Plenty of people switch between Mac and PC for their computing needs. Apple’s one-time “I’m a Mac” guy is switching his entire persona.
In a new ad campaign from Intel, actor Justin Long doesn’t go so far as to become a PC, but he is “just a regular person” who wants to better understand the difference between Macs and the competition. The results aren’t pretty for Apple, but they’re pretty funny.
Long starred in Apple’s “Get a Mac” advertising campaign from 2006 to 2009. The ads featured a hip, casually dressed young guy — “Hello, “I’m a Mac” — and a frumpy, suit-wearing guy — “And I’m a PC.”
Author and TV personality John Hodgman reprised his role as a Microsoft Windows PC back in November during Apple’s reveal of a new chip and new Macs. The bit stopped there.
Intel is taking things a bit further, with the release Wednesday of five ads featuring Long, tied to a campaign called goPC.
In the opening ad, above, Long marvels at the choice of laptops running on Intel’s processor, compared to two Apple laptops — in “grey or grey-er,” Long moans.
Long is impressed in another ad by the 2-in-1 flexibility of a PC that alternates between laptop and tablet. He’s then handed an armload of accessories to achieve that flexibility with a Mac, including separate tablet, keypad, stylus and a dongle.
The ads go on with comparisons to gaming on a PC vs a Mac; touch screens on PCs vs the Mac touch bar; and additional monitor compatibility.
Apple confirmed its plans last summer to shift its Mac lineup to its own processors, moving its notebook and desktop computers away from Intel chips after 15 years. The company said at the time that the switch to Apple processors will make Macs more powerful and responsive, and give users the ability to install and run iPhone and iPad apps directly on the Mac due to the common architecture.
Intel’s goPC website goes deep on what it calls “real research and test results” to illustrate why a PC with an 11th Gen Intel Core mobile processor offers users more. Intel says “many Apple M1 claims don’t translate to real-world usage and appear questionable” and “M1 MacBook features just don’t stack up.”
Long isn’t the first pitchman to switch teams. The “Can you hear me now?” guy from Verizon switched to rival Sprint back in 2016, for example.
