Huawei has hired actor Justin Long to take part in a new series of commercials for the company's new devices.

Justin Long was well known for his role in Apple's popular "Get a Mac" ad campaign, personifying the Apple brand. He had been in the Apple's "Get a Mac" campaign from 2006 to 2009. He starred in commercials with John Hodgman, who played a PC.

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Apple’s commercial were always starting with the tagline “Hello, I'm a Mac” and Long became the cool and casual Mac while Hodgman was a stuffy PC in a suit and tie.  The Chinese Android smartphone maker has sought out Long because of his past work with Apple.

Huawei has a bigger ambition aside from being the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. The company’s latest move has an intention of expanding in the United States and reaches increasingly more customers.

The company plans to break into the top two market share and to be the top smartphone seller in the world by 2021. This is the reason for hiring actor Long, taking some advertising cues from Apple. It is a bold move from Huawei, hiring an actor which for years was associated with Apple products.

Blast Radius ad agency wanted to emphasize Long's past relationship with Apple in its new line of ads, pushing for a more direct approach. However, Long convinced the company to go with a more subtle approach. Blast Radius group director Jessica Grizzel said that this is original ad concept, bolder and more explicit for calling out the previous relationship with Apple. 

Huawei’s new ads are relatively different than the Apple’s “Get a Mac” commercials. There are similarities present in ads as well. Commercial videos are short with funny dialog.

“The storyline for the video series positions Justin as a new director providing guidance to a series of Huawei products as they are looking to break into the market and make their mark. There is no doubt that Justin's history as a pitch-man for Apple adds a nice subtext to the videos and builds on Huawei's challenger position in the market,” said Grizzel.

Moreover, Huawei plans to announce the upcoming flagship P10 in the coming weeks, along with the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017.

TagsHuawei, apple, Mac, Get A Mac, justin long, huawei mate 9, Smartphone, Huawei P10