Text 16622, 56 rader
Skriven 2007-03-01 13:04:28 av Rich Gauszka (1:379/45)
Ärende: Apple ads bomb in Britain
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From: "Rich Gauszka" <gauszka@dontspamhotmail.com>


'When you see the ads you think PCs are a bit rubbish yet ultimately
loveable, whereas Macs are just smug, preening tossers',"

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117271641509622894-RD_piDo0Mwtate0wj_BL0
c6HAZM_20080229.html?mod=blogs
When Apple Inc. wanted to bring its series of "Mac vs. PC" ads to international
markets, it faced a difficult issue: What's funny in one culture can seem
ill-mannered in another.

...

To recreate the delicate dynamic in the U.K., Apple hired two moderately
well-known actors, David Mitchell and Robert Webb, who have their own TV sitcom
in Britain called "Peep Show." The actors play characters similar to their
roles in the show, which follows the lives of two friends sharing a London
flat. Mr. Mitchell's character, a bank loan officer, is sensible and stuffy.
Mr. Webb plays a musician who is sociable and uninterested in getting a regular
job.

The U.K. versions hew closely to the original, though some dialogue is made
more relevant to local audiences. In one U.S. ad that shows the PC suffering
from a terrible cold, meant to represent a computer virus, the bug is a
"doozy." But in the U.K., the virus is a "humdinger."

TBWA also wrote a new spot for the U.K. that uses a real statistic to deliver
one of the key messages of the campaign: that PCs are designed for work and
Macs for fun. In the ad, Mac points out Brits work longer hours than any other
nationality in Europe. "And they get less holidays," says PC. "Smashing, isn't
it?"

Even with the use of local comedians, the ads haven't received a completely
warm reception in Britain. One newspaper columnist, Charlie Brooker of the
Guardian, mocked Apple for trying to be too cool and delivering a "series of
brutal coordinated attacks." "When you see the ads you think 'PCs are a bit
rubbish yet ultimately loveable, whereas Macs are just smug, preening
tossers'," he wrote on February 5. (A tosser is a pretentious person.)

A polling firm, YouGov PLC, found respect for Apple fell in Britain after the
ads started appearing in cinemas and Web sites January 29. According to a
YouGov daily survey of 2,000 people, perceptions of the Apple brand, measured
on a scale of 1 to 100, fell to 8 from 14 in the five days after the ads first
appeared. "There was nothing else happening that we know of that would have
moved the figure," says Sundip Chahal, brand index director at YouGov.

Some consumers in Japan were also offended. An ad that "slanders rival products
can never be popular in Japan," wrote one anonymous poster on Kotaro Blog, a
pop culture commentary. Others said the popularity of the comic duo the Rahmens
made the comparison approach palatable.

Apple declined to comment on the campaign.

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