men who are completely absent of creativity. What chance do they have of turning these guys into loyalists with that sort of name calling?

I spoke with a friend of mine later on (he uses a PC) who is right into the number crunching but by no means the PC moron depicted by Apple. He made me realise that while there are a strong band of Apple loyalists, there is an even larger group of people out there that really don’t give a SHIT!

Being in the industry I’m in, I really enjoy the ads, they’re creative and funny and I’d like to think that they hold enough cut through to sell more Macs, but is all that self congratulating behavior necessary? They’re really having a good crack at creating an anti-Apple army. Although we won’t complain at the beezhouse, (as far as a few of us see it the fewer the better), Apple have either not thought about the marketing or in a Steve Jobs kinda way, out-thought me tenfold and see it all funnelling into world domination sometime in the next decade. I suspect maybe the latter.

My other concern is how long it will take before the Mac is just a pretty PC. I’d like to see the advertising angle either camp takes on this one.