Switchers was an
advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ideas, beliefs, and conc ...
launched by Apple Computer, Inc. (now
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
) on June 10, 2002. It featured what the company referred to as "real people" who had "switched" from the
Microsoft Windows platform to the
Mac. An international
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
and print ad campaign directed users to a website where various "myths" about the Mac platform were "dispelled". The television commercials were directed by
Errol Morris
Errol Mark Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of its subjects. In 2003, his documentary film '' The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamar ...
.
Switchers
A young woman who appeared in the commercials, Ellen Feiss, became an
internet celebrity. Feiss was a friend of Morris's son
Hamilton Morris, who also appeared in a commercial.
Localized versions of the commercials, with local "switchers", aired in
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
and
Japan.
Certain ads featured
celebrities
Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...
, such as
Tony Hawk
Anthony Frank Hawk (born May 12, 1968), nicknamed Birdman, is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. A pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding, Hawk completed the first documen ...
,
DJ Q-Bert,
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma ('' Chinese'': 馬友友 ''Ma Yo Yo''; born October 7, 1955) is an American cellist. Born in Paris to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, he was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from ...
,
Kelly Slater,
Will Ferrell
John William Ferrell (; born July 16, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, and producer. He first established himself in the mid-1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show '' Saturday Night Live'', where he performed from 1995 to 2 ...
, and the members of
De La Soul.
Campaign
The Switch campaign, while distinctive, was not very effective, and was gradually phased out in 2003. This can be somewhat blamed, however, for the Macintosh lineup as the
iMac G3
The iMac G3, originally released as the iMac, is a series of Macintosh personal computers sold by Apple Computer from 1998 to 2003. The iMac was the first major new product release for Apple under Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO and cofounder ...
was becoming obsolete while the new
iMac G4
The iMac G4 is an all-in-one personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from January 2002 to August 2004. It replaced the iMac G3 and was succeeded by the iMac G5.
Design and marketing
The iMac G4 featured an ...
that was showcased was considerably more expensive than comparable
Wintel offerings. The advertising concept of the Mac's advantages over the PC was dropped in favor for the
Get a Mac
The "Get a Mac" campaign is a television advertising campaign created for Apple Inc. (Apple Computer, Inc. at the start of the campaign) by TBWA\Media Arts Lab, the company's advertising agency, that ran from 2006 to 2009. The advertising cam ...
campaign in 2006.
Due to the simplicity of the ad, many
parodies
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...
surfaced on the net shortly after the campaign started. Most of the parodies lamented features they had lost due to the switch, such as the ability to play popular games and use of the right mouse button. In what seemed like a parody, but was not, Microsoft's marketing team created a Web page titled "Confessions of a Mac to PC Convert", but Microsoft removed the Web page because it was fraudulent and misleading, even to the point of having a stock photograph used.
The background music of the Switch Ads is "Spit" by
John Murphy. The music was produced for TBWA Chiat Day by Kendall Marsh of Mental Music Productions, Sherman Oaks, CA.
See also
*
Get a Mac
The "Get a Mac" campaign is a television advertising campaign created for Apple Inc. (Apple Computer, Inc. at the start of the campaign) by TBWA\Media Arts Lab, the company's advertising agency, that ran from 2006 to 2009. The advertising cam ...
*
Think different
"Think different" is an advertising slogan used from 1997 to 2002 by Apple Computer, Inc., now named Apple Inc. The campaign was created by the Los Angeles office of advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day.
The slogan has been widely taken as a resp ...
References
{{reflist
External links
Mirror of Apple Switch advertisementsHunter Cressall's Mac Switch spoofSpoof switch ads
by the Phone Losers of America
The Phone Losers of America (PLA) is an internet prank call community founded in 1994 as a phone phreaking and hacking e-zine. Today the PLA hosts the popular prank call podcast the ''Snow Plow Show'' which it has hosted since 2012.
History ...
Press release from the launch
via the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
Apple's Switch ads page
via WayBack Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...
Apple Inc. advertising
American television commercials
2000s television commercials
Advertising campaigns