Microsoft - I'm a PC - Commercial - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

freelod · 09-22-2008, 11:40 PM

YouTube - Microsoft - I'm a PC - Commercial

MexicanOnABike · 09-23-2008, 04:13 AM

not as funny as the mac but much better! mac=same people. pc = everyone else.

Glory's Sun · 09-23-2008, 09:11 AM

I know what the commercial is trying to do but I find it lacking in so many ways.. the mac ads will still outrival these at least in the demographic that mac is trying to gain. Also, it's only a matter of time before Apple releases a mac ad that totally destroys the project mojave ads that M$ has put out.

Redlemon · 09-23-2008, 09:15 AM

I liked this analysis:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daring Fireball: Digging Deeper

The high concept of Apple’s long-running “Get a Mac” TV campaign is that the characters portrayed by John Hodgman and Justin Long are personified computers. It’s right there in the opening lines of every ad in the series: “Hello, I’m a Mac.” “And I’m a PC.” Hodgman is not “Windows”; Long is not Mac OS X. They are not representative or average PC/Mac users. They are computers.

They’re not dressed as computers, they’re dressed as people. It’s postmodernism taken to a very silly and profoundly unserious commercial end.

But the concept reflects the actual business that Apple is in. Apple does not sell operating systems. They sell computers. Microsoft does not sell computers; they sell operating systems. (Apple’s boxed $129 versions of Mac OS X are just upgrades; they only work on computers that Apple has already sold.) Apple and Microsoft are undeniably engaged in one of the longest running and most interesting rivalries in business history, but it is very odd in that it is an orthogonal rivalry. Apple’s direct competition isn’t Microsoft but instead PC makers who sell computers running Windows.

This is not a minor semantic point. There is no argument that the single most distinguishing difference between a Mac and a PC is the OS. The genius in the conceit of Apple’s ads is that they acknowledge this without making Windows the target. They do so by diminishing Windows. Windows is just one element of what it is that makes PC (the character) who he is. The ads are neutral, sometimes even deferential, towards Microsoft. Vista is mocked, but several of the spots have emphasized how Microsoft Office works just great on a Mac. In at least one of the ads, Long’s Mac character even makes it a point that he can run Windows just as well as PC can, via Boot Camp.

The framing of Apple’s ads is not about either/or. Not a choice between two rival products, like Democrat/Republican, Chevy/Ford, Coke/Pepsi. The framing instead is special vs. regular. Not Coke vs. Pepsi but Coke vs. “soda”.

Windows is not the Mac’s rival or competitor. It is the omnipresent homogenizer that weighs PC down.

It doesn’t matter whether that is actually true. The point is that this is the role Apple has reduced Windows to in this advertising campaign. Windows is regular. The default. The norm. Mac OS X and the software that runs on it is special. It is something that the Mac can never lose and which the PC can never have.

And so what makes Microsoft’s new “I’m a PC” commercials so jaw-droppingly bad is that they’re not countering Apple’s message, but instead they’re reinforcing it. That the spots themselves jump between dozens of different people who “are” PCs, that the spots make a point of emphasizing that there are a billion Windows-running PCs worldwide, this only emphasizes that “PC” is not a brand name but a generic.

Microsoft’s new ads emphasize the same message as Apple’s: that the Mac is the one and only brand-name computer in the world.

jewels · 09-23-2008, 09:41 AM

Nice piece, RL.

What about those of us that do Mac and PC simultaneously?

One day, I will have a Mac notebook.

Glory's Sun · 09-23-2008, 09:45 AM

Red: One thing about the rivalry is the fact that windows is so embedded into the minds of consumers which obviously own the market share of the PC world. So if Apple goes after windows and simultaneously the PC market they hope to increase their share in the computer market. They've already seen an increase in their market share due to mac sales and they hope to do this via this kind of ad. It's a simple association ad. PC are associated with windows..make the PC look bad, make windows look bad.

cdwonderful · 04-01-2009, 12:37 PM

I love the fact the PC commercials were made on macs.....

YaWhateva · 04-01-2009, 01:33 PM

I like this new PC commercial.

Lauren TV Commercial - Microsoft Watch the Ads

and I loved these PC vs. Mac parodies:

YouTube - PC vs MAC - Money

YouTube - PC vs MAC - At work

YouTube - PC vs MAC - Music

YouTube - PC vs MAC - The girl

09-23-2008, 04:13 AM	#2 (permalink)
MexicanOnABike Location: up north	not as funny as the mac but much better! mac=same people. pc = everyone else. __________________ - Movie Reviews - Ratings-

09-23-2008, 09:41 AM	#5 (permalink)
jewels Eponymous Location: Central Central Florida	Nice piece, RL. What about those of us that do Mac and PC simultaneously? One day, I will have a Mac notebook. __________________ We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess. Mark Twain

04-01-2009, 12:37 PM	#7 (permalink)
cdwonderful another passenger Location: Youngstown, Ohio	I love the fact the PC commercials were made on macs..... __________________ Never try to teach a pig to whistle it wastes your time, and annoys the pig.....

09-23-2008, 09:11 AM	#3 (permalink)
Glory's Sun Registered User	I know what the commercial is trying to do but I find it lacking in so many ways.. the mac ads will still outrival these at least in the demographic that mac is trying to gain. Also, it's only a matter of time before Apple releases a mac ad that totally destroys the project mojave ads that M$ has put out.

09-23-2008, 09:45 AM	#6 (permalink)
Glory's Sun Registered User	Red: One thing about the rivalry is the fact that windows is so embedded into the minds of consumers which obviously own the market share of the PC world. So if Apple goes after windows and simultaneously the PC market they hope to increase their share in the computer market. They've already seen an increase in their market share due to mac sales and they hope to do this via this kind of ad. It's a simple association ad. PC are associated with windows..make the PC look bad, make windows look bad.