Apple forced to rethink iMac TV push as BACC rejects ad

Apple Computer has failed to get clearance for a TV ad for its new iMac model from the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre.

The ad, created by TBWA/Chiat Day in Los Angeles, was to be used in the largest advertising campaign conducted by Apple in the UK since the launch of the Macintosh.

The company has a stock of other ads already shown in the US for the launch of the iMac which can be used in the UK for the product’s launch on September 5.

The ad rejected by the BACC talks in generic terms about the new iMac model and the PC.

The ad says: “PC perpetually complicated, profusely corded, physically conspicuous and particularly costly.

“Oh, then there’s the new iMac which is about as un-PC as you can get.”

This is the second time that Apple has not been able to run an ad created in the US by TBWA. The first commercial was rejected as denigrating another brand.

Alan Hely, marketing director for Apple, says he cannot understand why the second ad for the iMac has been rejected because it does not find fault with another brand.

Hely adds: “If a bicycle manufacturer such as Raleigh produces a campaign saying don’t use a car, use a bicycle, are we saying the BACC would reject it?”

The campaign breaks next week with a radio push, followed by posters, national press and TV advertising.

Apple is hoping the iMac will help win back a share of the consumer market which it has neglected over the past few years.

The company has a three per cent share of the total UK computer market.