Appeal In Advertising

I am very impressed with Apple's latest television campaign. The whole I'm A Mac / I'm A PC set-up is brilliant. It's brilliant because of the way they personified the competing products to give Apple an air of humility. Yes, humility.

So many advertising campaigns fail because they imply that people who don't buy their product are stupid, unstlyish, uncool or just plain inferior. The campaign for Sega's old Game Gear is one of the most perfect examples. The whole campaign implied that their product was a second-place product. The negative advertising alienated the customers who were already loyal to the competing product. Not only was the technology inappropriate for the time, Sega shot themselves down with their advertising.

And more recently, the same things happened in the recent U.S. Congressional Election. Some claim that Rush Limbaugh actually HELPED the Democrats with his acrimonious broadcasts. Negative advertising at its finest.

Back to Apple, they seem to have dropped all pretentiousness and holier-than-thou attitude. In their commercials, the Mac-guy is never once dismissive of the PC-guy. The Mac talks about what makes him great, and he tries to accommodate the PC through all his troubles. Mac never does anything negative. Mac is the kind of guy you want to invite over to your house. It's only the PC who comes across as portraying itself as a second-rate product. PC comes across as insecure and arrogant due to his faults, and generally trying to compensate through negativity. The PC reminds you of your insecure friend. The kind of person you have to baby-sit or they'll get themselves into trouble.

Of course this is all a highly biased portrayal from one company for the purpose of selling you something. But I think it works. Apple successfully conveys the idea that their product is much better and worth your money. And they do it without chiding anyone for siding with the opposition or making you feel like you need their product to be cool or feel better about yourself. And that is advertising excellence. It is superiority through humility. It makes you want a Mac.

I really with more advertisers would catch onto the idea that humility is the way to people's souls. Being loud and pushy only turns people off due to your obnoxious behaviour. But entertaining them, giving them a laugh or two, and showing with some humility that the other guy wants what you have really connects with people.

That is smart advertising.