Microsoft’s newest rounds of ads directly target Apple’s highly succesful “Get A Mac” ads. He’s back. Yep, your old friend PC. But wait! Hey… that’s not the “real” PC! You guessed it. Microsoft has a PC look-alike sporting the latest rounds of the $300M budget Bill Gates Co. has shelled out to let people know that it’s okay to be stuck with Vista. No, really.. you’re in good hands because The Apple Store is right down the street.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrmF-mPLybw
Check the rest of them out on YouTube by searching for “I’m A PC.”
November 24th, 2008 at 11:04 AM
I just think Microsoft really missed the whole thing that makes Apple’s “I’m a Mac” commercials so popular — they’re funny even to Windows users who can relate to having a zillion different versions of Vista to choose from, and all the other fun things that make Microsoft Microsoft.
What other company makes a commercial entirely out of uploaded user video? YouTube? Not even…
November 24th, 2008 at 10:59 AM
To get it out of the way: Do I use a Mac? Nope, never have.
Now, while I don’t disagree with your sentiment about arrogant Mac users, I will have to say that this has never been the case with any Mac users I know, and I know quite a few. Most talk about Steve Forbes more than they talk about Steve Jobs, and they barely ever talk about Steve Forbes.
Pulling out an Iphone (or in my case an HTC Touch HD) to look something up isn’t flaunting anything. I was in Walmart yesterday and the store-clerk couldn’t tell this befuddled man which of the 200 print cartridges worked in his printer, all he had was his model number. They were both getting upset, I resolved the issue by going to Google, typing in his printer model and saying, “Kodak #10 AiO is the one you need, sir”.
I’m sure he was quite demolished by my flaunting and wished that I wouldn’t be such an arrogant prick, as he bought the cartridge for his daughter to finish her assignment and get a passing grade. I guess what that sarcasm implies is that I believe your sentiments on the issue are archaic. The world is changing and you have to keep up, equivocating “indie hipster” with a nobody may be great in your book, but doesn’t change the fact that “dress-style” and “cool-factor” do not have anything to do in today’s world with success, take a look at Sergey Brin and Larry Page — I’ve seen them make public appearances multiple times in indie-hipster attire.. Sure, they are going nowhere.
Now, in reply to your linux comment, and coming from a 10-year Linux user: Stop smoking crack.
You are equating the Kernel of Linux with the OS of MacOS. You must pit Kernel against Kernel, and OS against OS independently, friend. So, If we are going to do that then let’s do it seriously. XNU is the Kernel of MacOS-X — the core is Mach and parts of it are BSD. The Kernel runs on ARM, x86, x86-64 and PowerPC based processors. Considering that sums up an amazingly high percentage of the worlds computers, where does that leave us?
OS vs OS? From what I’ve seen people have been able to make MacOSX work on their hardware by applying patches, hacks, and work-a-rounds. This sounds very similar to what I had to do to make my Ubuntu system recognize my sound card, wireless, and power management on my last computer! Fancy that.
Seriously, look who is on the high horse. Every OS is a tool and should be used as such, some people prefer different tools for the same task. All you did with your comment is show that you are blinded by ignorance, and have thus made yourself a tool as well.
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As to the commercial, I thought it was kind of cute — but also very lame. I don’t think it is going to have the intended effect on the average (intelligence) individual. Most PC users I know admitted it was kind of a silly rip-off of the all-too-funny Mac commercials. As an aside, I think what they are trying to do (also) is use Mac’s arrogance (I’m a PC and I’m a Mac) in reverse by forging that link between PC and Windows. We all know that Mac and Linux based systems are PC’s too right?
September 20th, 2008 at 1:56 PM
This is really an interesting piece of advertising. While it fails completely to deliver any specific information about the operating system, I think it’s likely that it will be effective in making people more comfortable with owning PC’s.
It seems to me that recently Microsoft made an important choice in their advertising campaigns – rather than attempting to convince the computer-literate that Vista is in fact better than Leopard (which I think most people would agree would be an extremely difficult thing to do at this point), they’ve decided to focus their attempts on the “common” user – those who don’t really care enough to do any real research about the operating system they’re buying, and will be perfectly willing to buy a computer based on advertising alone. Windows users are not the only ones who fall into this category – so do those who will buy an overpriced Macbook without even considering a non-Mac laptop for half the price.
And I’m not saying that this demographic is necessarily stupid, or wrong to not care or know much about the computers they buy – they are no worse than I am for buying a car and not looking into what kind of engine it has. But I do think that they are exactly the kind of people who will fall easy prey to the type of bullshit advertising that emphasizes the “personality” of a computer, rather than its functionality. The reality is that for the common user, Vista can probably get the job done – albeit with more frustration and less user-friendliness – but this is a reality that Microsoft stopped pointing out long ago.
What Microsoft’s ads seem to be saying here is that it’s “okay” to still use Vista, and that “lots of people still do”. They defend themselves not as a company that makes software, but as a company that’s attempting to produce some kind of lifestyle – and while the message is bullshit, I can’t say that it isn’t clever.
September 19th, 2008 at 8:58 PM
To tell you the truth, I can’t believe Microsoft is copying them. Then again I can’t believe the complete arrogance mac users and Apple themselves have. I’d rather be the PC in work clothes then an indie hipster. Last time I checked, indie hipsters make it nowhere in life and our what society considers a modern go nowhere hippie. They always look for some reason to pull out their iphone and prove how cool they are that they can look up what you’re having a conversation about. You have an iphone, I get it, and Steve Jobs is infallible, blah blah blah.
This reminds me of the other thing I notice in mac users. They are trying to be different and stick it to the man. Welcome to reality, you are not sticking it to the man when you go buy a complete proprietary machine. In fact, you are doing the exact opposite of what you preach. If you want to stick it to the man, try an OS that works on almost anything with a central processing unit of almost any architecture called Linux.
Ever notice windows users don’t walk around with a sense of entitlement? Or walk around and talk about how Bill Gates is God? Find ways to bring up how great their OS is in almost any conversation? Thats right, windows users are not arrogant-know-everything-im-so-cool-hipsters.
Your last sentence is exactly what I’m talking about; “you’re in luck because the apple store who will sell you an overpriced macbook with identical components to a cheap dell is right down the street”.
September 19th, 2008 at 2:17 PM
I’m not sure it will end it, but Apple will have to re-think (Think Different) their strategy until Microsoft copies them again. And see, that’s just it — copy. They’re not improving and you figure most copies are just poorer versions of the original.
So, PC wears glasses. I’m afraid my laptop, even when it had Vista pre-installed from Dell didn’t wear glasses. The similarities that are reality have to do with errors, incompatibility, etc. not glasses or jeans. Microsoft can’t build the “Togetherness” that Apple product users have. Just like transparency, security, and a number of other things, Microsoft is late again.
Better late than never, right? Yeah right.
September 19th, 2008 at 2:13 PM
Unfortunately, I think these adverts will create a sense of ‘PC Nationalism’ among arguably less informed Windows users. Once again, these ads represent Microsoft’s ‘fear of the unknown’ tactics going to work in an aim to slow mac growth. Note, however, the lack of actual fact (even the implied kind) used in this series of videos.
Hopefully, Apple will respond. Maybe this is the end for the “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” series…