An Oral History of Apple's 'Get a Mac' Ad Campaign as Told By the Writers, Crew and Actors

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Posted December 10, 2016 at 4:03pm by Shalom Levytam

Apple's famous 'Get a Mac' campaign was one of the most effective in the company's history. Featuring a Mac (Justin Long) and a PC (John Hodgman), the ads touted the advantages of Mac over PC in a likable and humorous manner.

Campaign Live has managed to bring together ten members of the creative team, the crew and the actors to share the untold stories of how the campaign came to life.

In September 2005, Steve Jobs gave his advertising agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day, an assignment: Come up with a campaign that clearly demonstrates the Mac's superiority to the PC. There was no deadline. Seven months, dozens of tense meetings and countless discarded ideas later, the agency produced "Get a Mac." It would go on to become one of the most succesful and admired ad campaigns in Apple's history, no small feat when "1984," "Think Different" and "Silhouette" are the competition. Among those legendary ads, "Get a Mac" stands out as the most overtly comedic and one of the most expansive: The team shot 323 spots over three years just to get the 66 that made it on air.

The in-depth article offers a very interesting first hand account of how the idea came to life, how the actors were cast, how the campaign expanded internationally, and much more. It's definitely worth a read.

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iH85CH001 - December 13, 2016 at 7:43pm

I miss these. These tell a tale of when apple used to be good. Rip.

gamerscul9870 - December 10, 2016 at 7:04pm

If there's anything that makes this work unlike the way some competition does it, it's because 1. these ads aren't pointing any spotlights an another companies' product because it generally is reffering to the entire PC market instead of just ganging up on one computer by one company, which also means showing support if that were to happen. 2. Say what you will, but they do explain as to why Mac had what it did and compared the PC to it without biased opinions. 3. They also just left it as that instead of going a new low like those note 4 or surface & Lumia 'ads'. Even if any of you say that this is just a reminder of why Apple is getting payback nowadays, there is no damage done here to piss others off (Correct me if I'm wrong →) because Microsoft probably didn't have their own computers until now despite partnering with Alabame in the 80s. (I was a kid back then so I didn't see a Microsoft store or was aware of their site, but never heard about their comouters until 2012).