"Mac Guy" advertises for Qualcomm

In the noughties, Apple took the mickey out of the Windows competition with various adverts. They compared Macs with PCs. Both systems were played by actors - the PC by John Hodgman, the Mac by Justin Long. Qualcomm has now snapped up the "Mac Guy" for an advert during the Computex keynote.

In the short video, Long sits at a MacBook and is disturbed by all kinds of notifications: emails, news, error messages, battery warnings. "Where can I find a Snapdragon-powered PC?" he then writes in the search field of his browser - and turns to the camera: "What? Things are changing."

This is Qualcomm's attempt to take aim at Apple's laptops. With the Snapdragon X Plus and Elite, the chip manufacturer is launching two Arm chips for Windows devices. They are intended to compete with Apple's M3. The Californians seem to be outperforming Qualcomm with their new chip generation again. Nevertheless, the Snapdragons are currently shaking up the laptop world.

Reactions to Qualcomm's advert vary. Many find the idea funny - others point out that there are at least as many notifications popping up on Windows computers. The fact that Windows now plays adverts in the start menu is also a source of ridicule. An annoyance that does not exist with MacOS.

Serial traitor

This is not the first time that Justin Long has been taken in by Apple's competitors. In 2021, Intel hired the actor for four adverts that made fun of the MacBook Pro's touchbar, among other things.

Shortly before that, Apple resurrected the "PC Guy": John Hodgman returned at the end of the 2020 M1 chip launch keynote as the personification of a Windows laptop.

Nothing beats the original

The ongoing exchange of blows between the various chip manufacturers is funny. But none of the new adverts come close to the original advertising campaign.