To print: Click here or Select File and then Print from your browser's menu

This story was printed from silicon.com, located at http://www.silicon.com/

Story URL: http://hardware.silicon.com/desktops/0,39024645,11035269,00.htm

Apple faces insults on top of injury
Gateway makes its anti-Mac stance clear for all to see...

By CNET Networks

Published: Tuesday 27 August 2002

By Joe Wilcox

PC manufacturer Gateway has unleashed an aggressive advertising campaign directly targeting Apple's iMac, following the release of its iMac-like Profile 4 PCs.

Gateway's assault on the iMac comes two days after Apple released a major upgrade to Mac OS X and amplified its own marketing campaign aimed at wooing PC users to the Mac.

But Gateway has a US ad campaign of its own, which will pit Profile 4 against the iMac in head-to-head comparisons - a rarity even in the fierce battleground of the desktop market.

Gateway's ads will focus on Profile 4's features and performance - comparing it directly with the flat-panel iMac. The campaign will tout the strengths of the Profile 4 over the flat-panel iMac - such as greater memory and bundled software extras.

In case viewers miss the blatant messages the ads end with the statement: "Did we mention the Gateway Profile 4 costs less than the iMac?" Gateway estimates that 83 per cent of US adults would see the TV ads an average 14 times through September.

Gateway's TV ad parodies earlier iMac ads and two short Pixar trailers. The Pixar trailers featured an iMac jumping around the screen, something the Profile 4 does in the new Gateway ads. As a narrator touts Profile 4's advantage over Apple's computer, Gateway's all-in-one PC does flips and backflips over three iMacs.

In an earlier iMac commercial, Apple's computer on display in a store window follows the movements and gestures of an onlooker. When he sticks out his tongue at the computer, the iMac mimics him by sticking out its DVD drive drawer. Gateway uses this to again poke fun at iMac. During Gateway's ad, just as the narrator touts the PC's better pricing over the Mac, the Profile 4 spits out its drive drawer at the iMac in mocking fashion.

Gateway designed its advertising campaign to take advantage of the hype Apple has created around all-in-one PCs featuring flat-panel monitors.

Gateway spokesman Brad Williams said: "Since 1984, Apple has had at least four or five ad campaigns that targeted PCs. To our knowledge, this is the first time a PC maker has gone after Apple."

So how similar are the two machines - read more here: http://www.silicon.com/a55190

Joe Wilcox writes for News.com