RSSApple's rebuttal chides Microsoft for not saying the 'V' word
By Tim Conneally | Published October 20, 2008, 3:28 PM
Thanks to the depth of coverage given to Microsoft's "Windows, Not Walls" advertising campaign, Apple has come forward with its own ads addressing the palaver.
Humorous and to the point, Apple's advertisements echo comments frequently heard throughout the blogosphere regarding Microsoft's $300 million "Life Without Walls" campaign: "That money could have been used on fixing Vista," and "Why don't the ads address Vista directly?"
As with the whole series of "Mac vs. PC" ads, it is a direct attack on Microsoft, and in the media climate today, its resemblance to partisan political strategy is especially strong. One party attacks the other with sensationalized claims, forcing the other to defend itself rather than parry with a counterclaim. This sort of back-and-forth has worked thus far for polarizing the political community, why shouldn't it work for home computers as well?
| Negative campaigning is already in full force this month before Election Day, but now Apple has taken up the challenge. |
Apple's whole campaign up to this point may not have been expressly designed as an assault on Microsoft's character, but Redmond had to act and change the public's perception. And now Apple is making fun of them for doing even that. Fortunately, it is done in a fashion that is lighthearted, and above all, short.
But as we see in the second ad, the majority of Justin Long's (Mac) dialogue is the word "Vista," albeit censored by Jonathan Hodgman (PC), who says the word "doesn't sit well with frustrated PC users." On average, he mentions the operating system every three seconds for the duration of the 30 second slot. Microsoft mentions "Vista" a grand total of zero times in its "Life Without Walls" ads.
| Mr. PC diligently censors Mr. Mac in an effort to placate and soothe prospective users, protecting them from hearing offensive content such as the "V" word. |
I have a Mac, a XP laptop and my desktops are Linux. Each OS has its ups and downs.
OS X as many know locks you down and makes you do things the Apple way. I use it for downloading my movies from my camera and putting them on DVDs or even create web-pages.
XP has its oddities - Virus, slowness and malware. Since most of the games can be played on Windows and by using IE, I use it when I have time to play.
Linux on the other hand is free and east to use and has no issues with virus or slowness or malware.
Of these 3 OSes, I use Linux (PC Linux OS) for my day to day use - Browsing, storing my pictures, music, recording my TV Shows. XP I use may be once or twice a week. OS X may be twice or thrice a month, depending on what I did over the weekend.
OS should be a personal choice and not be argued up on by technical people. Its a personal preference and nothing to do with which is better or which is cheap.
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|Wow, all that and nobody even cares. O_o
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|I think that Apple's marketing is fantastic. Most of what they say is truthful. Microsoft seem to have created such a disjointed platform and given so many mixed messages, that marketing for them is just as confusing.
I'm Vista user, courtesy of Adobe Photoshop being optimized for Vista in CS3 -- and well, Vista SP1 is working very well for me. I understand the 'cons' and well - I have Leopard installed on my system also on a dual boot, everything fully functioning and benchmarks showing that my system outperforms current gen iMacs.
I think that Leopard is limited. I think that the only applications that are unique to the Mac that count (for me) would be Final Cut Pro and iMovie ... the rest of it there's a PC Equivalent that I'd rather use.
Apples are more expensive, they are relatively the same on the inside, and you can get pretty much the same software including Office which PC users get first. I don't touch my Leopard install because ... I guess it's there for my curiosity factor -- there's just nothing that I can't do more easily on a PC -- I can navigate my PC with Windows faster and in more ways than a Mac... I can configure my PC to my heart's content -
If Microsoft wanted to launch an intelligent campaign, they could emphasize that with a PC, you have a wider range of choice -- they could impartially show off a wide range of computers - one from each line from each vendor - that carry Windows software. They could show off two stacks of software with the same software in both piles and then list software exclusively for PCs.
And then state 'We realize that these are exciting times for Apple, because we've enjoyed the same hardware and software for years.'
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|If Microsoft wanted to launch an intelligent campaign, they could emphasize that with a PC, you have a wider range of choice -- they could impartially show off a wide range of computers - one from each line from each vendor - that carry Windows software. They could show off two stacks of software with the same software in both piles and then list software exclusively for PCs.
This is, I believe, what they are going for, in a way. They are showing it by showing a wide variety of people, not just the "one".
They will likely tie it back to a 1984 theme by the end...turning Apple's old meme against them. The Mac (One size fits all?) or the PC (different for everyone, countless options).
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|What makes me laugh about Apple and it's followers is that Apple pushes the "free yourself" and "think different" lines and fools everywhere buy into it. Apple and all its toys are the most closed, provincial group there is. Join them and use their stuff if you want to be put into a box with no exits.
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|ROFL!!! Mac making fun of MS for spending all of their money on advertising. NOW THAT IS FUNNY! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
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|ROFLMAO!! OR MAYBE BILL GATES SHOULD SELL HIS 51% OF APPLE STOCK AND BE DONE WITH IT...JAJA SEEING THAT HES A SHARE HOLDER....
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|REALLY? YOU DON'T SAY.
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|Maybe apple should cut advertising so they can release more affordable computers rather than spending millions to bash microsoft.
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|Or maybe Microsoft should scrap it's $300,000,000 ad campaign and fix Vista:
http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/
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|They're fixing Vista, it's called Windows 7...
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|No troll points for you. Windoze 7 will not be a free upgrade and some PC users will be upset if they see Vista 2nd edition a.k.a. Windoze 7 works better and fixes their issues they should never have had in the first place.
But that's neither here nor there, the new line of Macs with 64-bit Snow Leopard is still going to keep the Winblows world Years behind as usual. :)
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|SP1.
Done. Anything else, nit?
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|You must be cold - you totally missed the boat.
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|internetworld7, you do know that Snow Leopard is the equivalent to a "Second Edition" to Leopard right? Hence the name Leopard in it.
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|funny ads... But I still hate MAC's
and Vista is still Better than a MAC any day!
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|Yeah, I don't know that I like MAC's (Media Access Control) either. LOL
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|lets see...MS spent a TON of money and hyped up their new ad campaign which I found to be boring and without any redeeming qualities... Mac spent a LOT less as you can tell, and I found BOTH ads quite amusing.
I wont be going out and buying a Mac mind you, just saying that entertainmentwise, apple once again takes the lead (I loved the "new soul macbook air commercials" just for that lovely song)
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|Funny how stupid commercials about nothing get more cnn coverage than the stupid apple commercials ...maybe the first ones were to get the media confused on purpose....its like celebrities with all there drug addictions i bet some of them dont even have one and just say they do to get in the spotlight...same kinda thing here MS was smart with the first commercials cause they made no sense on purpose and got ppl talking about it ....then they came out with the real AD's "im a pc" which drive a point...and its actually making one and not aiming attacks at other competition....unlike apples shady childish tactics....
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|Funny i was gonna buy a Mac mainly cause its unix based and the imac seems great but now with these kinda slanders and shady tactics i'll keep my money and get a HP touchsmart instead....a big FU TO APPLE...jaja dumba**es...i wonder how many other ppl feel the same way
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|Funny i was gonna buy a Mac mainly cause its unix based and the imac seems great but now with these kinda slanders and shady tactics i'll keep my money and get a HP touchsmart instead....a big FU TO APPLE...jaja dumba**es...i wonder how many other ppl feel the same way
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|Funny how a "smart" guy such as yourself feels the need to post duplicate dumb statements. Your kind are definitely better suited for Windoze. Please Don't by a Mac. Thank you.
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|Funny how Apple attacks Microsoft directly, but Microsoft plays the bigger man and doesn't attack Apple directly. Apple is like that little guy who always has to show off and attack all the bigger guys because of his inferiority complex.
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|Yeah, but that's what makes its fanboys so amusing. I don't care about marketing speak if it's not supported by facts but with this image I am almost embarrassed I ever had a Mac.
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|And you're "proud" you use Windoze? LOL. Great logic you got there. :)
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|I can't believe BetaNews made this story so serious and didn't make it funny. I guess none of the staff writers have a sense of humour that translates into writing. [shrugs]
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|Maybe Apple should do an ad about how downright stupid Microsoft's ads are. They went from geezer "Seinfeld" to the pathetic "I'm-a-PC" to the head scratching "Life without Walls."
Three ad campaigns, three words: WHAT THE FRICK!
Maybe Vista and Microsoft Bob can share the same grave.
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|What? Microsoft Bob is dead? First 8-track tapes and now this? Sheesh!
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|Neither are dead.
Don't worry.
8-track is still alive and well in the right circles.
Microsoft Bob still gives us s***s and giggles occasionally.
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|Yeah! That puppy is in Windows Search in XP :)
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|The ads are hilarious. I doubt they are substantially increasing sales but they are a hoot to watch.
MD ads don't really say anything besides rehashing MAC's ads without the bashing.
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|I'm a PC user, I’m a gamer.
I do recognize Apple's ads as very impacting on people's minds.
From my circle of friends, they keep bringing them up during our conversations when a new set is released... as opposed to the latest MS ads.
Unfortunately this doesn't seem to translate into sales as they could, which could benefit us as consumers. It would be nice to have a different OS as option when looking for a gaming platform in a computer. :\
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|How can a company with as many "resources" as Microsoft be outdone so easily in advertising? I was hoping to see them putting up a fight with their new advertising campaign, but it ended up painfully disappointing. Now Apple is on the attack, again. Will Microsoft ever wake up and fight back or are they going to keep letting their work (hopefully hard word) be trashed?
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|This is a bad approach to business, but I'm going to say it anyway:
What the **** does it matter to them? There's still millions of people buying their stuff.
Millions more than is buying Apple's stuff.
Until that's changed, it doesn't matter to them.
They can spend money wherever the **** they like.
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|Being a PC user, I love the apple ad that shows a pile of money for advertising, and little to none used to 'fix' the bugs in Vista. I think Apple scored a home-run with that ad!
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|And the WINNER is.... PC!!!
Jonathan Hodgman is very funny and will have no problem getting jobs in the film and tv biz for years to come..
Justin Long real is not all that funny or interesting. and when is he going to express his love for PC.. come out of the closet already!!
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|This should get entertaining. Not the comments (Although I am sure we'll get some gems), but the advert-war between MSFT and Apple.
I always get a kick when he calls himself a Mac. (Because we all know the "Mac" is .... a PC)
Of course, people don't have the attention-span required to listen to , "Hi, I'm a PC running Mac OSX." "..and I'm a PC running Windows." (Or the "V" word...)
Well, that, and Apple would never deign to admitting the only difference between them and the Dell you just bought is software.
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|And the lack of BIOS :)
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|And the lack of viruses, blue screens of death, old dinosaur technology (XP), modern bloated and buggy technology (Vista), crappy cheap assembly line PC hardware not made by Apple:
http://www.apple.com/macbook/
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|Hmm that's funny last time I checked the hardware inside the box was *gasp* exactly the same!
I don't EVER have trouble with viruses. Vista has NEVER given me a blue screen of death. Looks like you need to come up with a better argument.
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|Ok, how's this for a better argument M$ fanboy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiG7KFDYkLI
http://www.youtube.com/w...McI&feature=related
And finally I conclude my argument with the only machine Vista was actually made to run smoothly on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVbf9tOGwno
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|*laughing my a** off*
Macbook = Intel.
100%.
Next?
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|never had a lick of trouble with vista x64 home prem, but that budget commercial's a riot
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|They both are. This "PC" guy needs to play a few games...work on his hand-eye co-ordination. :p
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|Probability-wise, the clock is ticking for you. Best of luck when you do! Try not to kill anybody.
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|again been going since release day pc running 24/7 not a hiccup
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|I'd like to see Apple's factual basis for Microsoft's spending on advertising over that of spending on Vista.
Microsoft is a very rich company, I imagine both amounts are fairly paltry when put in to context.
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|Still, when you consider the huge share that M$ has in the market, you'd think that if the operating system was actually any good in-the-least, it would sell itself. The fact that they need to throw all that cash to try to brain-wash people into buying into it by saying lame stuff like "I'm a person too and I use Windows" makes people even more skeptical. Point Apple.
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|It's about keeping customers for the least amount of outlay. Welcome to capitalism.
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|Funny how Microsoft's biggest problem with Vista is INDEED a PR problem... so their main focus should be on advertising...
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|^True that^
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|hmmm, not from my experience. From what I've seen, the people who claim to like "vista" and don't have "problems" are only premium users - those with a vast amount of time (and tears) spent using Windows as power users over decades. They are very attached to it like an old car that only they know how to fix. But - sell that old funky car to someone else and LOOKOUT!
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|The issues everyone complains about were fixed in sp1.
If MS follows their usual releases Windows 7 will be a vast improvement over Vista.
Usually skipping every other OS from MS is smart
Personally, I like Vista and it runs quite well for me, YMMV
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|I agree with the improvement process that you mention.
That's why I'll skip Vista! ;)
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|And everyone should make sure they form their opinions based on the words and catch phrases from marketing campaigns'....not actual experience or independent thought.
Don't be a lemming, make your own decision on what OS suits your needs best. Heck, you may find yourself a free OS that's never done a single TV ad.
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|The issue is the mass market of consumers without a clue (who have every right not to perceive it as a priority to get one).
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