CrowdStrike was the best ad campaign for the Mac…and cost Apple nothing

Last week’s CrowdStrike outage wreaked havoc on global society in a way that few tech events can. It also, with no effort on Apple’s part, managed to inadvertently serve as one of the best ad campaigns for the Mac.

Mac immunity brought humor to a tough day

In the early moments of the global IT outage caused by CrowdStrike, there were a lot of questions left unanswered. How did this happen? What’s the fix? How much damage has been done?

One question was answered pretty quickly, though: did this outage affect Macs?

Nope, not a single one.

Memes started emerging. Some featured Mac users relaxing, keeping their cool while the rest of the world was thrown into chaos.

One of my favorite social media posts was this attempt from a Mac user to fool their manager into earning some time off.

CrowdStrike was a major event that brought significant problems—or at a minimum, inconveniences—to countless people.

But if there was one thing that could bring people together, it was humor. The Mac was a memorable part of that.

Boosting the Mac’s reputation

The computing systems that currently power airlines, banks, 911 centers, and more are unlikely to be replaced by Macs. Not now, perhaps not ever.

I’m not expecting American Airlines to announce a transition to the Mac because of CrowdStrike. Not only would that be a colossal undertaking of time and money, but it’s also possible that for many companies, the Mac simply doesn’t have the tools needed to run their IT infrastructure.

That said, where the Mac does stand to benefit from CrowdStrike is in consumer purchases.

If you’re an average person in the market for a new computer, and you have the choice between a Mac and PC, there’s a good chance the needle got moved just a little closer to the Mac post-CrowdStrike.

Especially if you followed the outage closely at all. Or read some of the explanations for its origins.

Statements like the one Microsoft gave The Wall Street Journal sure don’t inspire much confidence in PCs:

A Microsoft spokesman said it cannot legally wall off its operating system in the same way Apple does because of an understanding it reached with the European Commission following a complaint. In 2009, Microsoft agreed it would give makers of security software the same level of access to Windows that Microsoft gets.

So, in Microsoft’s own words, PCs can’t be as secure as Macs?

I’m not here to argue for the Mac. My experience with PCs hasn’t been great, but I know plenty of people use them and in many cases even prefer them.

But for the indifferent? CrowdStrike was one of the best ad campaigns for the Mac, and didn’t cost Apple a thing.