When I saw Apple's new Intel chip commercial, my first thought was that it was made solely for Mac trade shows and would never actually see general broadcast. I mean, as a Mac user, I got it. I giggled on the "dull little boxes, dull little tasks" line. But does the non-Mac user - the non-tech head - understand it?
It's a very nice spot. I love the restrained, hopeful looks on the technicians' faces. Keifer Sutherland is just as distinctive, commanding and measured as Jeff Goldblum was in his VO work.
But I don't think it sells the Mac very well, and I certainly don't know who is the target audience. I've known about Mac switching to Intel chips for a while now, and I still have no idea what that really means. So what does the guy still on Windows 2000 think? The spot wants you to "imagine the possibilities," which is the only disgustingly amateurish line in the whole :30. Guess what, jerkwad: You're the TV commercial. You have to tell me what to think about your stupid product. I don't have to imagine a goddamn thing. Does an Intel-based Mac mean the computer is faster? Better compatibility? Easier to use? To fix? To upgrade? It might be all of that and more, or some of that and less, the spot ain't sayin'.
It also implies that we all hold a certain amount of esteem for the Intel chip prior to all of this. That we should feel sorry that all of its power has been squandered. Do we? Do you consider the Intel chip a brand name as important as the Hemi inside your Dodge, the NBC behind MSNBC? Intel chips are inside just about every PC out there, therefore they are in a lot more crappy computers than good ones. That's not a high-powered, exclusive, upper-crust brand that I can get behind.
Most people could care less what is inside their computers, as long as they have a working web browser, email, and the ability to store family photographs. Most people are going to blink past this spot before the logo fades out. When it comes to the PC userbase created by Windows' years of crappy interfaces, inconsistant behavior and weekly virus crises, "imagining the possibilities" isn't really a priority. They're just happy the damn things boot up each morning.
This is a commercial aimed squarely at tech-heads, to grab the PC fence-sitters out there who might consider buying a Mac now that it has some familiar interior hardware. (Meaning that, at some point, you'll be able to boot both OSX and Windows on these things... but again, only tech-heads give a crap about doing something absurd like that.) And despite containing some of Apple's most aggressive copy points to date, it's chiefly written to spoon feed existing Mac users some shadenfreude and spur them to buy up to the new systems.
And of course, there's no pricing at all. You simply can't mention price in a Mac spot, because the Dell spot right after it will be crowing about a $300 wonder bundle. As Mac fans, we've always been bipolar about the whole pricing thing. Half the time we go to extravagant lengths to prove that a factory Mac costs nearly the same as a comparably built and spec'ed PC box... and the other half we relish pointing out that if you want quality, you have to pay extra for it. You don't expect a Rolls to cost the same as a Yugo, even though both are obviously automobiles. You have to be a diehard Mac fan to understand the logical break there... just like you have to be a diehard Windows fan to accept having to run security patches every three days.
Screw this Intel marketing-speak. It's empty air. The only possibility I'm imagining is when Apple takes the $500 Mac Mini and adds a mini-LCD and mini-keyboard, and backs it up with a spot campaign that assures Windows users that they'll be able to do everything they used to do, only better. Then you've got something that's a lot harder for doldrumized Windows users to overlook.
