For years we have been bombarded with advertisements from Apple, Inc. showing off the “I’m a Mac†story. You see two guys, one cool and hip, and well, one, not so much. The hip guy claims he is a Mac, and the other claims to be a PC. We’ve had these images drilled into our brains, to the extent one day when visiting Costco and asking where the computer section was, I was literally told the aisle to go look in and that they only sold PCs and not Macs. Wow. Ironically, a Mac is also a PC; PC stands for Personal Computer, which a Mac certainly is. Point is, the distinction is made. Point to Cupertino. So after all these years, Microsoft decides to finally fire back, and to get into the game of brand advertising. I would say it is more brand defending, but that’s another story.
Enter Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. This, the magical combination that Microsoft decides will be the answer to Apple’s onslaught of TV spots. The first commercial has Gates and Seinfeld at a shoe store, talking about, well, not much. The next commercial has our dynamic duo living with a homeowner, and doing everyday chores, and dealing with everyday problems. These two commercials did nothing to defend Microsoft or even to plug Windows, but nonetheless, get a fair amount of buzz for being so bizarre. Commercial three brings things a little more in check with our expectations. Now we have seemingly hip people claiming that, gasp, they are PC’s! Point taken, you can be cool and be a PC. And?
That’s it. Nothing more. Microsoft has a budget of $300 million dollars for this new campaign, $10 million going straight to Seinfeld and thus far, we have pretty much nothing to show for it. Correct that, what we have done is solidify the idea that there is a Mac and a PC world, a distinction, something that separates the two. Microsoft has done nothing to say why their product is better, or as good, or at least not fit for mocking. Microsoft has been such a dominant player in the computer operating systems arena for so long; they truly have absolutely no idea on how to compete. When 72.3% of the world uses the NEWEST version of windows, you really don’t have to now, do you? You’re there. If Microsoft has decided they now want to get down and dirty, and start to pimp their own stuff, they need to get an idea on how to do it. They need to find a way to say why they are, who they are, how much better they are, and do it in a new and refreshing way. I’m not an advertising expert, far from it, but what I can say is that the worst idea would be to get people talking and then when you have their attention, validate your competition’s years of marketing genius, which is what Redwood has exactly done.
Karl D. Susman
Westside Gadget Guy
(Thanks for the image, pcworld!)
