The Mac vs. PC ads certainly polarized people. They seem to be very popular among people who already own Macs, while PC owners tend to find them smug and off-putting.

The ads seem to be more about attacking the competition than the competition's customers, but they still come off as attack ads, sometimes rather nasty ones.

It's hard to say exactly how effective they were. Mac sales saw a boost during that campaign, but other factors, such as the iPod "halo effect" and much-publicized Windows Vista problems, could be credited as well. Who knows? Maybe they would have sold more Macs with a more positive campaign.

I agree, though, John Hodgman was the more endearing of the two.

Maybe one way to judge the effectiveness of the ads is to look at the careers of Justin Long and John Hodgman—it seems like "PC" came out on top, in their case.

I know plenty of PC users who weren't put off by the Mac & PC ads. The characterization was completely different. In the Mac & PC ads, PC users weren't mocked. The characters weren't Mac users and PC users, they were literally a Mac and a PC (the devices) personified. In this way, it's possible to positively identify with the ad as a PC user: "OMG, my PC has totally done that to me."

I felt a tremendous amount of contempt in this Samsung ad: "Hey, idiot, check out our new phone." I really have a hard time feeling that Samsung, in any way, understands why I buy an iPhone, so how could they possibly build a device that I would appreciate?