A guy in jeans introduces himself as a Mac. A guy in a beige suit introduces himself as a PC. That’s it — that’s the whole format, repeated dozens of times over three years, and it became one of the most recognizable advertising bits of the 2000s.
Apple and agency TBWA\Media Arts Lab launched “Get a Mac” in May 2006, casting actor Justin Long as the relaxed, casually dressed Mac and writer-actor John Hodgman as the stiff, suit-wearing PC. Each thirty-second spot dropped the pair into an empty white space for a short exchange about one specific pain point of using a Windows computer — viruses, forced restarts, bloated software — with the PC always coming off worse. No product shots, no spec sheets, just two characters and a punchline.
The format was simple enough to repeat endlessly without wearing out its welcome, running new installments through 2009 across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Japan (the UK version swapped in comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb). “Hello, I’m a Mac. And I’m a PC” became a cultural catchphrase, parodied on late-night television and eventually provoking Microsoft into its own direct-response campaign, “I’m a PC.”
Apple’s share of the personal computer market roughly doubled over the campaign’s run, and analysts routinely point to “Get a Mac” as a case study in building a brand identity out of personality rather than features. Nearly two decades later, the pairing of a laid-back guy and a guy in a suit is still shorthand for the entire Mac-versus-PC rivalry.
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