My profiles:
"Conclusion - Ellen Feiss is now a serious cult figure, and Apple has either been very lucky, or very clever."
Robert, you should know better. The goal of advertising is to drive sales, and I have yet to witness even a blip in Apple's marketshare against the PC world (since it's the goal of the "switch" campaign). What a gratifying role model. Who wants to identify with a stoned dork? "Hey, I got so much brain I bought the same computer as Ellen Feiss the slouched teen." The ad is actually quite funny, though the last PC I heard do "beep beep beep beep beep" was probably a PC XT. Maybe she should have switched fathers too.
Last time I checked, Apple was still pretending to be in the computer business. Now if they're repurposing as a casting agency dedicated to finding new talent for teen movies, I might reconsider my opinion about how effective this ad is. Besides, this pitching message should have come before Windows XP got out (oh wait, at the time Macs kept crashing too). The whole series of ads make these people look like losers. The only reason nobody in the PC market is trying to switch Mac users is because they're ain't so many of them to start with (because there's no lack of reasons to switch to Windows PCs, such as performance, price, a wider choice of hardware, and the widest choice of software and games).
Marketers don't get paid to generate hype about their products, their one and only job is to increase sales. Buzz that doesn't translate into cash is useless. Hello people, this is 2002, not 1999.
Speaking of Macs, the whole "creative" undertone is so out of touch with what's happening in the marketplace. Apple is selling a competitive advantage it has only versus the past. Want the best soft sampler to do soundscore orchestration? That's Gigastudio for you, it's used by pros for ads and movies, and it runs only on PCs. Or want to do real-time video effects in your NLE editor (and work fast) but you're on a tight budget? Get Vegas Video 3, only on PCs. Hello people, this is 2002, not 1989.