Look, I don’t have as much ire for the Microsoft ads starring Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates than everybody else seems to. I did get a chuckle out of them. If taken a face value (and in a world where Justin Long and John Hodgman don’t exist), they were OK. Not $10 million OK, and not kick off a $300 million campaign OK..just OK.
Trying an image campaign like this is tough. Apple has succeeded in making Windows Vista look like a pathetic mess through its MAC/PC ads. Curiously enough though - Microsoft Office seems to fair pretty well in image from those commercials. This campaign is obviously trying to play on the hipness of the MAC/PC campaign, but it just can’t match it. When it comes to marketing Apple has always been the lead horse - ever since the 1984 ad, they haven’t stopped (They couldn’t, their market share was so small relatively - and still is - that they needed to separate themselves to survive). I am sure Cesar or Jason (my Windoze-using fellow iconogeeks) will chime in here about the virtues of Windoze, but me and Brett (my fellow MAC-using iconogeek) know the truth…if you use a Mac, you’re just, well, “cooler.”
Trying to make Microsoft look hip by admitting it is out-of-touch with real people just makes it seem desperate. Microsoft is an enormous company with tons of bad-will over the past years and to get past that by dropping Seinfeld in the mix just doesn’t make sense. The fact that Microsoft pulled the ads and is now laying some bullshit about an intended “teaser campaign” is ridiculous. They yanked them because they aren’t working. It doesn’t matter if I felt they were kinda clever, the bottom line is that they didn’t work, and they won’t work. Maybe Microsoft should just concentrate on releasing an OS that doesn’t suck, instead of dropping $10 million on a latex salesman.
![[del.icio.us]](http://iconogeek.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://iconogeek.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Google]](http://iconogeek.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://iconogeek.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://iconogeek.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://iconogeek.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://iconogeek.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
Loading ...
Check out :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V7NoRjI0H0
New Microsoft ad… very good take on the I’m a PC thing. Still doesn’t change the fact that a company with 90% market share really isn’t ‘competing’ for the OS crown with a company that has 5%.
However, a PC does not equal Microsoft, or Windows for that matter. It represents an ability and choice to not have your hand held and your ass wiped. If I want to go in and mess with my bios, swap out random hardware, customize every nuance and actually play a decent computer game (one released within the past 2 years) I’ll take my PC hands down every time.
I don’t choose it because it has Windows, I choose it because its not a computer for the computer challenged. It lets me have total freedom.
PC= Democracy
Macintosh= Fascism
Finally, if Chuck and Brett represent the ‘cooler’ people.. I am very happy to be chilling with Cesar on the other side of the fence.
“I’m a PC and really defensive.”
My point was more to illustrate that the MAC/PC ads have painted Macs as being cool and PC’s as not. That those ads have succeeded in generating more negative equity for Vista than any good equity a $300 million campaign is going to do.
That new ad is interesting, however fundamentally it’s another catch-up ad. “I’m a PC”? Seriously? They couldn’t have used a different phrase than the exact SAME one? AND not to mention a John Hodgman look (and sound)-alike right at the beginning. Again, it just seems unoriginal (I know WHY they did it, but that doesn’t stop the fact that it FEELS unoriginal - I’ve seen it all before). Which is fundamentally Microsoft’s problem with Windows. They just aren’t perceived as the ground-breakers. In this space, Apple generates the new ideas (and to some extent Open Source does too - but I digress, we are talking desktop here) and Microsoft apes them and just rolls them out to the masses. Microsoft is the great behemoth, with deep pockets and Apple is the renegade risk-taker. Microsoft has a LONG road to how to get to the “Coolness” level they are looking for. I know it’s not Apple/Microsoft anymore (hasn’t been for years), but in this space, they are all trying to bite a bit off of the Apple mindshare - Microsoft has the sales, just not the tastemakers.
The competition isn’t for the OS crown, your OS of choice really is about usability now since the processors are all the same. Speed’s a non-issue really. The great debate is really over software and how these systems can be used by “regular” people, like our mothers or grandmothers. I choose a Mac because I don’t want to mess with my bios. I don’t want to deal with driver incompatibilities and blue screens because I swapped out random hardware. And I certainly don’t want to try and figure out why Windows lost it’s internet connection AGAIN after I fixed it yesterday.
I choose Mac because it lets me have total creative freedom without having to deal with that stuff. I’ve seen Jason do amazing things with his PC (and Windows), especially with tools like Maya. Seriously, this guy’s a f’n genius with it. But for me, I just need my tools to work, right out of the box, so I can get shit done. I like OS X’s elegance and I am willing to give up low-level control to have it. But quite honestly, I really don’t want that control, because with great control comes great responsibility and if you don’t know what you’re doing…shit happens, bad shit.
Jason’s point is more along the lines of the hardware aspect of the PC. Just the other day, Cesar was proudly telling me he had his entire machine apart on the floor. He was happy about that. Not me. Give me a kick-ass solid workstation and awesome software tools to get work done. Is it any wonder why makers like Dell are rolling out packages now? You CAN mod it, but you don’t HAVE to. Cuz it kicks ass right out of the box.
I have no issues with PC hardware. My issue is with Microsoft’s poor performance with software. I don’t understand why a company with so much money, can’t put out a solid product. Why I need multiple service packs to get something usable blows my mind. Why they have to trick users (Mohave, anyone?) to get them to see why Vista is really kinda cool (albeit a patched one) again, blows my mind. Dont; put out a flawed product just because you made an unrealistic promise to the shareholders.
Look, I develop and design web apps. I know that software is a bitch sometimes. But if anyone can get their shit together and release a rock-solid piece of software, you would expect once of the largest companies in the world to be able to do it. They’s got tons of cash, get it done.
One positive thing I will say about Microsoft is that Surface computing looks AWESOME and I want one.
Finally, as to Jason’s point on coolness. I am cool. In fact, I am the man. I’m bad, I am bad. I’m so bad, I should be in detention. I am the man!
Chuck’s Wall of Text crits you for over 9,000 damage!
Alas my friend, deep within your ramblings you answer your own ultimate question. I will save the revelation for the next podcast.
Also, you in one post claimed that you are ‘cool’ and use a ‘grandma’s’ computer and are so ‘bad’ you should be in detention… just like Bart Simpson. You really make my job too easy.
“I’m a PC” - I like that ad, but I agree that it relies too much on Mac’s advertising scheme.
I’ve enjoyed the Seinfeld ads so far. At first I was confused, but when someone explained all the nuances and “inside jokes” in them relating specifically to Mac, it brought the ads to a new level for me. Maybe it’s not good to have a commercial a lot of people won’t “get” right away. But at the same time, it does make you want to watch it again to see what jokes you missed, which is good for an ad to do.