Microsoft Uses "I'm a PC" Character In New Ads

arcticstoat writes to tell us that in the wake of their largely unsuccessful Jerry Seinfeld ad campaign Microsoft is setting their sights directly on recent Apple ads by featuring the "I'm a PC" character in their new advertising campaign. "He then follows this with another phrase, such as 'and I've been made into a stereotype' before the advert shifts to a range of people performing a diverse assortment of jobs, all of which also say they're a PC. Among those featured are astronaut Bernard Harris, as well as religious author Deepak Chopra and 'Desperate Housewives' actress Eva Longoria. The ad also features a wide range of anonymous people, including a shark diver, a teacher and a guy with a beard."

Comments

New ads

[Ethanol-fueled]

I saw the new ad for the first time last night.

Man, it's HORRIBLE. The ads try to play on the fact that Windows has the biggest desktop market share by showing a diverse group of people in diverse situations admitting to "being PCs". While the characters try to come off as being "cheeky and cute", they just end up looking like ditzy, ignorant, darwin-award candidates In short ad is somewhat condescending. It's typical Microsoft Strategy -- copy others(Mac ads) and turn out a second-rate imitation.

Yes, ol' Bill is in the ad, albeit briefly, but they should have echewed Bill and kept Seinfeld in(just to say "I'm a PC", at least) as a cameo! I'm still mad at Bill for the last commercial, in which he said nothing except, "I have a lot of money and now I'm going to wiggle my ass in your face, nyah nyah". If Bill wants to be a celebrity then he can just "leak" a homemade sex tape like the others do.

Re:New ads

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the ad was pretty good... much better than the Seinfeld ones, anyway.

Re:New ads

[anaesthetica]

Admit it, you would hate the Microsoft commercial no matter what its content was.

I'm a Mac and I found it to be pretty decent, for a commercial about an operating system.

Re:New ads

[JasterBobaMereel]

I liked the Mac adverts they were funny (the British version was better still)

This is simply stating we have a large market share, which everyone already knows, or doesn't care

I'm not a PC or a Mac or a Linux I'm a person who sometimes uses a computer, and runs programs on the computer, It runs an operating system - If I am aware of the operating system at all it is because it has got in my way

Car Analogy : I got in my car and drove to work - which make of car was it : I don't know, and don't care, it got me here anyway....

Re:New ads

[eta526]

Sums it up nicely:

I'm a PC, and a human being. Not a human doing. Not a human thinking. A human being.

Re:New ads

[nabsltd]

For me, it's possibly a better advert than the Apple ones, the basic message of which I took to be: Macs are designed for goofing around showing off your photos, and PCs are for actually getting anything done.

I always thought the basic message of the "I'm a Mac/PC" ads was that PCs inhibit your ability to get things done and Macs make it easier. Note: I'm using "PC" in the same way the ads do...to refer to a Windows machine. It's not correct, but unfortunately it's another case where perception becomes reality.

I can't see how you got the reverse out of those ads. If the focus group for testing them had had the same opinion as you, I don't think we would have ever seen them in that form.

Personally, I like the Mac/PC ads, although I only agree with about 10% of what they say, since I (and people around me) run XP systems that only reboot once a month for patch Tuesday, and run a lot of different types of software with no issues.

Re:New ads

[hairyfeet]

As I said when they fired Seinfeld,this is just sad.I build and repair PCs for a living and when I offer Vista as an option on a new build I get a loud "EEEEEW!" from the customer,like I just cut a big fart in front of them. And folks wanting to "downgrade" have gotten so bad that if they have one of the Vistas that have downgrade rights I send them down the street because I don't want to deal with it,and what is their big answer? Maybe bringing back XP in a new package like XP SP3:Reloaded? Nope,that lame Mojave bit and now a very sad Mac ad ripoff.

If anyone at MSFT is listening,your problem ISN'T mindshare,okay? Folks already know who you are. And lame ads ain't going to help either,no matter how much money you throw at them. The problem is enough folks have gotten a taste of Vista to know that they hate it,and one person with a bad experience will tell 10 friends. Which is why I have folks that have never even tried Vista looking at me like I took a crap when I even suggest it as an option. Whether you can fix it now or not is irrelevant,okay? You screwed the launch,and the DRM and buggy drivers have already made folks minds up for them,and that can't be fixed with ads.

Accept the fact that the public hates Vista and considers it WinME-II,and be glad that unlike most companies you have a product to fall back on the folks will gladly buy. So accept your mistake,bring back XP with maybe a new theme like one of these and enjoy the truckloads of money you will make,as well as the goodwill from the OEMs and buying public that hate Vista. Then take the time you need to get Win7 right. Worry about your customer base instead of the big media companies,who won't go with you anyway because Apple owns media with the iPod. But all you are doing with these ads is making yourself look a day late,a dollar short,and unable to do anything but ripoff Apple. And it is just sad. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

Re:New ads

[I'm not really here]

Exactly... I'm not a mac user, but I have actually gone to their site to watch their commercials (I have Tivo, so I never see commercials normally). They're that funny!

Re:New ads

[FireFury03]

Seems a bit odd that Microsoft have chosen to do this now. I mean, the Mac vs. PC ads were *ages* ago - MS seem to have left it a bit late to do a direct response like this.

Re:New ads

[synthespian]

It's not about religion. More, like, about quality.

Re:New ads

[jedidiah]

No, this is just a rehash of the 1980's IBM add with Charlie Chaplain.

The great strength of WinDOS and Microsoft has always been the bandwagon.

It's what got them started and it's what keeps them from dying quickly.

As an ad, it is f*cking brilliant compared to that Seinfeld thing.

It still fails as persuasion for anyone with more than half a brain cell.

Re:New ads

[Dillon2112]

Apple may say in the ads that Windows is more annoying than OS X, but in reality, they provide bootcamp and support users who choose to run both OS X and Windows on their Mac computers. So from the religion perspective, Apple just wants you to buy their hardware...they don't mind if you run Windows on it. Arguing that MS is somehow taking the high ground by *not* saying "Apple has it wrong" is kind of strange.

Further, in the Mac ads, the people are standing in for actual machines. In the MS ad, people are standing in for...people. So the whole "I'm a PC" thing has kind of an odd ring to it. If anything, it is pushing a notion of your identity being strongly linked to what operating system you use. Since there are no "users" in the Mac ads, that tone is absent. From this perspective, the MS ads are more religious than the Mac ads, since they are defining *who people are* in terms of what kind of computer they use.

Re:New ads

[RobertM1968]

I never saw it as stereotyping Windows users. I saw it as something more akin to describing Windows itself... rehashing old technology, pretending it is new, trying to dress it up in "everyone else did that years ago" clothing.

Re:New ads

[el cisne]

Not a bad comeback, but should have been done a long time ago.

I thought it was a good response, although unclever, clumsy, obvious, tactless, pointed, non-subtle, defensive, immature (what, are they gonna cry?? mean ol' Mac making fun of them??), ham-handed, it was a solid response. A stupid response but a solid response.

They took the Apple ads too personal -- their response was like they were hurt, and saying directly, 'hey, i don't either suck'.

They couldn't come up with something a little more clever and fun?

It's like they're trying to capitalize and leverage all the people that feel personally wounded from the Mac/PC ads, trying to rally them all. Still no class. Although Longoria is 'teh new hotness'!

Should they have said "I use a PC"?

[mveloso]

People are not Personal Computers. People use personal computers.

Have these people subsumed into the MS-Borg, and they really are now PCs?

Microsoft, Live without Walls

[Lord Byron II]

Considering the years it took them to implement a rudimentary firewall into Windows, I'm surprised that they're going with the "Live without Walls" slogan.

But, putting that aside, these ads are much, much better than the Seinfeld ones.

Re:"Hi, I'm a PC, and I run Linux"

[Spy der Mann]

I'd love to see a Mac vs PC ad where PC gets attacked by an angry stuffed penguin and after a flash he gets up with completely new clothes saying:

PC: Hey... that was... refreshing... I feel.... different!
Mac: PC, watch out, there's a virus!
PC: The power of GNU compells you! *hits virus*. I feel Powerful... I feel invincible... I feel... FREE!!!
Mac: Want a performance race?
PC: You betcha!
*Mac and PC begin sprinting*

Female voice: "Linux. Just like a Mac, but Free".

Sounds about right for MS, but..

[necro2607]

Wow. Deepak Chopra and Eva Longoria? Sounds about right for a Microsoft ad. Just the right amount of famous-ness to seem cool to your average "lowest-common-denominator" audience, but mediocre enough for probably anyone here on /. to be like "Uh, wow, so they just grabbed whatever recognizable figure they could get?" ...

Maybe I'm biased, but I mean, when Apple used the likeness of significant figures in the past for their "Think Different" campaign, they had photos of like, Gandhi, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Picasso, etc.. Not that Apple could get those people as actors in their commercials (so it's not the most fair comparison), but my general feeling about these new ads is that they're just throwing together some ads with some famous people to get peoples' attention. Whereas, well, people today still remember the "Think Different" thing from Apple. Microsoft is wasting their time if they're going to try to play Apple's game, in my opinion..

Apple Ads=Change Good; MS=Affirmation of Choice

[Webcommando]

I always took Apple adds as trying to give the view of the change is good. The "switcher" adds and the "I'm a Mac" seemed, to me at least, to drive the message there's something better. The grass is greener in Mac pastures.

The new MS adds seem to be driving affirmation of your current choice or what you have. In other words, it is OK to like your PC and Windows because everyone is using it.

Just my perspective on it all.

I can see it now

[Miseph]

"So Microsoft can't just bring the "I'm a PC" character out to defend himself, because that just reinforces the negative message. "I am not a boring nerd!" ** yawn **. They have to bring out the "I am a Mac" guy out and make him look like a total ass. Make him a pretentious airhead who spends all his time talking about how cool he is while "I am a PC" is quietly getting the job done."

"The ad would be better just showing all the cool things you can do with a Windows PC, which is the point. They still need a hook, but it couldn't be hard to come up with a better one than, "You probably think I'm boring, but I'm not as boring as you think.""

Mac: hey PC, check out my shiny new iPod Nano... IT'S CURVED OMG!!!1
PC: Uh, yeah, that's great... I'm actually kind of busy, you know, working. It's that thing that makes me able to buy stuff for myself, not just have my parents or anonymous internet strangers who only know me through my webcam show buy them for me.
Mac: ...
PC: Yeah, I just went there.

Mac: Hey PC, what's up.
PC: Oh, not much I'm just helping to set up a home file and print server.
Mac: You know, a mac genius could do that for you, plus set up a wireless network, transfer your files, update your system, bathe your cat...
PC: Yeah, probably, but so could any of the millions of people out there working as travelling PC techs... and they charge less.
Mac: That sounds like an awful lot of work PC, wouldn't it just be easier to have us do it all for you?
PC: yeah, let me just drive 6 hours to the nearest Apple store so I can pay triple for all the parts and set something up. You just hold your breath and wait for me.

Mac: Hey PC, I've heard that vista blows goats.
PC: Yeah, I guess. Whatever.
Mac: what? No gripe? No Argument? what's wrong?
PC: STFU, you're getting me fragged you twat. I don't give a shit if you don't play video games, just go away.

Mac: How's it going PC?
PC: Friggin' sweet!
Mac: Hey... you're not PC...
PC: Of course I am, I just decided to go for a new look, how do you like the makeover?
Mac: Well the sweater and Birkenstocks are pretty cool, but I'm not sure how I like the beard...
PC: Hey, different strokes you know... that's what this is all about anyway, I went Linux!
Mac: Isn't that, like, hard?
PC: Oh, so THAT'S why you have that stupid hair cut...
Mac: Huh?
PC: You must be stuck in 1996.

Maybe MS won't do that last one, but they probably should do the others.

Too bad the ad's images were made on a Mac

[unassimilatible]

The vast majority of people -- and yes, creative people -- use PCs.

Apparently they couldn't find any of those creative PC people to do the ad:

Microsoft's 'I'm a PC' ad images made on Macs.