I took a break from drowning my corporate sorrows in booze to take a look at the latest Microsoft advertisements; and I have to say, I’m fucking impressed.
Impressed that a single corporation can so utterly and completely not fucking get it.
The ad (I’m too lazy to dig up a link, Google it) consists of a slew of famous and average people proudly proclaiming “I’m a PC.” Given that the ad kicks off with a half-assed John Hodgman look-alike; it’s obvious that Microsoft is taking a swipe at Apple’s “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” ads. This is the precise spot where you can scientifically prove that Microsoft has no fucking clue. Here’s a hint Bill, Justin “I’m a Mac” Long isn’t supposed to represent Mac users. And similarly, “PC” isn’t supposed to represent Microsoft users. I know that this sort of subtle metaphor is a bit high-brow for the nerdlingers at Microsoft; but I’ll try to explain this simply. Within the world of the Apple ads, Hodgman and Long are literally PC and Mac.
This is what the various idiots on the intarwebs who decry the Apple ads as being “smug” don’t get either. PC isn’t represented by a slightly befuddled yet likable guy in a suit because the cats at Apple think that PC users are like that; but because that image best represents the PC itself. Of course, Microsoft can’t understand that, so we’re subjected to yet another lame “people use PC’s, honestly” advertisements.
But hey, it could be worse, it could be Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld comparing dick sizes or soemthing.
Spot on mate.
Wait…say that again. The actors represent…machines?
I don’t get it.
I always thought of Hodgman and Long as also representing management and creative. One’s making foolish decisions based on crap advice, the other’s just trying to get some work done. Am I projecting too much?
@bkharmony:
I hope, with the hope of a thousand hopeful people hoping to see Bob Hope perform in Hope, Arkansas that you’re being sarcastic. If not, then all I can say is, “watch the bloody commercials.”
@Moeskido:
Certainly there’s more than one layer to the Apple advertisements. It’s typical of Microsoft that they see only one, wafer thin, slice of the many layered narrative that is “I’m a Mac & I’m a PC” and go after it like a Balmer in a china shop.
Actually, I’d be more likely to watch Bill and Jerry going at it than another stupid Microsoft commercial
@Angry Drunk:
Bob Hope in Hope, Arkansas????
Now I REALLY don’t get it!
(Yes, I was attempting to deploy a sarcasm depth charge.)
It doesn’t matter whether M$ gets the metaphor or not, they don’t think Windows users do, which goes to show their opinion of their customers. (Problem is, judging by the rabid, insane fury that the Mac vs. PC ads engender in the PC crowd, they’re right.)
The telling problem of this campaign, including the prematurely-ended “teaser” shorts, is that Microsoft is avoiding talking about the one thing it actually produces: software.
In the first series, the company was trying to sell Bill Gates as a likable, if somewhat gawky, person. In the second series, they are trying to sell the concept that using a PC is OK. Nowhere is mentioned the company’s flagship products, and people are going to pick up on that.
The subtext of a T\C\D ad is, “You can get more done on a Mac; here’s an example.” Good: 90% of the population may not be aware of that. The subtext of the CP+B ad is, “Lots of people (some marginally famous) use PCs every day.” Do people really need to know that? Do people really want to be *reminded* of that? Are they trying to say that misery loves company?
What I got from the ad was that Microsoft is really, really scared. Also, that semi-famous and totally obscure alilke are all ready to smile for the camera and take their money as Ballmer and company slide down the rusty razor blade of obsolescence.
For a fee, I’d be willing to advertise for Microsoft. I’ll even look sincere if the price is right. Lunch first, then ethics.
As if the raw unadulterated commercial product itself isn’t enough to assure you that Redmond is in the technological toilet with the world poised to push the chrome lever – it comes fortified with irony. The ad was made with a Mac.
I don’t remember where I read that, but I laughed out loud.
Yeah, I won’t link to where I read it, since it’s a site that’s violently disapproved of here, but first they forgot to strip out the metadata showing how the commercials were made before posting them online, then as soon as somebody noticed, stripped it out, somehow quadrupling the size of the files in the process, and now they’re exhibiting a still from the first commercial with Windows metadata crudely Photoshopped onto it, to show it was all a lie.
The surprise here is not that their ad agency uses Macs (they probably all do,) but the absent-mindedness of not hiding that in the first place, the knee-jerk cover-up, and now the dishonesty of rewriting history. M$ in action!
This is what happens when a company becomes too large to manage efficiently. Every business decision becomes compromised by mindless groupthink or inter-division competition. Every procedure becomes standardized. And the Legal Department grows, covering ass for all of the bad group decision-making.
I love the new Microsoft ad. It’s the best thing they could do to help Apple sales. I’m not sure Apple needed help, but it’s lovely that Microsoft are so obliging.
My thinking goes: Everyone uses a PC. So using something else is special. A Mac is something else, ergo using a Mac is special.
I bet Apple execs were dancing in the office when they first saw the ad. Maybe Apple will re-run the “Think Different” ads as a counterpoint. Microsoft sets the pins up, and Apple knocks them down.
And to end on Deepak Chopra trotting out a line almost straight from the Simpsons… Genius!
Deepak Chopra: “I am a PC and I am a human being. Not a human doing. Not a human thinking. A human being.”
Brad Goodman: “Brad Goodman: And soon you’re not a human being, you’re a human doing. Then what comes next?”
Bart: “A human going!”
Best ad from Microsoft ever. Shame it doesn’t say anything whatsoever about Microsoft.
@Rip Ragged: “Lunch first, then ethics”. Top! I will use that in the next board meeting. Of course I will make out I thought of it, and sue anyone who claims prior art – me first, you’re lunch.
@Gatesbasher: For microsoft to be capable of doubethink (that’s your Orwellian allusion, right?) they’d have to think in the first place. Clearly they are guilty of zerothink. DoublePlusCrap, as always (as an aside, it’s a shame Orwell missed out on intercapping).
@GaryPatterson: What Deepak really said was “I’m a human being, just here man (takes another hit, giggles a bit), I’m not a human, like, doing anything. Or, like, thinking, fuck that. I’m just being, man.”