I’ve mentioned the Laptop Hunter ads before. And, if you haven’t gathered, I think it is the first smart campaign from Microsoft in a long time. The reasoning is that portraying Mac owners as “style over substance” and “too cool” hits the right polarizing note during tough economic times.

Sure it’s offensive and not always true, but you have to give them props for being clever.

It is possible, however, to go too far.

What’s wrong with the Laptop Hunter campaign? Well there are arguments about “the facts” (low resolution, slower RAM, etc), but it’s hard to ding Microsoft for that and not say that similar over-simplifications don’t occur in Apple’s Get A Mac campaign. There’s also the issue that the ads seem more about selling HP products, than Microsoft ones. But it’s their money. 🙂

Besides, television advertising has never been about the facts, it’s basically an appeal to emotion.

Instead, the weakness of the campaign centers around a disturbing trend among these ads: they focus on cost, not value.

Continue reading about Understanding downturns after the jump