New Microsoft ads: powerful blow against Apple or vague populist message?

The reviews are in on Microsoft's newest TV ads, which began airing Thursday night.

Taking on Apple's "I'm a Mac. I'm a PC," campaign, in which the PC looks out of touch and clumsy, the Microsoft ads include celebrities such as Eva Longoria and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, plus numerous Microsoft employees and regular people. With the refrain, "I'm a PC," each person adds something about themselves: I'm a PC and I wear glasses. I'm a PC and my name is Roger. The upshot: all kinds of human beings use PCs.

My favorite is writer Deepak Chopra's, "I'm a PC and a human being. Not a human doing. Not a human thinking. A human being."

Maria Russo of Web Scout says the message is too fuzzy, expressing the vague idea that the world is a place of interconnected PCs. Kara Swisher at AllThingsD says the ads are better than the Jerry Seinfeld/Gates ones that aired earlier this month, but they're still a little too it's-a-small-world-after-all. But the ads do succeed in diffusing the elitism of the Apple ads, says Michael Arrington at TechCrunch. Yes, Apple has been outmaneuvered, says Gizmodo.

Microsoft is asking people to make their own video about being a PC, which the company will air on videos in Times Square. Of course, that means there will be some "I'm a Mac" submissions, says Mashable.

The whole campaign of course raises the question: Do people really identify as a PC or a Mac?  Maybe so, if you are a Mac person. But it seems as if PC people (and this is obviously the point of the ad) tend to identify as other things. For example, as someone who wears glasses.

Still, Microsoft's campaign must be working. When was the last time we talked about the Redmond, Wash., software giant so much?

-- Michelle Quinn

Comments

[elgarak]

The "I'm a PC" ads are a bad idea. Here's why:

Microsoft's brands are Microsoft, Windows, Vista. Maybe even Bill Gates. PC is not a brand, and Microsoft does not make PCs. But here they are, advertising the PC.

Apple makes computers. They can use personifications for hardware. Microsoft cannot.

Also, they seem to be more upset about John Hodgman's appearance as PC than about the allegations of product shortcomings. Just how insecure are those guys? They don't really embrace the PC character, as they should to make the ad work. "I'm a PC, but I'm not a looser in a suit!"

One other thing: With this ad, Microsoft has admitted that its biggest threat is a hardware manufacturer with 1/12 of Microsoft's market share, a manufacturer that is not a direct competitor of themselves.

[Andrew Warner]

It's going to be very hard for Mac to put down the PC now. It's like putting down the average man. Great ad, I think.

[John Richardson]

I'm a PC, and I run LINUX :-)

[tdub]

Well, just because people are "talking about the ads" does not mean the ads are "working". I still think the new ads appear to be rather tone-deaf. They are throwing paint up against the canvas at random. By attempting to tell us that "nearly everone has a PC" does nothing to show the brand as superior. It does nothing to say that the platform is easier to operate (it isn't). And while the Seinfeld ads were painfully lame and un-funny, the new ads are as compelling and hip as a washing machine ad.

[R. G. Bateman]

I purchased Vista 3 months ago when MicroSoft supposedly had all the bugs out. I installed it; ran it for about a month; abandoned it and went back to XP.
Because half of my applications needed driver upgrades, or would not run at all.
Vista is as stable as an 18 wheeler on a tightwire.
Where do I get my money back?

[Jon T]

Microsoft have lost the plot - completely and utterly.

Apart from abandoning the Seinfled ads, the new ones will make even more people question why there is nothing that tells anyone why they should buy Vista, or what its advantages are. Hardly the comeback need to combat the 'PC and Mac' ads from Apple.

And OK, so there are perfectly decent ordinary people using PC's - we know that. But once they try a Mac they will switch and never go back.

[Raymond]

"But once they try a Mac they will switch and never go back."

I did. I bought a macbook, but did not like the OS. So, I installed Windows. Never went back. Even forgot my mac password.

I'm a Windows PC.

[david]

"I purchased Vista 3 months ago when MicroSoft supposedly had all the bugs out. I installed it; ran it for about a month; abandoned it and went back to XP.
Because half of my applications needed driver upgrades, or would not run at all.
Vista is as stable as an 18 wheeler on a tightwire.
Where do I get my money back?"

Why are you writing this on a tech blog, go to tech forum of something. My vista works fine, your most likely trying to get a 10year old scanner to work for vista!

Where do you get your money back, how do we know ? try the place you bought it ? I would call you a name but then comment wouldnt get posed.

[Maya Dante Amihan]

Let me tell you the truth: my overall idea of the ads is that Microsoft is desperate. So desperate it has to proclaim that anyone and everyone can be a PC. Which means -- there is really NOTHING to distinguish it.

Poor souls!

[Eric S]

""But once they try a Mac they will switch and never go back."

I did. I bought a macbook, but did not like the OS. So, I installed Windows. Never went back. Even forgot my mac password."

He said that the "perfectly decent ordinary people" will never go back.

I WAS a PC !

Been there never will I go back !

[Sammytheblade]

These ads really don't matter for the simple fact that Windows is an inferior product to the Apple product line. It's like comparing a Lexus commercial to a Hyndai and asking if Hyndai is making strides against the Lexus brand. I have used a pc my whole life until last year and would say wihout hesitation that when you have an opportunity to use both there really is no contest. Thus this commercial is pointless.

[kinto]

i'm a mac guy at home (by choice) and an xp guy at work (by force ;)

i've never used vista, but xp works alright most of the time... it does some weird random wonky stuff sometimes though... usually all it takes is a reboot, but it's still a pain in the ass to re-open everything because the windows brain decided to fight with the ibm body (or vice versa...)

(at home i shut my macbook down to preserve battery, but haven't rebooted my g4 tower in MONTHS and i'm ROUGH on it with audio and video crunching...)

anyway, i couldn't care less what platform anybody else uses (provided i'm not asked to troubleshoot a friend's pc, which i will not do...) but i still think it's weird that a company who has 90% market is sweating enough to attempt a series of ads in reply to a much smaller company... maybe that says something in and of itself...

(well, plus the ads were made on macs, which i find hilarious!)

[Davegood57]

I prefer the recent older ad with these two tired middle-aged men: Gates and Seinfeld. No product appeal there, a perfect selling point for geriatrics new to the PC world and unacquainted with the sophisticated benefits of either MAC or Linux operating systems.
this new ad almost looks like a subliminal political ad for the BOMMA

[Jon Tivy-Jones]

Hi, I'm Jon, and I'm a Mac...

These new adverts made me laugh aloud when i first saw them, they just make Microsoft look desperate, like a child in a school ground who has just been called a geek (and who is a geek by the way) crying and stamping his feet and shouting, 'I'm not a geek, im not!!!'

They should not have gone anywhere near Apple's Pc vs Mac adverts, as all that Mac is saying in those ads is true and there arent many comebacks. Microsoft tried, but didnt say ANYTHING good about their computers (not even their computers, their SOFTWARE) they just tried to tell everyone that a widely diverse amount of people use their SOFTWARE, something i think that everyone in the world already knows - therefore i see these ads as a COMPLETE waste of money! What new information have they gotten across using these ads? NONE! It really makes me laugh at how desperate it makes them look.

Oh, and I refuse to believe Pharrell Williams, a major music producer who works in a Pro-Tools HD recording studio uses a PC, why would he?! If he uses a Mac in his studio (which he DEFINITELY does) then he will know that its a better platform in virtually EVERY way and would he be idiotic enough to use a PC in his home? i doubt it very much! He got paid a LOT of money to sit there and tarnish his soul by saying those 3 words that makes anyone who uses them sound completely naive when it comes to computers! My Dad, sister and now my GRAN have all used Macs and are totally converted, i honestly believe all you need to do to be totally converted to Macs is just use them until you are familiar with OS-X then you'll never look back!