December 13th, 1999

10:15 AM] Local Commercial Pushes Macs, The Simpsons Think Different by Staff We received several letters today from Observers with cool news. The first is from Joshua D. Stewart from Tampa, Florida. Mt. Stewart saw the full Mac line in a TV commercial, but what was really cool is that the add was not from Apple. According to Mr. Stewart: Just wanted to pass along more news of Apple's continued return. While preparing for work this morning I heard the word's "Apple" and "iBook" emanating from my television. I almost killed myself trying to get to the living room to see the TV. To my amazement there was a commercial playing for a local Apple retailer "Advantage Computer" located here in Brandon, FL (Just east of Tampa). The 1 minute spot featured shots of the store, with nicely displayed iMacs, iBooks, G4s and supporting hardware. The voice over encouraged people to come in and see the new G4s, take a look at a demonstration of Apple's iMovie, and to see Apple's great new Airport technology. During the spot they also showed shots of an iMac DV and an Airport base station. The commercial's quality was topnotch as well. I can't tell you how excited I was to see a local store that bill's itself as the place to find "Everything Apple". It made my day. This is just more proof that Apple has indeed moved back into the world of successful computer companies. Joshua D. Stewart Internet Development Manager Bisk Publishing/Technology Tampa, FL And we also received a few letters about The Simpsons. It seems The Simpsons visited an iMac Internet café. This letter from Mike Church is representative of those we received: has anyone told you guys yet that when Homer Bart & Lisa went to Springfield's new internet cafe that every computer in the place was an a bondi blue iMac? There was even a TANGERINE one that Homer was using! FYI Mike Church Thanks to Mike and Joshua! If you have something cool to tell us about, send to observers@macobserver.com. The Mac Observer Spin: It is very cool to see a local Mac retailer with the resources to do their own TV ads. Good luck to Advantage Computer! As for The Simpsons: It's almost always cool for a Mac to show up in any TV show. There are exceptions to that rule however. 2 or 3 years ago, Homer was explaining the US! Festival put on by Steve Wozniak. When Homer explained that Steve Wozniak helped to co-found Apple Computer, the computer clerk stared blankly and said "Who are they?" That's a loose transcript, so bear with us. Apple