How the ‘Get a Mac’ ads were made
Campaign Live has assembled an oral history of how the iconic ‘Get a Mac’ ads were made, with the people who made them. It’s a great look behind the scenes at the amount of insane work that went on behind the campaign, which ran from 2006 to 2009.
Campaign Live has assembled an oral history of how the iconic ‘Get a Mac’ ads were made, with the people who made them. It’s a great look behind the scenes at the amount of insane work that went on behind the campaign, which ran from 2006 to 2009.
For example, while the team shot 323 videos, Steve Jobs only approved 66 to go on air. From the start, it took advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day seven excruciating months to come up with the concept, after constant rejections from Steve Job. The pressure became so intense that Jason Sterling, creative director, says, “I think that week I had people in my office crying, saying that they couldn’t do this anymore.”
Other tidbits include how even though Justin Long’s ‘Mac’ was wearing casual clothing, it turns out to have been very focused, designer casual clothing. Mike Refuerzo, executive producer, mentions that, “He would have very tailored designer denim. Even though they were T-shirts, they were fitted, well-designed, the best fabric, the best T-shirts you can buy. If it was a hoodie it was like the best cotton hoodie that you can get, and by a designer that would make it fit on his body well.”
One surprise is that they actually shot quite a few ads with celebrity guests like Zack Galifianakis, Jenna Fischer, and even motivational speaker Tony Robbins. But most of them never went on air because Steve Jobs didn’t like them.
One of the main criticisms against the ‘Get a Mac’ ads was that John Hodgman’s stumbling, earnest ‘PC’ was the more lovable of the two — sometimes you just rooted for the poor fella. It was a fine line for the two actors to balance, one that Justin Long was very aware of, “They started taking away a lot of the back and forth, because I resisted being belittling. That was the job for me, trying to undercut how inherently arrogant the guy is.”
The ‘Get a Mac’ campaign became so successful that it spread overseas, with Japanese and British native ads. Microsoft even did a counter-campaign with its own ‘I’m a PC’ ads. The entire campaign ran for four years, but the team felt that it probably wouldn’t have lasted that long if not for the botched launch of Windows Vista in 2007. Its many problems gave the team more fodder to work on.
The oral history, parts 1 and 2, are a trip down memory lane for geeks who remember those days. The Mac was going through its Intel transition when the first ads launched, and it was still pretty much the underdog. By the time the last ad aired, Apple had already released the insanely successful iPhone and was fast on its ascendency. The same ads playing Apple as the upstart just wouldn’t fly today.
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