Apple is back with another cheeky “Apple at Work” ad, this time, turning one of Windows’ most infamous nightmares, the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), into a full-blown cinematic roast.
The eight-minute mini-movie, titled “The Underdogs: BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)”, follows a quirky startup attending a trade show called Container Con. Everything’s going fine until PCs start crashing across the venue, the screens glow that familiar shade of panic blue, and chaos erupts. The crowd scrambles, alarms blare, and vendors are left helpless… except, of course, for the cool-headed team rocking their Macs, iPhones, and iPads.
Apple’s message? “Macs don’t panic.”
In the ad, one of the characters even calls up a security expert mid-chaos, who smugly explains, “The endpoint security API handles kernel-level functionality by default. Doesn’t grant kernel-level access.” Translation: the deepest parts of macOS are locked down, so third-party apps (or malware) can’t cause a meltdown like those poor Windows machines.
It’s a clever nod to the 2024 CrowdStrike incident, where a bad update crashed millions of PCs worldwide, leaving airports, hospitals, and offices paralyzed. That outage wasn’t Microsoft’s fault. It was triggered by a third-party security tool with kernel-level access, but Apple clearly couldn’t resist the opportunity to dramatize it.
The result? A brilliantly produced dig at Windows that’s racked up over 1.7 million YouTube views in under 24 hours.
Now, to be fair, Windows isn’t as fragile as Apple makes it seem. Microsoft has learned from that global BSOD disaster. Earlier this year, it introduced the new Windows Endpoint Security Platform, which moves antivirus and endpoint protection tools outside the Windows kernel, just like Apple’s been doing for years. This means future BSODs caused by faulty security updates should (hopefully) be a thing of the past.
And honestly, as a longterm Windows user who has personally faced that blue horror, I can confirm it’s not fun. However, the last time I saw a BSOD was years ago, before I bought my trusty Lenovo Ideapad back in 2020. It’s still running fine today (though the battery’s starting to wave the white flag). Since then, I’ve mostly been spared from Windows’ infamous blue meltdowns.
Still, I’ve got to hand it to Apple. This ad is pure marketing genius. It’s dramatic, funny, technically savvy, and perfectly timed. It sells the “Mac just works” dream without needing to mention specs or performance.
Whether you’re team Mac or team Windows, you can’t deny it: Apple knows how to turn a tech disaster into an eight-minute masterpiece.
