Apple's 'Get a Mac' attack

Apple Computer may have broken bread with the Wintel camp, but that doesn't mean it's finding the closer association easy to swallow.

The new Get a Mac ad campaign continues the company's long tradition of putdowns aimed at PCs that run the Windows operating system, featuring an easy-going, T-shirt-and-sneakers-clad techno-hipster ("I'm a Mac") and a not-so-with-it gent ("I'm a PC") in an ill-fitting business suit.

A series of video clips on the Apple site drives home the point. The "Viruses" clip, for instance, has the sneezy PC stand-in lamenting his susceptibility to maladies, and "iLife" showcases his cluelessness about cool apps. That's in spite of the brief--and quickly obscured--nod to the fact that Macs now have the ability to run Windows ("We have a lot in common these days.")

But it's the "Network" clip that gets in the slyest dig. The PC and Mac characters are joined by a cute and perky young woman identified as "that new digital camera from Japan." Not only do the Mac and the camera characters have an obvious, um, affinity--they chat affably in Japanese, which Mr. PC clearly doesn't understand--but she also declares of the latter, with a mocking smile, "Hey, don't you think he looks nerdy?"

(Thanks to Hayashi Sakawa of CNET Japan for translating--and for spotting this in the first place.)