Cute Apple parody from The Sun

This seems a great illustration of why taking a positive, light-hearted tone makes the message. If there'd even been a hint of resentment or mean-spiritedness in this ad (for one of Murdoch's papers!), it would just invite ridicule.

• [Ernunnos]

  If there’d even been a hint of resentment or mean-spiritedness in this ad (for one of Murdoch’s papers!), it would just invite ridicule.

  Huh? Because the public doesn’t like or can’t handle snark? You realize you’re writing for Boing Boing, one of the more reliably snarky blogs out there? The Mac-PC ads are full of digs, some quite mean-spirited, and that doesn’t seem to limit their effectiveness. Although they do get parodied often, that’s mostly just an indicator of how effective they are.

  I’ve been seeing a lot of this sort of meta-analysis lately. “What message does this send?” in reference to some ad or political event. The implication being that the author and the reader “get it” – whatever the real message is – or are capable of evaluating the product from an elevated perspective. But that there is some third class of people out there – Joe Sixpack, impressionable teenage girls, you know, people not as sophisticated as us – who will take it at face value. They would respond badly, they need to be protected from the hidden messages in Ralph Lauren ads, etc.

  Don’t look now, but you are Joe Sixpack. “If you’re watching, it’s for you.“

  • [eviladrian]

    I think it’s more that Murdoch is seen by many folks as media’s Great Satan, not least for his stand against Google’s repackaging of his headlines into their search results.
    Being too snarky about people who read Google News on their iPhones would taste a bit like sour grapes.

  • [Anonymous]

    Snark is fine, but I agree that the ad would have been less effective had it been mean spirited. Most of us use see the internet as the future of news and information – a “mean” ad, to me, would seem like the bitter last gasp of a dying industry. This made me smile and reminded me how much I enjoy sitting down with a cup of coffee and the morning paper.

  • [Rob Beschizza]

    “The Mac-PC ads are full of digs, some quite mean-spirited, and that doesn’t seem to limit their effectiveness.”

    Apple isn’t a newspaper publisher clinging desperately to a troubled business model. Didn’t you get the meta-analytical memo?

• [Anonymous]

  Yeah… I suppose this is [The Sun’s] print media’s attempt to win back all the market share they’ve lost to digital media; I don’t think it’ll work.

  I wouldn’t have expected this from such a low socio-economic newspaper though, Maybe ‘The Guardian’?

  Hope it’s released as a TV advert!

• [SteveT]

  Won’t read the lying Sun and won’t watch it’s ad’s.

  (I’m a Liverpool F.C. supporter who was at Hillsborough. Read the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_Disaster#The_Sun_newspaper_controversy)

• [jmzero]

  The Mac-PC ads are full of digs, some quite mean-spirited, and that doesn’t seem to limit their effectiveness

  Meh – I’ve talked to a few people who identify strongly with the PC character and think the Mac guy is kind of a jerk.

  And, really, how are you going to make John Hodgman not be the more likable of any two characters?

  Literally the only more sympathetic, pleasant guy I could think of would be David Mitchell (who naturally they’ve got playing PC in the British ads). Oh, or Jimmy Stewart, but he’s dead and I don’t think that would play well.

• [Kimmo]

  Nice idea for an ad…The Sun is still trash though.

• [Anonymous]

  Looks like this is a content sharing advertisement… easily give it away to our friends. Is this not contrary to what we are being ‘educated’ to not do?

• [Crubellier]

  Bizarre. I’d have thought they’d have shown the weird Franco-esque Page 3, where far-right political ‘opinions’ are put into the mouths of topless women. But then I suppose putting their most famous feature in the ad would have resulted in it being yanked by YouTube, which would have been awkward.

• [pointfour]

  Nice idea for an ad…The Sun is still trash though.

• [chudez]

  great ad.
  still prefer internet browsing, though.
  nice try, play again sometime.

• [Anonymous]

  love it or hate it, the sun performs a wonderful service for UK adult literacy.

• [peternz]

  And here on page 3, free soft-core porn. Available without subscription, or age-verification!

• [Fang Xianfu]

  I don’t understand all the negativity about this ad, frankly, because it does a great job of highlighting the good things about print. The “this is how easy it is to share content with friends” section was especially good in this world of paywalls and DRM.

  Doesn’t mean that Murdoch’s not a douche, it just means that some marketing company out there knows their stuff :)

• [Anonymous]

  Awesome. Great example of a well-executed combat ad.

• [Daemon]

  But can you use the internet to wrap up your fish ‘n’ chips?

• [Anonymous]

  I like it, just not for the Sun.It’s too… nice. There’s no whining about ‘Johny Foreigner’,chatting to Jordan and where were the naked women.

  Maybe the Guardian works best.

  Fun add though :)

• [eviladrian]

  Penny Arcade’s take on print media: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/3/9/

• [AllyPally]

  It seems suspiciously subtle for the Super Soaraway Sun

• [Dave Bullock (eecue)]

  LOL @ “the very best in news”

• [Anonymous]

  As Albert Einstein said: :Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

• [Anonymous]

  They missed the best parts. no batteries needed, coffee spills are no problem, and if your kid rips it or throws cereal on it also no problem.

• [taj1f]

  Unless an ad presents good reasons to ignite a desire to possess/experience the item/service advertised, it’s a failure. And they really missed out on presenting the rag as THE must-have item by not featuring its other highly convenient uses: lining birdcages, wadding it up to start a fire, protecting surfaces from paint, etc.