09/18/2008, 10:55pm, EDT
Thursday, September 18thMicrosoft airs "I'm a PC" Windows ad
Microsoft tonight aired its first second-phase ad and started its more direct campaign to combat the image portrayed by Apple. Shifting significantly from the company's approach of avoiding Windows discussion, the spot begins by playing on Apple's "I'm a PC" message but calling it a "stereotype" with a replica of John Hodgman's character; it quickly shifts to reveal different users in different fields of work ranging from astronauts to teachers, all of whom repeat the "I'm a PC" mantra to illustrate how Windows PCs are used in many different situations than what Apple implies.
Several celebrities are visible throughout the campaign, including company co-founder Bill Gates, Deepak Chopra, and Eva Longoria; Microsoft employees, including Gates, have an @windows.com e-mail address attached to their appearances to emphasize their human connection.
Two shorter ads have also appeared with a similar exploration of the theme where people in various jobs explain how they wear different kinds of suits or are not alone, again tackling what Microsoft perceives as stereotypes of the average Windows user.
Although more to-the-point than the previous Seinfeld ads, the new commercials again largely avoids mentioning the product and echoes the previous strategy of flashing the Windows logo at the end, hinting that the longer campaign will avert the direct comparisons used by the Mac maker and instead attempt to create a positive message; the ads are being combined with a similarly upbeat approach in third-party stores, where Microsoft plans to mimic Apple's retail staff with Microsoft Gurus that promote the advantages of Windows Vista and its component apps before the sale.
Filed under: industry, software, Apple
Other story tags: Microsoft, Vista
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typical MS
Apple was running commercials like these 5-10 years ago...
Deepak Chopra
is deluded. PCs are weirdos.
HUH?
I need to PEE, SEE??
LOLLLL!!! Microgarbage nothing more.
They should be fined to wasting bandwidth.
Nice
Nice job MS, I thought it was much better than Jerry & Bill.
Ah, yes, but...
Are they running XP or Vista? Changing their ad campaign is an admission that they previous ones failed and rightfully so. I did, however, enjoyed the 4.5 minutes of Gates and Seinfeld. There were bits that were actually funny.
So...
So if you live "Without Walls" (as the end caption states), you'd have no place to hang your Windows...
Seriously though, what walls are these? I like walls. I'm just not getting this.
But overall, I think it's a great ad campaign (for Apple): "I'm a PC, just like BG!" -- omfg.
LIve Without Walls?
I guess Macs have walls, and that's apparently a bad thing.
Playing along
Ad campaign is off the target because it is playing along the rules set by Apple. "I'm PC. I'm not that bad, look!". Yes, we know. And we know also that according to Apple's ads Mac is even better than you, PC. It can do all the things you can, only better.
Ask yourself, will anyone switch to buying PC after watching this ad, if he's considering buying a Mac? Now you know why this ad completely misses the objective.
So familiar that..
...I find in the midst of watching those spots that they bend and morph into a variant version of the "Think Different" ads and I imagine that these people are talking about Macs instead of Windows.
These ads have so little to do with MS or Windows that it's easy to completely forget them, and the final poster frame feels incongruous.
Stereotype?
After working with PCs for two decades, I'd say some of the Apple Ads poked fun at some real issues that plagued the PC. If I had a dollar for every time Internet Explorer crashed, I would have enough to get a new Mac. Windows Error Reporting is a daily visitor on my work PC, I probably see error reporting three times a year on my Mac.