That Justin Long Ad for Arm Windows PCs is Very, Very Bad

At this point you guys have seen the ad already, and I’ll drop my two cents on it, too. Because why not.

The ‘I’m a Mac’ Actor Justing Long Shows up in a Qualcomm Ad for Arm Windows PCs and it’s Awful

I believe in choice. I believe people should use the platform they love and should never be forced into using something they’re not comfortable with. Adding to it a little; no platform is perfect either. You make compromises until it works best for you. That’s how it is in the world of tech.

Forcing someone to switch over from iPhone to Android, Android to iPhone, Mac to Windows or Windows to Mac should come with reasons so solid that it at least gets you thinking.

The new Justin Long ad for Qualcomm Snapdragon Windows PCs aim to make you think, most definitely. But, it instead makes you realize your Mac is doing just fine.

The ad starts off with Justin being bombarded with notifications and pop-ups. I’ll talk about a couple of them, such as app compatibility issues and running out of storage space. These issues are common across the board and not unique in any way.

You don’t need to switch platforms in order to fix this.

What makes it worse is how a push notification for the Mail and News app is shown in a negative way. If you don’t like a notification from an app, you can simply turn it off on a Mac. Again, no switching required.

You think I’m making this up? Have a look for yourself. Jump all the way to the 1 hour 17 minute mark if the video doesn’t take you there automatically:

There are some things on both Windows and Mac that are simply not in a user’s control. For example, battery life. You forget your charger at home and you’re hit with the 20% warning, not even a Copilot+ PC is going to save you from the ultimate shutdown. And running out of storage space is completely normal, too. There’s a thing called ‘delete files’ in case you want to free up space. You don’t need to spend $1,000 or more to remedy this, even if you have a Windows PC.

Funny enough, as I was typing this post, Apple dropped an ad for all-day battery life for the Mac. Two ads, to be precise. Check them out below:

Patrick Tomasso sums the Qualcomm ad in the best possible way on Threads and I fully agree with him. There’s no other explanation why this ad could be this bad.