Microsoft launched a new set of ads to follow-up there Jerry Seinfeld sports. The new ads take the Apple “I’m a Mac” ads head-on. All three ads are linked up here in this techcrunch post. Essentially, the ads start with a John Hodgeman look-alike who says “I’m a PC” and then shows a mosaic of people who say they’re also a PC. It includes you’re average person, an astronaut, Bill Gates, Pharell, a hipster, a teacher in Africa, a guy in the Artic, etc.
It’s interesting that Microsoft took on the Apple ads head-on with a message of “Billions of people use PCs and you can be proud to be a PC”. Though I think the ad is well done the problem is that I have never really seen someone be passionate about Microsoft products. The only exception I can think of is game developers who use Visual Studio, people who use Excel for everything (and that’s just cause they’ve used it forever), and people directly or indirectly on MSFT payroll. That said, all of those cases pale in comparison to Mac and iPhone users.
That said, the ad is quite effective if all it does is give someone piece of mind while buying a computer that “Ya, it’s alright to be a PC”.
i don’t think anyone in the history of computing has managed to create a customer base with the zeal/passion/intensity/insanity that apple users have. i say this as a hardcore mac kid from the age of 4 to 18.
obviously, my opinion here is necessarily biased but i think the point of the ad is not to highlight “passion” but to illustrate how Windows has reached a larger, more diverse population (no easy feat) and in so doing has enabled these people to do things far beyond what they could have hoped for prior to the advent of computing.
i think the ad/move is a good one since there’s no way to outdo apple in the “cool” department. then again, while there’s nothing in Excel to get consumers excited compared to itunes, it has done (and continues to do) more good in more places. i think this is the “peace of mind” the ad intends to create: not to make me feel like “it’s alright” but more like “there’s no limit to what i can do on this machine.” of course, i didn’t design the ads nor can i pretend to understand their true meaning.
i admit MS shouldn’t take too much credit in this arena, but it sure as hell has done more than apple in spreading computing to the masses. of course, as an original apple fanboy, i will finish by saying that apple deserves all the credit in the vision.
this, people, is a maverick