Ad Wars: Mac vs. PC
posted by Phil ArmstrongWednesday, September 24th, 2008
Microsoft launched its new “I’m a PC” ad campaign this week, a long awaited counter attack to Apple’s brilliant campaign featuring a classic PC using nerd who can’t compete with the hyper hipness of the Mac guy. That ubiquitous Apple campaign has been running for a couple of years now, and it does a great job promoting all the positive aspects of Apple’s lifestyle appeal while affirming the differentiating features of the Mac platform versus the PC.
Now Microsoft is firing back with a mimicking approach that strikes at Mac where it is perhaps most vulnerable – its own smugness. The campaign was teased over the last few weeks with a puzzling spot featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld buying shoes. If the teaser strategy was to get people scratching their heads and talking, it worked (at least around our office water cooler).
The new spots depict real people around the world stating “I’m a PC” and reflecting on who they are and what they do – reinforcing the fact that 90% of the world is using the Windows platform and doing some pretty important (and pretty cool) things with it. They may or may not be as cool and hip as the Mac spokesman, but really, who is?
As a dual Mac user (at home) and a PC user (at the office) I can recite the pros and cons of both, and I endure daily the challenges of working cross platform. But based on the images projected by these two campaigns I guess I fall more in the PC camp. It will be fun to watch if people self-identify with the PC users in the new campaign, and if the campaign actually moves the reputation and sales needle for Microsoft.
