Top New-Century Ad Campaign

Where Were You in 2006?

If you are old enough to have been in the ad business that year, you would have remembered the spring of 2006 as the launch of one of the most successful ad campaigns of the first decade for the 21st century. The enduring relevance of the “I’m a Mac” and “I’m a PC” characters proved that simple concepts rule in marketing.

This is the story.

The David vs. Goliath Computer War

In 2005, Microsoft held a dominant 96% of the global computer software market, while Apple’s Mac trailed with a mere 4% share. Consumers bought PCs out of habit and workplace standard conformity, locking Apple out of a self-reinforcing developer and user loop.

For Apple CEO Steve Jobs, this wasn’t just a business problem; it was deeply personal, prompting him to seek a revolutionary advertising campaign to support the company’s transition to Intel processors.

The 7-Month Creative Desert

Apple tasked its trusted ad agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day, to come up with the new campaign. For seven straight months, the creative team presented 10 to 15 concepts a week to Steve Jobs, only to have him repeatedly reject them as stupid or inane.

With Intel Macs already hitting store shelves and no campaign in sight, Jobs issued a final ultimatum: produce results, or Apple would find another agency.

A Breakthrough on the Waves

The campaign’s breakthrough finally occurred away from the office when senior creative directors Scott Trattner and Eric Grunbaum went surfing to vent. They realized they needed to strip the concept down to the absolute basics: a Mac and a PC standing against a plain white background. Trattner combined this minimalist approach with the idea of embodying inanimate objects as characters, leading to the creation of the first script titled “Virus.”

Market research shifted the strategy from showcasing why Macs are great to making PC users realize that PCs had significant drawbacks.

Perfecting the Personas

When pitching to Jobs, writers performed the scripts live, earning his approval. To bring the concept to life, casting required finding relatable actors. Steve Jobs personally selected Justin Long to play the casual, confident Mac after seeing him in a Disney comedy. For the PC, director Phil Morrison discovered humorist John Hodgman on The Daily Show, recognizing his ability to make a buttoned-up, out-of-touch character genuinely lovable.

The two actors shared an immediate backstage chemistry, ensuring the Mac persona never felt mean-spirited.

A Ruthless Editing Process

Production took place on film against a completely blank white cyclorama backdrop, making the strength of the scripts the sole indicator of success. The campaign was characterized by a ruthless survival rate: out of 323 spots filmed over the course of the campaign, Jobs approved only 66 to actually air—a mere 20%.

Jobs never read scripts beforehand, meaning weeks of production work frequently ended up discarded based entirely on his review of the final cuts.

Skyrocketing Sales and Cultural Impact

The “Get a Mac” campaign debuted in May 2006, triggering an immediate surge in sales. Within the first year, Mac unit sales jumped 39%, and Apple’s market share climbed by 42%. By the time the campaign concluded in 2009, Apple had doubled its U.S. market share to 8.8%. The commercials succeeded through identity-based persuasion, turning a tech purchase into a personality test rather than a technical specifications battle.

The minimalistic format also became a massive cultural phenomenon, spawning thousands of internet parodies.

Microsoft’s $300 Million Panic

Devastated by the brutal effectiveness of the ads, Microsoft launched a massive $300 million counter-campaign in 2008. The first phase paired Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates in bizarre, abstract scenarios that critics blasted as out of touch, leading to its cancellation after just two weeks.

The second phase, the “I’m a PC” campaign, attempted to reclaim the stereotype but suffered a public relations blunder when it was discovered the campaign’s promotional files were actually created using Apple hardware.

The Everlasting Legacy

The cultural footprint of the campaign extended well beyond its initial run. In 2020, Apple brought back John Hodgman to play his PC character for the M1 chip launch. Conversely, competing tech brands recognized the power of the original dynamics; Intel hired Justin Long in 2021 to mock Apple’s new chips, and Qualcomm did the same in 2024.

The enduring relevance of these characters proved that human, simple concepts remain the sharpest weapons in marketing.