The ‘I’m a Mac’ ad series proved to be highly successful for Apple and was copied and parodied by many. One element critical in the successful execution of this series was that they never “kicked the puppy.” They didn’t take the cheap shot. They didn’t go nuclear. They didn’t take a sympathetic character and push him off a cliff. They didn’t kick the puppy.
While PC always failed, Mac was always reaching out to PC – no one was ever truly mean spirited towards PC. PC was a sympathetic character, but one with whom you still didn’t quite want to associate yourself. In each case, Mac offered a pathway to freedom from the awkwardness of PC.
In the last few days there have been a plethora of commentaries about why Apple pulled their recent Genius campaign and why the campaign just didn’t work (here, here, and here). I sum it up by saying that they “kicked the puppy.” They lifted up their own position by lowering another’s – and the other in this case was their customer. The customer that wants to be better, smarter, snazzier. The customer that wants to ‘be a Mac.’ Instead of offering a gateway to becoming a Mac, the ads said some customers will just never get it. They might have a Mac, but they won’t be a Mac. Apple kicked the puppy.
MGetz 