It was never a fair fight. Apple came out with a legendary series of adverts (Hi, I’m a Mac and I’m a PC) that just seemed to get funnier all the time and made the PC seem so “yesterday”. Both Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates have accused the ads of misrepresenting Vista, which, to be fair, is correct. It’s not as bad as the ads seem to suggest.
Now it’s taken a long time, but the boys from Redmond have, I believe, realized that the ads have been an important component in the resurgence of Apple. Why else would they have hired Jerry Seinfeld and started an ad war.
So watch the ad below and come to your conclusion about how potent it is.
(Note: If your company blocks Internet videos you will not see a video frame below this sentence. In which case, login from home to watch this.)
My verdict is:
This ad is surreal and its entertaining, but it’s missing something crucial - like a punch. So what’s going on. Who’s writing these ads? Has Bill started a new career as a bit part actor? Is Jerry Seinfeld a secret Mac user who’s deliberately sabotaging this campaign? Or are we simply witnessing the fact that Microsoft simply isn’t talented when it comes to advertising?
If it goes toe-to-toe with Apple in an advertising war, it’s going to make a fool of itself. And it has.
