SWA #6

The change in the Macintosh advertisement approach from the 1994 Performa commercial to the more recent Macintosh Love commercial is quite substantial. The main claim from the Performa commercial in 1994 was all about trying to convince the audience on how simple using Macintosh’s was for the everyday person. It compared the operating system to a person’s thought process to make it seem very user friendly, while showing how difficult a operating a PC could be for the users. The commercial also backs up its claim by trying to convince users about the durability and performance that comes with the Macintosh Performa. There really are not any unstated assumptions in this commercial, just that Macintosh’s are better than PC’s. It is trying to spread that message to the target audience of anybody getting ready to or thinking about purchasing a computer. However the Macintosh Love commercial is quite a different in terms of advertising approach. The Mac Love commercial isn’t close to the other commercial really; it starts off by saying “I Love You” in many different languages and playing a song that sings “you love has passed me by, you took me surprise… you took away everything I had”. It then says how millions of PC users were infected with the “love virus” last year, but the Mac OS operating system did not allow for the virus to spread. This has a much more obvious unstated assumption in the advertisement, such as the fact that Macintosh’s much more immune to computer viruses than PC’s. It also has a wider target audience as well because not only does it appeal to people thinking about new computers, but also to people who were infected with the virus and might want to get a computer where they have a less likely chance of catching a harmful virus again. The styles in the ads had much to do with the times they were made in. When the Performa commercial was made in 1994 many people still were relatively unknowledgeable about computers, so the commercial tried to ease the concerns about their product by making it seem like their product is relatively easy to use and well worth the investment for years to come. But as time moved on and computers became more and more advanced, so did other things like viruses. People don’t want to have their thousand dollar computers crash with a virus, so the Mac Love commercial tries to target that. By making the Macs seem more immune to viruses than PCs they can hopefully persuade more people into purchasing their products. The style in the advertisements are just a reflection of the time that they were made, trying to appeal to the audience in the best possible way for the time period.