Apple turned the CrowdStrike BSOD issue into an anti-PC ad

It’s been a while since Apple last mocked Windows security, but the iPhone maker has just released an ad that hits Windows hard. The eight-minute commercial pokes fun at the CrowdStrike Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) issue that took down millions of Windows machines last year.

Apple’s ad follows The Underdogs, a fictional company that’s about to attend a trade show, before a PC outage causes chaos and a Blue Screen of Death shuts down machines at the convention. If it wasn’t clear Apple was mocking the infamous CrowdStrike incident, an IT expert appears in the middle of the ad and starts discussing kernel-level functionality, the core part of an operating system that has unrestricted access to system memory and hardware.

CrowdStrike’s Falcon protection software operates at the Kernel level, and a buggy update last year created BSOD issues that took down banks, airlines, TV broadcasters, and much more.

“The endpoint security API handles kernel-level functionality by default, it doesn’t grant kernel-level access,” says Sam, Apple’s security expert character. “The deepest parts of an operating system are being protected from modification by third-party software or malware, which is obviously what happened to those PCs. It’s a PC problem, your Macs are secure.”

Apple’s solution in its commercial? Switch to Mac, of course. The ad shows how The Underdogs were able to keep working on Macs and make sales, while the rest of the convention switched to Mac Minis.

Apple has a long history of mocking Windows security. The original “Get a Mac” TV campaign started nearly 20 years ago, and included a 30-second spot of the “I’m a PC” guy sneezing after catching a virus. Apple’s “I’m a Mac” guy, actor Justin Long, even returned a few years ago and defected to Intel to praise PCs, before also appearing in Qualcomm’s skit blasting macOS notifications and nag screens.