skills/creative-director/references/legendary-campaigns/cards/apple-get-a-mac-2006.md

---
id: apple-get-a-mac-2006
title: "Get a Mac (Mac vs. PC)"
brand: Apple
agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab
year: 2006
country: US
region: north_america
industry: tech_telco
pattern: [P02, P11]
category: film
idea_type: advertising
involvement: passive_view
channel: hybrid
duration: ongoing
goal: [awareness, trial, advocacy]
budget: high
emotion: [ironic_sincerity, proud]
emotion_tier: 3
insight_domain: identity
media_epoch: tv_first
awards: [cannes_grand_prix, multiple]
quality_score: 9
scalability: universal
risk: edgy
confidence: high
quality: canonical
source_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rV-dbDMS18
---

# Get a Mac (Mac vs. PC) (Apple · 2006)

## Insight
The PC vs. Mac divide was about more than computing — it was an identity statement. PC users were workers, conformists, people who did what the corporate world demanded. Mac users were creatives, individuals, people who chose differently. Apple's insight: make the product choice a character choice, and personify both characters so the audience knows immediately which one they want to be.

## Mechanic
A long-running campaign of 66 spots over four years, each featuring "Mac" (Justin Long — young, casual, creative) and "PC" (John Hodgman — older, awkward, corporate) in dialogue. The conflict (P02) was always between two clearly differentiated characters. P11 operated through Hodgman's increasingly absurd situations and rationalizations. Each spot demonstrated a specific product advantage through the characters' interaction rather than through specification. Never a screenshot. Never a demo. Pure character.

## Why it worked
Enemy-based positioning (P02) at its most refined: the opponent was lovable enough to watch but clearly wrong. Hodgman's PC was not hateful — he was recognizably, painfully corporate, which meant Mac's casual ease was the obviously preferable alternative. The campaign ran 66 spots without a single weak execution because the brief was infinitely flexible: any situation where Mac is better than PC generated a new spot. The characters were so precisely calibrated that audiences identified immediately. The tagline "Get a Mac" was the call to action after the characters had already done the work.

## Steal
When your competitor is genuinely inferior at something, personify both brands as characters and let the audience observe the difference rather than claim it. Make the competitor sympathetic enough to be watchable, and the contrast becomes the argument.

## Related
- Pattern: [[../MOC-pattern.md#p02]]
- Sibling: [[avis-we-try-harder-1962.md|We Try Harder]]
- Sibling: [[kfc-fck-2018.md|FCK]]
- Emotion match: [[absolut-absolut-campaign-1981.md|Absolut _____]]

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*Author: Serge Shima ([t.me/aimastersme](https://t.me/aimastersme) · [sergeshima.com](https://sergeshima.com) · [aimasters.me](https://aimasters.me)) · License: CC BY 4.0 — attribution required · Source: [smixs/creative-director-skill](https://github.com/smixs/creative-director-skill)*