What made me think of this thread is this commercial:
John Hodgman is a PC. The other guy (Justin Long) is a Mac.
This slighlty irritates me because I like John Hodgman--he wrote The Areas Of My Expertise, which is a very funny book. It inspired my love of hoboes and all hobo matters. He is the guy reciting the 700 hobo names. He appears on the Daily Show often--a favorite show of hipsters and high college students.
Unfortunatly, Apple is using him in these insulting ads. Of course, he hasn't been coerced into doing them. He probably likes Macs and also likes getting paid. I have no problem with this. But the message is this:
PCs are for dorky, older dudes and Macs are for young hip fellas. Same tactic used by Pepsi and countless others.
I'm not irritated with Hodgman, just with Apple. But what the fuck do I know, they're selling millions of iPods and I'm not. And there's some truth in what they're getting at, but the over-simplification is a little irritating. Just venting.