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It’s no secret that Steve Jobs supports the Democratic Party, Apple has in the past been the supplier of computer equipment for Democratic conventions, and former Democratic Vice-President and presidential candidate Al Gore sits on Apple’s board of directors, so I suppose that a Democratic politician co-opting Apple’s “Switch” advertising campaign isn’t all that surprising.

Democratic presidential Candidate, and former Vermont Governor, Howard Dean is using and modifying the Apple “Switch” theme and motif with his new “Dean Switcher” campaign.

This week, Apple Chief Financial Officer Fred Anderson credited the Swich campaign with increasing Apple’s share of the US consumer market from less than 1.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2001 to 3.5 per cent during Q1 2003. However, I expect Howard Dean is hoping for better numbers than that.

As with the Apple ads, Dean has ordinary people telling their stories of why they switched. On the Dean Switcher Website visitors can read, watch videos, and submit their own Switcher stories right from the site:
http://www.switch2dean.com

The Website blurb reads:

Hmmm. Well, that’s cool. I don't really know much about Howard Dean or his politics, but as regular readers of Moore’s MailBag will be aware, I probably disagree with Dean on a lot of issues (although that “balancing the budget” bit sounds good), being more in consonance with the political ideas of enthusiastic Mac-user Rush Limbaugh (with, I hasten to add, some notable exceptions, such as Rush's scorched-earth views on environmentalism). However, it’s refreshing to see some innovation and lightheartedness, notwithstanding that it’s derivative, in electoral politics.

Anyway, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and it’s a nice compliment to Apple to have their creativity emulated in this way. I wonder if Al Gore had anything to do with it?

You can check out Howard Dean’s Switcher Website here:
http://www.switch2dean.com

Charles W. Moore