The 10 Funniest Apple-Ad Parodies
From 1984 to the famous manila folder, Apple's TV ads have been ripe targets for satirists and rival companies. Here are 10 of the best take-offs.
Tom Spring, PC World
Next Monday, Steve Jobs will take the stage in San Francisco for 2008's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Almost everyone expects that Jobs will announce the second edition of the iPhone. And that the announcement will be followed by a barrage of stylish and witty ads. And that those ads will be followed by an avalanche of snarky spoofs on YouTube.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Apple's marketing department must be blushing. The company's television ad campaigns are the subject of hundreds if not thousands of parodies on the Internet. Lots of them are--let's be honest--painfully amateurish and not all that funny. But some really get it. They take Apple's minimalist look, its deliberately casual style, and its laidback sincerity, and turn everything on its head. Sometimes the target is Apple itself, while other times Apple's competitors are in the crosshairs--and still other times, the idea is just to have a laugh.
Here are some of the greatest hits from the Apple-mockumercial archives.
Apple 'Switch' Campaign: Crash Different
In 2002, Apple launched its "Switch" ad campaign, in which a person against a white backdrop talked about how easy it was to change from a Windows machine to a Mac. A major part of each ad featured the former Windows user bemoaning their PC's limits and flaws.
Hunter Crestle didn't buy the ad's premise, because he knew that using a Mac can be just as frustrating. In his 3.5-minute spoof, Crestle rants and raves about his Mac, complaining about system lockups, interface confusion, and update hassles. Interspersed are shots of him drop-kicking an iMac and otherwise violating Apple hardware.
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