leads to viruses, spyware and malicious attacks on... Windows. Now I see why they are using that tagline.

“You can ignore it,” Mr. Reilly said of the Apple campaign, “or you can find a clever way to embrace it, to hug it to death, to turn it to your advantage.”

- Co-executive creative director of the agency behind the campaign; Crispin Porter & Bogusky

Sounds just like a Micro$oft tactic used for the last 15 years: embrace, extend, extinguish. I guess Redmund hires firms as unethical and underhanded as their own.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,extendand_extinguish

First they make idiots out of their users on national tv with that Mojave experiment.. now this.... pathetic.

The Apple ads must really be working.

Microshit takes themselves to a whole new level of pathetic. I wonder why Steve Baldhead doesn't star in the ads himself. If he's so sure he's cool, why doesn't he say it himself. Oh yeah, I remember now, the monkey population aren't quite over his last performance.

I think the point was that the article emphasized the celebrity status. I don't recall Apple claiming the two in their ads were "celebrities."

BTW, it must be you. Back button works fine for me.

you know, the seinfeld ads are pretty stupid. it's more like an ad for bill gates than for M$.

this just means that apple is hurting them. lolz.

holy s*** this is LAME. Stereotypes exist because there is at least some nugget of truth in them. Microsoft can only lose credibility (if they have any left) by telling people that those BSODs and virus attacks and other Windows nightmares are just a figment of their imagination.

Jerry Seinfeld will not make a third appearance in this stage of the campaign, but it is uncertain whether he will remain absent in the future.

how can a company with so much money, manage to s**** up so often and still stay in business????

celebrate Mediocrity to it's fullest.

scientists are going to be satisfied with Windows. They have the university's IT department standing behind them, to maintain their computer and OS.

What do you do if you are average Joe and your Wintel computer mysteriously boots to the BSOD one day, as happened to my parents just last week? (that was the last straw, they are getting a Mac next month!!!!)

What do you do if you are average Joe and three months after you buy a new, up-to-date Wintel box, it slows down to a crawl and you have to pay some geek to (maybe) fix it, crossing your fingers that they don't simply resort to wiping out your HD and reinstall (as also happened to my folks)?

Oh, I forgot, none of this s*** ever happens, it's just malicious rumors spread by Apple and their lying ad campaign.

If it wasn't Microsoft, this would be unbelievable.
It's certainly a low, even for them.

I bet it'll be a boost for Apple.

Yes, Microsoft, I'll select my computing platform because Eva Longoria tells me to.
This CAN'T be serious.

Apple is clearly hurting Microsoft. If they weren't MS would not bother responding to them.

Microsoft has about as much credibility as a used car salesman. Yeah most folks need to buy a car but it doesn't mean they like or trust the guy selling it to them.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky have ever heard of George Lakoff's "Don't Think Of An Elephant".

If someone tells you not to think of an elephant, what do you do? You still think of an elephant. If Microsoft hires a guy who looks like John Hodgman to tell you that all those things Apple says about Windows aren't true, what do you think of?

Framing, folks, framing. All MS is doing is reinforcing Apple's ads. Once again MS is helping Apple sell more Macs.

I don't know who is more pathetic, CP&B for pitching this asinine campaign or MS for approving it.

that maybe Microsoft ought to take some of this money and put it into making an OS that is not a piece of s***, but then I reconsidered. Clearly, all the money in the world would not be sufficient for MS to make a decent OS, in over 15 years they still have not gotten it right.

I guess all they have left is (wait for it...) to apply more lipstick to the pig.

fingernails on a chalkboard to me. God he is f****** annoying.

Eva Longoria is hot but I don't really care what she thinks about operating systems! Maybe I should ask Bill Gates which colors are in style this season?

...Apple will have a field day with this.

Just the line "Hello, I'm a PC, and I've been made into a stereotype" will be hilarious once we see John Hodgman say it, claiming that all the bad things are lies...

...and you know it will happen.

Here's a thought... fix Vista! Oh wait maybe that would cost more than $300 million...

we've got john mayer, jack johnson, the black eyed peas, bono and u2, al gore, foo fighters, victoria's secret model Gisele Bundchen & Alessandra Ambrosio, bruce willis, Stephen Fry, Radiohead, Coldplay, Bjork, Emma Watson, rhys fulber, Angels & Airwaves, Mariah Carey, Courtney Love, and so on...
just google "celebrities using a mac"!!!

big fat idiot

and even he knows better than to use a PC

Dear Microsoft,

I could have done these crappy ads better and for cheaper, like say only $200,000,000. Please call me and we'll talk...

It's going to be just like the negative political ads... which I'm tired of!

i can do crappy ads for half of your asking price! i can even make them crappier, i have no talent! in fact i could make the crappiest ads ever for, let's see, 20,000,000!

after reading the New York Times' article on this, I think it should prove to be very successful for MS. They're going to de-fuse the "Get a Mac" campaign by showing it for what it really is... a pretty immature, rinky-dink campaign that has run its course. Within six months, viewers will see the Apple ads as simplistic, silly and unfair. This MS campaign will take the bite out of Apple's ads, and I expect Apple to drop their campaign and start something fresh. They're overdue for a new angle anyway.

You can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig.

is your last name "ballmer"?

the worst thing MS can possibly do is ackowledge the Apple campaign. the classiest thing MS has ever done is to leave it alone so far. but now they're about to go t**-for-tat and breathe new life into Apple's campaign. at no cost to Apple. and just imagine how much fun Apple with have with their responses.

sheer genius, ballmer.

Microsoft can't help but imitate Apple

If they really are going for the "I'm a PC" line with a character who looks like he still lives with his parents, then they are just endorsing Apple's view of PCs as boring and Macs as hip and trendy.

"t**-for-tat"

what is that tat thing and where can i get me a bucket full of the stuff?

SHAMWOW!

you can get them on TV, and trade them for t**.

rtbarry, these guys know how to work the machine. Your post and all the others regarding this campaign are testament to this. It will work, trust me. The Apple ad will soon seem adolescent and silly.

They got everyone's attention with vagueness, and helped make MS look human in the process. The next phase is all about making MS look distinctly human. This will make Apple's PC guy look childish, silly, and irrelevent, and Apple will drop the ads. Or at least change them.

Apple will just say it was time for something new, which is correct... it is time for something new.

The poor iBleeting masses are going to miss their fav stereotype aren’t they.

And yes...the iFaithful are going to be soon viewing new Apple ads as iSteve is going to hand on crotch tell you all that it is time for a change...err time to stop looking like little whining, iBleeting kiddies that just want to pay DOUBLE the FULL FAT price for normal PC hardware just to get a $150 OS and a shiny case.

Now let’s all go for a group iNuthug...ohh so good...I like being an Apple iSheep...now feel me some more fool!

I like Apple products, but the smug tone of much of its advertising is pretty awful. Maybe the "Hey, you cool educated design conscious middle-class professionals, this is for you." approach impresses in the US, but it's pretty cheesy elsewhere. Actually I can't think of a single innovative advertisement from Apple. Even as an Apple fan, I like the PC character better. A campaign to build on this is very clever.

I'm reminded of the German general in WW1, who responded to a bombardment of allied propaganda suggesting he was a syphilis ridden w**** monger by having flyers printed up in English denying these claims, and shot over to the allied troops: needless to say, the only thing this did was compound his reputation as a f***-up.

The nice thing is, this approach actually reinforces Apple's position: clearly if they are a credible target, there's something there worth fighting.

MS -- Epic Fail!

You people are a bunch of queerbates. "Lets b**** and moan about micro$soft (see how cool I am because i put a $ in there!!!) because they came out with an ad campaign" f*** off...apple lied in most of their 'I'm a mac and I'm a PC ad). So go shove that apple shaped d**** up your b******* and get a life.

The greenest beginner at that ad agency should be able to tell them that they are just doing free ads for Apple!

The greenest beginner at that ad agency should be able to tell them that they are just doing free ads for Apple!

This article says, "In addition to taking back the PC image, other ads show real users expressing their pride and satisfaction with using Microsoft products in their work. They will feature scientists, teachers, designers, and even shark hunters, as well as over 60 Microsoft employees, shown with their name and email addresses. This even includes Bill Gates himself."

I have seen 3 ads and NO WHERE does anyone say how much they like using a pc. They just indicate that they use a pc. I get the flu, it does not mean that I like it.!!!!!!! :-(

Also, please note that Microsoft DOES NOT make PCs. Only the software that is used on it. How ballzie of Microsoft to take credit for hardware that it does not make and ignore problems that its software DOES make.

Snake oil salesman = Microsoft..... "Hey, ignore the label, look over there while I bait and switch."

Just a thought.
en

Boy do you guys sound worried. All you can do is moan how bad Apple is. We all know that you are just doing the MS shuffle. MS problem here, you cry, "Look over there" and hope we forget the problems that you create.

And its pathetic that Microsoft would resort to paying people to wander the web posting random (usually "Guest") comments that never really give any data, just b**** at Apple and usually Steve Jobs .

Just a thought.
en

Boy do you guys sound worried. All you can do is moan how bad Apple is. We all know that you are just doing the MS shuffle. MS problem here, you cry, "Look over there" and hope we forget the problems that you create.

And its pathetic that Microsoft would resort to paying people to wander the web posting random (usually "Guest") comments that never really give any data, just b**** at Apple and usually Steve Jobs .

Just a thought.
en