Josh Hendrickson
You remember the “I’m a Mac” commercials, right? “Hello, I’m a Mac. And I’m a PC. Here are some unfair comparisons that don’t truly illustrate Mac versus PC.” Well, Justin Long (the I’m a Mac Guy) is back, but this time he’s talking up PC in some Intel commercials. And boy, are they something else.
In case you need a refresher, here are some of the famous “I’m a Mac” commercials. Fair warning, these commercials are nearly as old as YouTube, so we found the highest resolution copy possible, but prepare for fuzz.
The thing about the “I’m a Mac” commercials is they were never 100% honest. They usually featured comparisons that at first blush were true but left out all the essential details. The commercials were incredibly effective, fun, and usually led to a few laughs (unless you were a hardcore Windows fan).
But that was then, and this is now, and nothing says “change my mind” like a solid paycheck or finding out that a company doesn’t support your products anymore. So some 15 years later, Justin Long is back, and he’s here to talk up Intel (and thus Windows devices). Intel seems unhappy with Apple’s recent move to use its own silicon and dump Intel in the process.
https://youtu.be/9gtRRMd2_UI
The new commercials start with a distinct reference to the classic “I’m a Mac” line—Justin begins with, “Hello, I’m a … Justin.” He then goes on to make various comparisons between Apple-silicon-powered devices and Intel-powered devices.
https://youtu.be/WfHplU5fatE
Some of the comparisons are fair, like pointing out that Apple’s silicon only supports one external monitor, compared to the three external monitors you can get with Intel. Others are a little flat. Intel focused a lot on the Asus Zenbook, with its second monitor above the keyboard, and even took a moment to poke a stick at Apple’s TouchBar.
https://youtu.be/nYSm_HOg2kg
But while Mac don’t have touchscreens, that has nothing to with Intel or Apple’s new silicon. Apple just doesn’t want to support touchscreen. Neither does Apple’s “it just comes in grey” choice for its styling. It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t like the look of a MacBook, so that attack just doesn’t land.
If anything, it’s interesting to see Intel go full-on attack mode against Apple in this new set of commercials. That move to Apple silicon can’t have left the company happy. As for Justin Long, well, don’t put too much stock into his jump to PC. In the end, a paycheck is a paycheck, and celebrities often “endorse” products they don’t actually use.
