Justin Long Gets Roasted for Switching to PC From Mac, But Here’s the Real Kicker

Actor Justin Long is reprising perhaps his most famous role ever, though fans have noticed an ironic twist on the casting news. Long has been hired for a new ad campaign by Intel, reminiscent of his old “I’m a Mac” commercials between 2006 and 2009. While he is now promoting PCs over Macs, his social media profile tells a different story.

“Hello, I’m a… Justin,” Long says in one of his new advertisements. He stands in a blank white void as music plays reminding viewers of the old commercials, but he says: “I’m just a real person doing a real comparison between a Mac and a PC.” While this nostalgia-driven commercial piqued fans’ interests, many couldn’t help but notice that Long was still holding an iPhone in his banner photo on Twitter. At the time of this writing, that conspicuous contradiction has not gone away.

Long was an established actor in TV and movies by the time the “Get a Mac” advertising campaign kicked off, yet for many fans it is the role they remember him best for. The commercials made Long the personification of an Apple computer, casting him as cool, laid back and simple. Meanwhile, they cast actor John Hodgeman as a PC, making him stuffy and bitter and difficult to work with.

To see Long back in the computer world years later strikes many fans as funny, though it has others feeling jaded. The fact that Long is still using an iPhone himself is just icing on that cake. Scroll down for a look at what people are saying about Long’s new ad.

Switching Sides

Many people criticized long for “switching sides” in the cultural “war” between Mac and PC, jokingly or otherwise. Several employed this line from The Dark Knight to make their point.

Serious Actor

Others felt bad for Long now that he was returning to this role after so long. They thought his work in movies and TV deserved more praise.

Android

As for Long’s banner photo, many users commented that the iPhone was not such a “gotcha” moment since Microsoft no longer makes its own phones to compete. The closest analog would be an Android device, which would need to come from a different advertiser.

Technical Comparisons

No shortage of viewers picked up Long’s talking points in the commercial with actually, nitty-gritty comparisons between Macs and PCs, and their feelings were strong.

Money

Many people joked that Long must be doing these commercials just for the money, though some actually respected him for that move. They even joked that it was no more embarrassing than some of the movies he’s appeared in “just for the money.”

‘Mac Guy’

Some imagined that Long must feel genuinely bad looking at the commentary online, and seeing how many people reverted to calling him “the ‘I’m a Mac’ guy.”

Reversal

Finally, many people compared Long’s defection to PC to the former face of Verizon’s “can you hear me now?” campaign to Sprint. They thought that this might signal a whole new strategy in advertising that would play on the same nostalgic impulses as reboots and remakes on TV and movies.