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

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the straight-for-the-jobsular dept.

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."

10 of 837 comments (clear)

  1. New ads by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:New ads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

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

    2. Re:New ads by anaesthetica · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

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    3. Re:New ads by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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....

      --
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    4. Re:New ads by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

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    5. Re:New ads by Dillon2112 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

    6. Re:New ads by RobertM1968 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

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  2. Should they have said "I use a PC"? by mveloso · · Score: 3, Interesting

    People are not Personal Computers. People use personal computers.

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

  3. Re:"Hi, I'm a PC, and I run Linux" by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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".

  4. Too bad the ad's images were made on a Mac by unassimilatible · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

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