commercials

I never realized how accurate this ad is until the past couple days when I had to do some tech support on a Vista machine in a church office. It's ridiculous how often you get asked to do, well, just about anything in Vista. Of course, it's all because the base operating system has so many security holes that make it an easy target for a third-source that might want to damage your files. All of this reminded me of a quote I heard a while back, "Mac OSX, because making UNIX user friendly, was easier than fixing Windows."

All of this got me to thinking about how we address various issues in our life, be it a personal struggle, relationships, a group we're a part of, or whatever else. When an issue comes, are we like Microsoft folks who focus on eliminating the symptom (there's a risk for a security breech so we'll put something in place to guard the gaping hole), or do we take a Mac approach and address the actual problem (getting rid of the hole)?

I'm thinking, more often than not, when confronted by something, we look at what's right in front of us, the symptom, and try and deal with that, rather they trying to diagnose what's behind the symptom (the actual problem). The problem is, we address one symptom and another appears ... and then another ... and then another ... and then another.

However, if we operate diagnostically and use the symptoms to lead us to the actual problem, we can actually find a viable solution.

Thoughts? Are you a symptom or disease kind of person? Have any examples to share?

Many of us love Mac ads, be it Mac vs. PC or just a new product being unveiled with catchy music. So, what happens when Microsoft attempts to be creative? This:

On another note, for all of you in the LCMS, doesn't this remind you of most of our video production and creative communications?

I have to admit, I love the Mac and PC ads ... most likely because, if a computer matched my personality, I'd be more like the Mac character than the PC one. It's for this same reason that I'm loving this new viral campaign from Mozilla for Firefox.

As the stats run across the bottom of the screen, the lifestyle they are identifying as "boring" doesn't look like my life at all and so, I don't find "boring" to be offensive. However, if I was somebody who embraced the lifestyle they classify as boring, without finding it boring, how would I view this ad?

Now, personally, I don't think Mac is trying to sell computers to people who "are PC" or that Firefox is trying to get people who "are IE" to download their browser, rather, they're going after the much large crowd who use PC and IE because it's all they've been exposed to, however, is it ever wise to insult somebody and then tell them how great your product is?

I'm thinking there's a parallel when it comes to Christians sharing the faith. Is it ever wise to open our sharing of the Gospel by insulting or stereotyping the person we're wanting to share with?

My best friend Dan used to be in sales and his comment has always been something to the effect of, "Whenever I talked about the weakness of the competition, I was just giving them free publicity, but when I only talked about how great my product was, people found what I had to say compelling."

Thoughts?