Apple Switch ad campaign

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Switch was an advertising campaign launched by Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) 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 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.

Contents

Switchers [edit]

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One of the people who appeared in the commercials, Ellen Feiss, gained immense notoriety overnight in a kind of Internet phenomenon. (Feiss was a friend of Morris's son Hamilton Morris, who also appeared in a commercial.[1]

Localized versions of the commercials, with local "switchers", aired in Iceland and Japan.

Certain ads featured celebrities, such as Tony Hawk, DJ Q-Bert, Yo-Yo Ma, Kelly Slater, Will Ferrell, and the members of De La Soul.

The American Switchers (plus one Canadian) featured are:

The Japanese Switchers featured are:

  • Hiroatsu Takekura
  • Keiko Tamura
  • Keisuke Hanafusa
  • Kiminori Hirose
  • Momoko Kikuchi
  • Nobuyuki Shiba
  • Satoru Yokouchi
  • Seiji Hongo
  • Erikaa Kiyama

American Switchers (not officially released):

Campaign [edit]

The Switch campaign, while distinctive, was not very effective, and was gradually phased out in 2003. The advertising concept of the Mac's advantages over the PC was later revived for the Get a Mac campaign in 2006.

Due to the simplicity of the ad, many parodies 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 misleading, even to the point of having a stock photograph used. [1]

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 [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Brown University Newspaper Publishes Interview With Ellen Feiss". The Mac Observer. November 22, 2002.

External links [edit]

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