Okay, so on the one hand, you've got some pundits arguing that Apple's "Switch" campaign is exactly the kind of aggressive marketing that'll finally start to boost the Mac's market share beyond its anemic one-in-twenty slice of the personal computer pie. On the other hand are the folks insisting that Apple's Switch ads are about as likely to persuade a real live Wintel user to ditch the beige and buy a Mac as they are to bring about lasting world peace and an end to all known diseases, including the really icky ones with the pus and the oozing and the limbs falling off. And on the other other hand are the people like us; we here at the AtAT compound haven't given a whole lot of thought to how effective the Switch commercials might be, because we're convinced that Apple is spending millions of dollars producing and running them entirely for our own personal entertainment. Ain't that sweet of them?

Seriously, we haven't a clue whether or not an arguably stoned high school girl yammering on about having to rewrite a "really good paper" after her dad's PC ate it is going to boost Apple's sales by a few thousand units, nor do we particularly care; what we do know is that the growing Cult of Feiss phenomenon amuses us so darn much, we use Ellen's "...Mmm??" grunt as our alert sound on AtAT's primary production Mac and every time we hear it we giggle like we're the ones with the suspiciously red eyes. (But trust us, no Naked Mole Rats are we-- we're just high on life, fellas. And goofy Apple commercials.)

And yet, despite our truly astounding and selfish ability to ignore any issues that don't relate directly to our own personal amusement, we can't help but think a little bit about whether or not these commercials might actually be gaining Apple any customers. (Curse this dratted analytical bent.) So we can understand Apple's intent to showcase "regular people" with whom the average viewers can identify, but we've always suspected that Joe and Jane Average might respond a little better to hearing the virtues of the Mac platform sung by an honest-to-gosh celebrity who isn't Jeff Goldblum for a change.

But hey, just like that, bickety-bam-- apparently those mind-reading devices Apple bribed our dentists to install in our molars are really starting to pay off, because suddenly MacMinute has word of an advance preview Switch ad starring none other than skateboard ubermensch Tony Hawk. Actually, technically it's not much of a "switch" ad, because Tony's been a Mac nut for donkey's years, and he's not regaling us with tales of blue screens of death or Registry corruption or anything like that. Instead he simply talks about the ease of using Final Cut Pro for both personal and professional video editing, and we get to see some clips of himself and his son riding the ramps.

We fully admit that we're old fogies down here at AtAT, but whereas when Jack was wrecking his knees on kickflips down sets of five stairs a decade ago skating was about as reputable as shaving bunnies and small children against their will, we hear tell that skateboarding is actually popular with those consarned kids of today-- and thus Mr. Hawk qualifies as a bona fide Recognizable Famous Guy™. So will the addition of the celebrity factor improve the effectiveness of Apple's Switch ads? Hey, like we said before, it really doesn't concern us as long as Apple's primary goal is to keep us, the AtAT staff, entertained. And that little Hudson's really popping those kickflips high, isn't he?