Microsoft's new "I'm a PC" ad

[Colonel Green]

heh I like it. And as I implied in my old thread about the Mac ads, I thought Apple screwed up in casting Justin Long as the Mac & the endearingly dorky, cuddly average guy as the PC. PC comes off as likable(to me) where as Mac comes off as this smart-ass douchbag. But TJMO.

Yeah, Mac is there being a douchebag and asshole.

PC has some problem and/or some accomplishment he is proud of and here's Mac who smacks PC in the face with and it proclaims that he doesn't have that problem because he's HIM.



And, or course, PCs are serious business machines that are only done for spreadhsheets and serious stuff. NO ONE blogs, games, does 3D work or anything fun and "cool" on PC.

Nope.

All PCs can run is Spreadsheet.

Fuck-off Mac.

The vast majority of computer users are on PCs. What you're doing we have a word for it.

Compensating.

Advertising. The word you're looking for is Advertising.

 

[TGTheodore]

The vast majority of computer users are on PCs.

By inertia, not by quality. But that inertia is rapidly slowing down.

--Ted

 

[Tom Servo]

I'll stick with my MAC thank you very much.

 

[JonathonWally]

The guy named Roger was really the selling point for me.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The vast majority of computer users are on PCs.

By inertia, not by quality. But that inertia is rapidly slowing down.

--Ted

No, and no.

Apple doesn't offer anything I don't already have, other than a higher price and a lot of sole source bullshit.

But Hell, Apple people have been promising that they're becoming competitive for...what, decades now? So did the Amiga folks.

 

[Lindley]

Apple doesn't offer anything I don't already have, other than a higher price and a lot of sole source bullshit.

The situation is not ideal, but OSX is just a lot less stressful than XP. Possibly because I use XP at work and OSX at home....but regardless, there it is.

Is it worth paying the extra money? Some days I wonder, but if I can afford it I don't mind too much.

But Hell, Apple people have been promising that they're becoming competitive for...what, decades now? So did the Amiga folks.

They are competitive. Not anywhere near equal on a marketshare basis, but in certain more limited ways, their presence is felt. Enough to warrant this ad, anyway.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The situation is not ideal, but OSX is just a lot less stressful than XP.

Well, there you go - operating systems don't register anywhere on my spectrum of "stressful."

They are competitive. Not anywhere near equal on a marketshare basis...

Which is the point. No matter what they do, there's never been and never will be a mass movement to Apple. Fortunately for them they've got business lines that actually work for them, in music and cellphones.

 

[Lindley]

Stressful might not be the right word. It's just one of those back-of-the-brain tickles you get when something isn't quite right.

 

[TGTheodore]

The vast majority of computer users are on PCs.

By inertia, not by quality. But that inertia is rapidly slowing down.

--Ted

No, and no.

Check the market share shift, Bill.

And remember where Windows came from in the first place. April 1985, and you weren't there ...

And of course, Microsoft continually announcing "their" great strides forward -- that were made by Apple years earlier (and better)

--Ted

 

[Canadave]

Apple keep saying they're better, so why is Microsoft not telling my why I should be using Vista not OS X?

Y'know, cuz everyone else does. And don't you want to be just like everyone else?

Yeah, instead of being like everybody else, be like a smaller percentage of everybody else!

Anyway, I use a Mac at work and a PC at home (OSX and XP, respectively) and I vastly prefer XP. I don't mind the Mac, but I find it a little cumbersome to use compared to Windows. I find that XP has a much better system for managing, well, windows, and I also like having a start menu—having to access my less commonly used applications through the Finder is an annoyance. I have other quibbles, too, but I don't really want to create a big laundry list.

 

[Chess Piece Face]

The ads are a mistake IMO because by doing this direct aknowledgement of the PC/Mac ads they are painting themselves in the defensive role. How about telling us why we should use Vista? Why it's better than XP or OS X?

(Well, they can't, but they could come up with some bs for an ad easily enough)

So now that they are in the defensive role, it will lead some to go "Hmmm, I wonder what this mac stuff is like, if it is making Microsoft react?" Then, those people will find themsevles by an apple store someday and boom.

 

[David cgc]

Their fake Hodgeman isn't bad.

And anyway, this is the ad I've had in my mind ALL along. Show that EVERYONE, rich or poor, hipster douchebag or average nerd, uses a PC.
Hell, they even had a Justin Long lookalike to say he wears jeans.

That's just it, though. They're responding to a charge that no one made. When John Hodgeman says "I'm a PC," that is his literal meaning. He is the personification of the box on your desk. He doesn't say, "I'm a guy who uses a PC," he says he is a PC.

That is not the message which this ad challenges. It seems to be under the impression, despite the fact that the metaphor is delivered with a subtlety of a gold brick, the actors in the Mac ads represent users and not the machines themselves. Indeed, the ads are complete nonsense if you assume that the actors are intended to be typical users and not personifications of the computers in question.

 

[Brikar99]

Apple keep saying they're better, so why is Microsoft not telling my why I should be using Vista not OS X?

Y'know, cuz everyone else does. And don't you want to be just like everyone else?

Yeah, instead of being like everybody else, be like a smaller percentage of everybody else!

Anyway, I use a Mac at work and a PC at home (OSX and XP, respectively) and I vastly prefer XP. I don't mind the Mac, but I find it a little cumbersome to use compared to Windows. I find that XP has a much better system for managing, well, windows, and I also like having a start menu—having to access my less commonly used applications through the Finder is an annoyance. I have other quibbles, too, but I don't really want to create a big laundry list.

It's strange because I use XP at work and I have a Macbook Pro at home, and everything you've mentioned are why I like the Mac better. I find digging through all the menus cumbersome and I end up using the "quick launch" for all my applications to try and recreate the dock from my Mac.

 

[Chess Piece Face]

Y'know, cuz everyone else does. And don't you want to be just like everyone else?

Yeah, instead of being like everybody else, be like a smaller percentage of everybody else!

Anyway, I use a Mac at work and a PC at home (OSX and XP, respectively) and I vastly prefer XP. I don't mind the Mac, but I find it a little cumbersome to use compared to Windows. I find that XP has a much better system for managing, well, windows, and I also like having a start menu—having to access my less commonly used applications through the Finder is an annoyance. I have other quibbles, too, but I don't really want to create a big laundry list.

It's strange because I use XP at work and I have a Macbook Pro at home, and everything you've mentioned are why I like the Mac better. I find digging through all the menus cumbersome and I end up using the "quick launch" for all my applications to try and recreate the dock from my Mac.

I think the problem is that when people say "X Thing" is cumbersome and "Y Thing is easy" they are usually talking about whichever thing they either used first, or have more experience using.

They RARELY take an objective look at which makes more logical sense and is more flexible. On that basis, OSX would win every time, just on the mere fact that Windows is reverse engineered from the Apple's original OS and is backwards to begin with.

They also cannot possibly be looking at things like spyware, viruses, annoying windows that pop up to interrupt the user whenever the operating system feels like it etc., because OS X would win that one every time too.

Cumbersome to the majority of people = the thing I know the least about/have less experience or time using. That's all.

 

[Sephiroth]

the mac commercials are like those verizion commercials, where verizon is personified by a brad pitt looking guy, and the other networks are personified as dnd playing, trek watching nerds and dorks

 

[Lindley]

annoying windows that pop up to interrupt the user whenever the operating system feels like it etc., because OS X would win that one every time too.

Oh yeah, my XP64 machine at work has a box that pops up every 10 minutes telling me to restart the damn thing so it can install updates. Sometimes I actually do, and it goes away for the day, but it's always back the next morning without fail. Damn annoying. NO, I don't want to restart my machine again! I'm in the middle of something, shut the hell up, dammit!

At least OSX has the graciousness to let me easily force-quit the Software Update program if I don't want to click the Restart button when it's done.

 

[MyCylon]

So why should I uses a Windows machine? I still don't know why I should go out today and pick up a copy of Vista. All I've been told there is that a bunch of random people use PC, why should I care? It's not like you can't do all the same things on other OSs. I think everyone knows that the vast majority of PCs run Windows, they're not really saying anything we don't know there.

Apple keep saying they're better, so why is Microsoft not telling my why I should be using Vista not OS X?

See, the interesting thing about the Apple ads is that they're not really saying anything about the product at all. It's not what counts. If you check out Apple's product range and they way they're marketed, the only thing that counts is the lifestyle that is / seems to be attached to them.
The "I'm a Mac" ads are a testament to this. If you use an Apple, you're cool, if you use a PC, you're an unattractive, uninspired dork.

The thing I like about the new Microsoft ad, incidentally, is that they are, on a certain level, doing something similar. But not quite.
In a sense they're saying that a PC is everything you need it to be. It's there for you to work with, and it will conform to your requirements.
The Apple ads take the opposite stance, in a way. An Apple will always be an Apple. You can consider yourself fortunate if it happens to do what you need it to do. Admittedly, that's an exaggeration - but I think the notion is there .

 

[Hermiod]

^All Apple do with their product line is make it simpler for people to choose. You want a simple home laptop ? There's the MacBook. Already got a monitor, keyboard and mouse ? MacMini.

A Mac will do exactly what you need it to do, and the chances are it will already be able to do it when you switch it on for the first time.

 

[Kimi3013]

See, the interesting thing about the Apple ads is that they're not really saying anything about the product at all. It's not what counts. If you check out Apple's product range and they way they're marketed, the only thing that counts is the lifestyle that is / seems to be attached to them.
The "I'm a Mac" ads are a testament to this. If you use an Apple, you're cool, if you use a PC, you're an unattractive, uninspired dork.

The thing I like about the new Microsoft ad, incidentally, is that they are, on a certain level, doing something similar. But not quite.
In a sense they're saying that a PC is everything you need it to be. It's there for you to work with, and it will conform to your requirements.
The Apple ads take the opposite stance, in a way. An Apple will always be an Apple. You can consider yourself fortunate if it happens to do what you need it to do. Admittedly, that's an exaggeration - but I think the notion is there .

They're not saying much about OS X, but they're saying that Vista still has problems over a year later, they say it crashes, is loosing market share; implying that they don't and are therefore better. I get the stuff about it being the cool thing and such, they've built a good image for them self and are doing very well because of it.

But still, I've really never seen any thing at all from Microsoft that flat out says "this is why Vista is a good product and you should use it". Apple say "Vista crashes, has problems and is un-cool; but OS X is very cool and doesn't have those problems". Might not be 100% true, but it's far better than just saying "we're here and can work for many people".

Is it really such a bad idea for an advert that just tells me why a product is better than others?

 

[Rii]

Is it really such a bad idea for an advert that just tells me why a product is better than others?

Microsoft doesn't sell PCs, or a lifestyle, only an operating system, which in terms of product differentiation is one step up from selling hair combs. Nobody cares how an OS works because it accomplishes no useful tasks of itself. If Apple is pushing the angle that Vista is unstable, it's because pushing any other angle makes you look like the sort of nitpicking geek who should be posting on a Star Trek BBS.