Mean Mac ads get thumbs down

Better put down that latte and man bag and put on the Hugo Boss calf-skin boxing gloves. The person with a full mailbox from computer zealots this time is Slate contributor Seth Stevenson.

Stevenson takes aim at an Apple icon, its ads. '1984', 'Think Different': we all know that even if its computers are overpriced and overdesigned, Apple has always done a good 30-second video. But in its latest spots, Stevenson finds the Cupertino camp "mean-spirited".

If you haven't seen it, the shtick is to have one geeky-looking bloke - tie, jacket, paunch, a bit Bill Gates circa 1988 - side by side with some dude with all the student gear on, little goatee, very relaxed.

Apparently, in the US these are pretty well-known actors. The propeller-head is played by John Hodgman of The Daily Show, the guy who looks like he might be cycling to work at the design agency is Justin Long of Dodgeball.

You don't have to have bagged a diploma in Film, Symbolism and the Art of Advertising to guess which represents which kind of computer here, do you?

The Mac dude patronises the heck out of the PC bloke, smugly reading out a review in the Wall Street Journal about how great he is but it's the PC bloke that you root for.

As Stevenson notes: "The ads pose a seemingly obvious question -- would you rather be the laid-back young dude or the portly old dweeb? -- but I found myself consistently giving the 'wrong' answer: I'd much sooner associate myself with Hodgman than with Long."

Me too, Seth, but it's always been that way. Apple puts off a lot of us with arched-eyebrow, flared-nostril approach to the world.

But since Apple had the PC brains transplanted into its shiny white boxes recently and finally has a shot at system market share growth again, shouldn't it be playing up to those of us who no longer think it's cool to pretend to like the new bands, dress like children or speak v-e-r-y, v-e-r-y slowly in annoying mid-Atlantic drawl?