In the never-ending battle between PC and Apple for Laptop world domination, Apple strikes back with their tried and true (but maybe getting tired) Justin Long campaign. The basic message is simple - Yes you can get a PC with all the accessories you want, but will it be as stable as a mac?
The bi-partisan truth to the whole story is that both platforms will crash on you as your computer is only as good as the software you load on to it as well as it’s user (I myself have had to reboot my mac on many an occasion).
I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next out of this back and forth.
It’s been a while since I’ve talked about the Mac vs PC war and with good reason, nothing interesting has happened; until now.
Microsoft has finally decided to stop trying to look cooler than Mac and just show the straight facts; Macs are EXPENSIVE! Great timing, with the recession and all, as well.
So here’s how it pretty much went down:
David Webster, GM of brand marketing at MSFT has been working with Agency of Record - Crispin Porter & Bogusky to redeem themselves from the failure that was the “Seinfeld / Gates are actual people too” campaign, and they have come up with a great idea. Film reality based ads around people actually buying computers. Give them $1000 to buy whatever suits their needs and let them keep the difference. The idea behind the positioning is that Macs are simply value adds and in a recession that’s just unecessary. To quote Webster “Not everyone wants a machine that’s been washed with unicorn tears,”.
Well gee… Free computer? Keep the difference? Great! I’d buy a netbook!
Yes, I’d buy a netbook and I’m a Mac user because it’s a FREE COMPUTER!
Logistics and details aside, it’s a great idea, but once again the execution is all wrong for a number of reasons.
There’s a good reason why Macs are expensive. They ARE washed with unicorn tears.
Some random woman on the street who probably just needs to check her email and use Microsoft Word now and then is hardly an ambassador to the “Which computer do I need” debate.
This random woman is not random at all. In fact, she’s a paid actress and people are already picking away at the apparent performance. Oops.
My two cents on the whole issue. I’m getting really sick and tired of the superiority debate on OS vs. OS. It’s like two people debating which cereal is better, Cocoa Puffs or Frosted Flakes. If MSFT wants to try to push down Mac by saying there’s no value in what you’re purchasing, all I have to say is that having worked at Microsoft for the odd project here and there, none of them have any inkling into why people buy Macs in the first place. Drink the Kool-Aid folks. It works wonders.
Last week Microsoft decided to discontinue their “We need to get down with the people” ad campaign featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, galavanting about town shopping for discount shoes and living in “common folk” homes. The intent was supposedly to create a more down to earth image of Microsoft, but unfortunately, it did just the opposite of that. We showed the first ad not long ago, and I was quick to comment on my lack of appetite for it; however, the second ad was actually funny. Entertaining as it was, it still failed to instill me (an Apple and PC user) with that warm and fuzzy feeling that was intended for me. I don’t find Jerry all that funny anymore, nor do I feel that Bill can earnestly relate to his consumer audience. In efforts to remedy this $300 million misdirection, ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky has shifted direction to leveraging several celebrities including Deepak Chopra, Geoff Green and a new “I’m a PC” guy who strikes a remarkable resemblance to John Hodgman, the original “I’m a PC” guy who plays the PC to Justin Long’s Mac.
Earlier today, Computerworld published a post stating that the preview assets for the next version of this campaign were created on a Mac… Whoops.
Does this really matter? Is the whole world going to laugh hysterically at Microsoft because their own ads were created on a Mac? I can’t say for sure. I’m not that surprised to be honest, as most agencies use Macs, but I’m not the general public. I work for an interactive firm. Time will tell whether this actually makes a dent in Microsoft’s image, and I’ll continue to use both my Mac and PC for what they’re respectively good for.
I’m not going to glorify this video by even talking about it. You’ll end up seeing it anyway, you might as well say you saw it here first. However, I will warn you that this ad doesn’t sell anything, nor does it make any sense. The first batch of users on YouTube who have already seen it in the past few hours that it’s been up have already pointed out the advertising strategy of Microsoft’s current PR facelift. I’ll let you all come to your own conclusions:
I just got off the phone with a former Momentum guy who claims he stood on line at a Rogers store from 6:30 am until they finally allowed people to come in to get their iPhone at 10:00 am. So imagine the dismay as he’s told that due to the system overload, of all the people trying to buy iPhones, he can buy his phone, but won’t be able to actually HAVE it for a while.
Of the line up of eager purchasers, he was second in line, and secured the second of four 16GB iPhones. That particular store only had two in black, and two in white. Naturally, he went for the black one…
Anyway, to make a long story short about a product we all want but probably won’t have for a while, Rogers’ sales tool “SalesCentral” simply couldn’t handle the pressure and crashed. Leaving even the people who had previously purchased iPhones out to dry, and more importantly, bricked.
Good luck to the lot of you, I’m keeping my Blackberry… It has a keyboard
Saatchi & Saatchi working for pizzas? Apparently. Here’s what happens when you get big agencies to help you with your direct mail campaigns: brilliance.
