In context: You won’t be accustomed to actor Justin Lengthy by identify, however you’ve gotten undoubtedly seen his work. He was the peachfuzz sprouting younger Mac shill in Apple’s “Get a Mac” advert marketing campaign of the mid-2000s. You keep in mind, the commercials all began with Lengthy saying. “I am a Mac,” along with his co-star comic John Hodgman personifying a Home windows PC.
In 2021, Intel tapped Lengthy to flip the script, having the actor reward PC whereas poking enjoyable at varied Mac options, just like the unpopular Touchbar and its huge coloration decisions of “grey and gray-er.” The copycat marketing campaign was mildly amusing, however Lengthy performed each components within the comparisons slightly than having Hodgman there to bounce jabs off, so the advertisements weren’t as impactful, and the marketing campaign ended after only some commercials, in contrast to Apple’s dozens of spots.
It seems Lengthy has switched ships once more, this time shilling for Qualcomm. On Monday, the actor appeared in a 25-second tease on the finish of the corporate’s Computex 2024 keynote.
The spot opens on a big residence, transitioning to a shot of a extra mature Lengthy sitting in his kitchen engaged on his MacBook. The laptop computer begins pinging him with notifications on his left, then much more on his proper, which he swipes away.
Subsequent, we see a shot of Lengthy looking, “The place can I discover a Snapdragon-powered PC?” earlier than the digicam snaps again to him.
“What?” asks Lengthy, breaking the fourth wall. “Issues change.”
The spot closed with awkward applause as Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon coming again onstage to say, “Sure. Issues change. Issues do change,” earlier than closing out the keynote.
There isn’t any indication that Lengthy’s “quick” will turn out to be one other anti-Mac advert marketing campaign. The skit regarded like a one-off efficiency just like one which Apple staged with Lengthy’s counterpart Hodgman for a 42-second bit to introduce the M1’s improved efficiency and battery life in 2020.
Moreover, Qualcomm would not spend a lot on costly tv advert campaigns. So, seeing Lengthy promoting Snapdragons or Copilot+ PCs in a number of commercials like he did with Intel is unlikely. However who is aware of? Qualcomm won’t have the promoting funds, however Microsoft does.
As Apple continues enhancing its in-house silicon, corporations like Microsoft, Intel, and Qualcomm should respond to stay aggressive. Nonetheless, there is perhaps higher methods to try this than dusting off an previous Apple advert marketing campaign, particularly when the implications are so imprecise and unnoteworthy. I imply what was Qualcomm’s spot saying? “We can’t nag you with notifications?”
