When confronted with Apple's new "PC vs. Mac" ads—the bumbling, hapless, stiff-suited chump playing the problematic PC and a calm, casual, hyperconfident Everydude portraying the far superior Mac—most people do the sensible thing: They gravitate toward the chump. He's funnier, warmer, more believable. Sure, the Mac guy can podcast and mack on Japanese chicks and shoot SCUD missiles or whatever, but he's gotta be such a smug asshole about it. As an ad campaign, it's a colossal backfire; as a cultural signifier, it's quite instructive. Incompetence is often preferable to... More >>>