By Katie Marsal
Published: 03:20 PM EST (12:20 PM PST)
Apple has ended its long-running and highly successful "Get a Mac" ad campaign, and this week the company finally pulled the series of commercials from its website.
Actor Justin Long first revealed
in April that the ads, which began with his trademark "Hello, I'm a Mac" tagline, were finished. Long's "Mac" character was the straight man in the routine, flanked by comedian John Hodgman's portrayal of the bumbling "PC" character.
"It was so much fun to go do that job, because there's not a lot to it for me," Long told
The Onion's A.V. Club last month. "A lot of it is just keeping myself entertained between takes, and there's no one I'd rather do it with than John (Hodgman)."
On Friday,
MacRumors first discovered that Apple had removed the "Get a Mac" commercials from its website. The last three ads were released in
October 2009 to counteract Microsoft's release of Windows 7.
Apple replaced the ads with a new campaign, with the theme "Why you'll love a Mac," featured at
apple.com/why-mac/. The site touts buying a Mac as making the "ultimate upgrade."
The successful "Get a Mac" campaign, which began with
six commercials in May 2006, portrayed Windows PCs as machines that are prone to issues that frustrate consumers, and lack the simplicity and ease of use of the Mac. Many of the commercials attacked Windows for being susceptible to viruses and system crashes.
The commercials proved to be extremely successful, and aired during a period of tremendous growth for the Mac platform. Last year,
Adweek named the "Get a Mac" campaign the
best ad campaign of the decade.
Last year, Microsoft stepped up its own
advertising campaign and made an effort to reclaim the "I'm a PC" tagline from Apple. Television spots for Windows 7 have featured customers taking credit for the improvements in the new operating system, with the slogan "I'm a PC, and Windows 7 was my idea."
