New Apple ads ignore Microsoft campaign
New Apple ads, featuring the cool Mac user and the slightly underhanded and uptight PC user, have been missing for several months but now they are back, staying right on message.
Apple debuted the new series of four Mac vs. PC ads yesterday. You can have a look at them on Apples site, or the links are below with the ad descriptions. None of the ads directly refute the main point of the latest Microsoft ad campaign, which is that PCs are a better value than Macs. Apple seems to have settled on a strategy of simply ignoring the Microsoft attack. Instead, the new Apple ads focus on the same subject that they have for years:
The first, Legal Copy, concentrates on all of the tasks that PCs require, but that Apples normally do not, such as virus scans and security patches, and how that makes Apples easier to use. Every time PC says something about the PC being easy to use, a bit more legal copy appears in the foreground, implying that Windows cannot back up it’s claims of ease of use without legal disclaimers.
Second, we have Biohazard Suit, in which PC appears on screen wearing one. Mac asks him why PC needs the suit, and he explains that PC viruses and malware have tripled in the past year and PCs need a lot of protection, once gain making the point that PCs are more work and less safe.
Next, the Time Traveler ad has PC going into the future, to the year 2051, in order to see if Windows ever solves its problems with freezing, crashes, and error messages. PC arrives in the future during a 2051 Mac-PC commercial, whereupon the 2051 version of the PC character promptly freezes up, thereby proving that these Windows problems are going to continue.
In the fourth ad, Stacks, Apple ease of use is once again front and center. PC is looking through huge stacks of photos one picture at a time looking for a specific photo of a friend. Mac points out that iPhoto has a feature where you tag a face once and the program will automatically find other photos of that person using facial recognition algorithms.
In other words, the new Apple ads continue to focus on ease of use and safety issues, just like most of the previous ads in the series, rather than trying to counter the claims of the new Microsoft ads. It is evident that Apple is quite happy to be the computer company that offers a satisfying user experience, and not a company which just want to concentrate on cheap.
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April 21st, 2009
The Microsoft ads are just as much about wide selection and a huge number of configurations.
It’s not a surprise they aren’t answering that, because they can’t.
Time for something new. These latest ads are just a rehash and not very good. Windows get viruses. Windows is hard to use. How cutting edge.
It’s like Microsoft making a commercial about how you only get a one button mouse on a Mac.
So 20th Century.