Posts tagged Microsoft

It's no secret that Apple's Mac/PC ads have been eating Microsoft up inside.  Not only do they spread negative information about Windows Vista, but they're completely effective at doing so.  As any average Joe on the street what he thinks about Vista and chances are he'll say something along the lines of "I haven't used it, but from what I've heard it's a nightmare!"  That's due in no small part to Apple's commercials (Windows Mojave, anyone?).

So then, when Microsoft announced that they were teaming up with Jerry Seinfeld with their new $300 million dollar ad campaign there was a lot of curiosity about how they'd hit back.  Unfortunately for Microsoft, the initial analysis wasn't good on their new ads featuring Bill Gates and Seinfeld in normal, everyday and somewhat comical situations.  Truth be told despite there being some comedy to the ads there wasn't much advertising.  The two that I saw had simple scenarios (one in a shoe store, the other in a typical household) that had absolutely nothing to do with Microsoft let alone Windows Vista.  You'd see this funny little skit and at the end you'd get a Windows logo.  That was about it.  Needless to say, the reception to these ads was about as luke-warm as it gets.

Then this past week Microsoft rolled out phase two of Operation Make-People-Like-Windows-Vista, and this time their strategy is much more clear.  The new ad starts with a John Hodgeman (aka the guy who plays PC in Apple's commercials) lookalike, and he points out that fact that Apple has basically turned PC users into stereotypes.  From here all sorts of different PC users doing various interesting and mundane activities proclaim that "they are a PC!"  Personally, I think this strategy is brilliant.  It would have been very easy for Microsoft to come back at Apple with an attack that's similar to the one Apple has used, and that would spell disaster.  After all, aren't the Apple ads kind of childish?  Are we really to believe that every PC user on Earth wears a brown suit with glasses, and is a total dork?  Instead Microsoft took the high road more or less by basically pointing out how childish the Mac and PC ads are.  As I mentioned, the first line in the new Microsoft ad is something along the lines of "Hello, I'm a PC and I've been made into a stereotype."  Bravo, Microsoft.

The reason the new ads are so much better (aside from the fact that they actually have a meaning) is that they're tailored to a more general audience.  The Gates/Seinfeld ads were filled with jokes that only a true geek would understand, like Bill Gates' discount shoe membership card having his mugshot on it from his brush with the law many years ago.  Ryan Block (formerly of Engadget and now gdgt) even went so far as to find some hidden meaning in the older commercials.  Little nuggets like the crotchety old Grandma in the second Gates/Seinfeld commercial representing Steve Jobs based on references to her living with the family for 12 years (the same amount of time Jobs has been with Apple since he returned to resurrect the company), but when a commercial has to be analyzed so thoroughly to construe any sort of value...there's a problem.  The new ads are straight and to the point: PC users aren't dorks.  PC users do a ton of different things with their computers and they come from all sorts of backgrounds.  Basically, don't believe Apple's hype.

So will these new commercials work?  Who knows.  I'm just happy to see that Microsoft is stepping up and fighting back because based on all recent figures Apple keeps eating up market share, especially in the laptop market.  To make things worse the negativity in which Vista is enveloped is spreading like wildfire, so that's all the more reason for them to put on the boxing gloves to get people thinking about Microsoft positively again.

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