Qualcomm tried a new spoof of a legendary Apple ad campaign Sunday, coming in 14 years late and more than a few dollars short. The new ad for Arm-powered PCs stars “I’m a Mac” actor Justin Long pretending that notifications would drive him away from his MacBook.
The ad appeared at the end of Qualcomm’s “Snapdragon Computex 2024 Keynote: The PC Reborn.” You can see it and Long’s other work for Apple and competitors below.
Justin ‘I’m a Mac’ Long makes another buck spoofing classic Apple ad campaign
Apple’s classic “Get a Mac” campaign, which launched in 2006 and included dozens of “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” spots, featured Long as the human embodiment of the cool, laidback and creative Mac. Long served as a perfect foil to actor John Hodgman’s stiff, businesslike and virus-plagued PC. Designed to woo “switchers” from Windows computers to Macs, the distinctive ads spawned spoof after spoof. And those copycat ads became a bit of a cottage industry for Long, who shot spots for Intel, Hauwei and other Apple competitors.
In the new Qualcomm ad, which promotes the company’s new Snapdragon X Elite chips, Long works on his MacBook at a kitchen table. Notifications keep popping up all around his head. He swats them away with irritation. Then he types in a Google search: “Where can I find a Snapdragon-powered PC?”
You know, the sensible move — rather than simply adjusting his Notifications in Settings. Why click a few times when you can switch computing platforms and spend $1,000 or more? After typing the query, Long suddenly notices he’s being videotaped in his kitchen. Looking at the camera, he says, “What? Things change.”
Then he takes a sip of coffee and, as if realizing it actually supports his point, gestures at his plain white coffee mug as he puts it down. It’s clearly a reference to something, but that something seems to be a forgotten detail from an ad campaign retired 14 years ago.
Watch the new Qualcomm ad spoofing ‘I’m a Mac’
It’s amusing that Qualcomm thinks everyone remembers Long and the old Apple ad campaign, launched in 2006 and retired in 2010. And it’s a bit funny that Qualcomm think everyone knows what “Snapdragon” is, too. But most of all, no matter how old and no-fun-at-all the “I’m a Mac” character played by Long has become with these anti-Apple spoof ads, he’s not going to ditch a MacBook and switch platforms over a few notifications.
Justin Long’s Apple, Steve Jobs, Android and PC appearances timeline
April 2010: Apple’s ‘Get a Mac’ campaign ends
After launching to acclaim in 2006, Apple’s “Get a Mac” ad campaign came to an end. However, other tech companies will more or less keep it alive by hiring Long to star in various ad campaigns spoofing Apple’s ads. A total of 66 TV spots ran in Apple’s campaign, though Long later said nearly 300 were taped. Long also said some of the funniest Get a Mac ads never ran — as a result of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ intervention.
“One in particular, I remember, Zach Galifianakis played, like, a drunken Santa Claus,” Long told People TV’s Couch Surfing show in 2019. “And [Apple] said, basically, that Steve Jobs preferred when they weren’t super funny … because he thought it would detract from the point of the commercial. He thought if people were too focused on the humor in it, they would lose sight of the product.”
March 2013: Long stars in iSteve mockumentary
After word that Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs biopic would be delayed, out came Funny or Die’s movie about Steve Jobs, iSteve (2013). It took a total of eight days to make. “There are a lot of Steve Jobs biopics out there, but only one that came out first: this one,” quipped Funny or Die. It also quoted Fortune as saying, “It’s certainly inaccurate.”
February 2017: Justin Long goes to work for Hauwei
In 2017, Long became the new face of Huawei smartphones. Though big in China, Huawei sought to break into the U.S. smartphone market by including a familiar face. In the ad above, Long auditions tablets for a starring role, imploring a Huawei MateBook to move him emotionally. It does, by showing him pictures of his childhood dog and making him realize his parents, who he said hated the pooch, “were the last to see him” before he “ran away.”
March 2021: ‘I’m a Mac’ guy cashes in promoting Intel PCs
In one of the main examples of the “I’m a Mac” actor doing a PC ad role reversal, Long collects paychecks promoting Intel PCs. This was the big “traitor” campaign, in which Long took shots at Apple on behalf of Intel PCs. In this series — you can see four spots in the video above — Long dings MacBooks on a number of points. They include weak gaming, the lack of a touchscreen and Siri’s well-known limitations.
June 2020: John Hodgman returns as ‘I’m a PC’ guy
Photo: Apple
How many more times will competitors tap Justin Long to spoof Apple’s classic Get a Mac ad campaign? Apple has only done something similar once. The company brought back “I’m a PC” guy John Hodgman in a short video to promote Apple silicon during 2020’s “One More Thing” event. Hodgman once again assumed the schlumpy PC role to downplay M1 Macs’ astounding performance.
