Microsoft’s answer to Ellen Feiss

A continuation of my Why WROX failed theory:

Last week…

Me: Lauren is a cheap ass. 😀

“I’m a P.C.” sounds like the person has bladder control issues. “I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person” is so much better.

M—: Oh yeah, I saw that yesterday… It’s a good commercial though. 🙂

Me: Only because she’s a redhead.
Me: Admit it.

M—: Haha.

The beauty of this ad is that finally Microsoft hits the right buttons in these politically divisive and tough economic times.

Too bad there’s no mention of Microsoft products. Seems like HP should be airing this.

Ahh… good times

5 thoughts on “Microsoft’s answer to Ellen Feiss”

  2. I get it! The Lauren ad is actually a prequel of the other one. In a few months, Lauren will turn into Ellen Feiss. 🙂

    Reply

  3. It doesn’t matter that it never mentions Microsoft. These days its nigh impossible to find a non-Apple notebook that doesn’t come bundled with Vista whether you want it or not.

    Reply

  4. @Krusha: So very true.

    I remember once Microsoft paid after season 2 of 24 to have the Apple equipment replaced with Dell ones with props. (Apple does no more than supply the props, but won’t do a comp beyond that which is why a lot of shows, once they make it past the first season, plaster over the glowing Apple logo).

    Reply

  5. Microsoft released a second ad to capitalize on the first. Looks like it’ll fail.

    Fake Steve Jobs has a column about Microsoft’s new approach. I think he hits the nail on the head with the statement on the advertising gold-mine, “In the age of the collapsing economy, frugality is the new cool.”

    He also mentions the eminently useable Windows 7—too bad it isn’t out yet. One strangeness is the statistic about the gains of marketshare are people who added a new category to the list (netbooks). These people wouldn’t have bought a Mac anyway. What we are seeing that when people become price conscience with computers, Apple does poorly. If the Mac mini is any indicator, when Apple can figure out how to enter into that space and maintain margins, they will introduce a netbook.

    However, it is possible to go too far with the frugality strategy:

    In any case, the ugly attacks from Mac fanboys are exactly what Microsoft was hoping to provoke, says David Webster, general manager for brand marketing at Microsoft. He says the idea was to turn Apple’s “I’m a Mac” campaign to Microsoft’s advantage. “We associate real people with being PCs, [but then Apple] ends up looking pretty mean-spirited, the way they go after customers,” he says. “It’s clear that’s who they are insulting.” At the same time he can’t resist taking a crack at the preciousness of some Mac users. “Not everyone wants a machine that’s been washed with unicorn tears,” he says.

    My feeling was the Mac vs. PC ads worked (vs. the Switcher ones) because John Hodgman was such a loveable character as a PC. If you want to see “mean-spirited” and “it’s clear that’s who they are insulting” just look at the last, “I’m a PC” ads, which was basically, “If you want to be a real person and not some Justin Long loser, buy a PC.” You couldn’t get any clear if you introduced your commercial with an John Hodgman look-alike.

    Oh wait, they did.

    Finally “unicorn tears?” Macs are a good value too as Apple’s growing market share attests to. While it’s great to advertise the cost savings and configurability in a PC, it took Apple a long time to realize that outright hatred isn’t an effective advertising strategy, only through humor and amusement can the message be accepted.

    ‘Get out of your Redmond bubble, you fucking asshole.”

    Reply

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