Did Apple really make it up?

Did it or did it not? Since 2006, the "Get a Mac" advertising campaign has enjoyed huge success, simply because it was fun, clean and obviously entertaining.

The premise of the ad pitched a dowdy, anxious-looking man in a suit (with an inferiority complex) against a laidback dude who's pretty much oozing with confidence. And that sums up Apple's rather slim plot--the lumbering ill-featured PC versus the nimble and jazzy Mac. It's an updated story of David and Goliath, only in this case, David is funkier.

On the surface, Apple seems to have won it--game, set and match. The question of who you would rather be identified with--the dweeb or the jock--is a moot point in an image-conscious consumer climate. Macs are easy to use, have great ergonomics and are utterly reliable. And PC? It ought to be ecstatic that there are still people out there who are willing to boot it up, instead of giving it the boot.

But not everyone is swallowing Apple's ad spin. In 2006, Slate's Seth Stevenson saw though Apple's Mac attack and wrote, "The final straw, for me, is that the spots make unconvincing claims". Stevenson went on to make the observation that while the ads try to discount the PC's ease of use, his own recently acquired ThinkPad notebook "ran on all cylinders pretty much straight out of the gate". "Why insult my intelligence by telling me something that I know isn't true?", he asked.

Recently, our colleague in the UK raised the issue again with Apple's new set of ads. And the responses he received were typical of Apple fans' fierce loyalty. Talkbacks to the article ranged from speculations of bribery by the company in Redmond to point-blank accusations of idiocy. Even CNET Asia was not spared. We received strong responses from readers who are obviously Mac users and who certainly did not appreciate the ads of their favorite computers being criticized.

So what is the verdict? We asked Apple Asia whether the speculations were true, but its PR representatives declined to comment at press time.

However, we believe in crowd-sourcing opinions. Read on for our readers' indignant replies as they lay siege to us in the name of Apple and for some, PC as well.

CNET Asia's John Chan contributed to this story.