As with everyone, we here at Drink Moxie have been a little preoccupied with the election lately. So for a diversion, let's check in on a more important campaign - the Apple vs. Microsoft ad wars.
We already explored how Microsoft (with DDB-Chicago) recaptured the public's attention with a short series of spots that have been described as enigmatic, absurdist, or ambiguously gay. They then moved into a campaign that was more conventional but also more explicitly in response to TWBA/Chiat/Day's "I'm a Mac" ads.
Overall, a nice job of responding without looking bitter or retaliatory. Also an interesting mixture of minor and major celebrities with everyday folk (I especially like having Deepak Chopra upstaged by the guy who "sells feesh"), and a noble attempt at capturing the growing "young and aware" demographic my giving it an international flavor.
So Microsoft takes the banner and stands up for the embattled PC. At this point it would just seem wrong for the Apple folks to take a cheap shot, wouldn't it?
Ouch. Talk about negative campaigning. Though it may be fair to say "Hey, wait a minute, your operating system still sucks," is it really proper to take on the advertising itself?
For that matter, I wonder if it's a good idea for any company to use its own multi-million dollar ad campaign to criticize a competing company's multi-million ad campaign. Will consumers smell the hypocrisy, and will it turn them off? Or is this really intended to work like a negative political ad, where a main objective (as I understand it) is to bolster the support of people who were already Mac-supporters to begin with and may be feeling a little less sure of themselves after the new Windows campaign? Now that Little Mac has achieved some success in battling the big, bad, anti-competitive juggernaut, has it started to cede some of the moral high ground? Or are we (as usual) reading too much into this?
One thing's for sure, it's great fun to have a good old-fashioned ad war to distract us from all the political campaigns, economic collapses, and, well, real wars that are bumming us out. Here's hoping they won't run out of money too soon.
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2 comments:
Man -- that just seems over the top harsh! It's one thing to say Vista sucks, it's another entirely to so blatantly lie. Microsoft has plenty of money to throw as both problems, just like Apple does.
I had liked the Apple campaign up until now. But this is just annoying.
For the record, I own both a PC and a Mac :-)
I have to say, I like Mac commercials (because I love John Hodgman), but it never makes me want either type of computer.
The only commercials that make me want products are M&M commercials...cause, c'mon, they're M&Ms!
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