Microsoft just rolled out its “I’m a PC” campaign, mercifully sending to bed the likable yet questionable Bill & Jerry spots. The “I’m a PC” stuff seems smart, funny and right on target, taking on the nerdball stereotyping Mac has been lambasting the brand with for years. (Though, come on, even diehard PC people probably got a kick out of watching Hodgman be the huggable buffoon. Bring back Little Gray Books, John! Bring ’em back!)
We agree with Gizmodo that the Hodgman clone at the beginning seems unnecessary, and only reminds people of the instantly recognizable, wildly successful Mac v PC spots. But the rest of the spots are rolling edits of the vast array of PC users in the world, bouncing effortlessly back and forth between serious and funny, funky and conservative, all to a moderately mod soundtrack (though, are there hints of a Seinfeld bass in there??). The 15-second spot, also up on Gizmodo, gives a nice hint of the idea’s ability to refocus its cavalcade of personalities into a spot that feels fresh, even if it’s really just a re-edit of the same footage.
Good stuff.
UPDATE, 9/19
Of course, now the scuttlebutt is that portions of the Microsoft campaign were made on a Mac. Not really surprising, as Apple dominates industries like design, marketing, video production, audio production, etc. Also, “portions” as far as we can tell means the still images Microsoft put up on its site, which were made with Photoshop—not the tv spots themselves, as some headlines are somewhat misleading you to believe. Regardless, Mac enthusiasts are loving what they see as incredibly funny irony. What’s funnier to us is this video.
4 Comments
September 19, 2008 at 11:09 am
I was impressed how CP+B successfully humanized the Microsoft voice in an uncharacteristically (for the agency) straight forward manner. Wasn’t over-the-top in production or exaggeration. Took the brand from a mass necessary evil to “we’re all in this together”. Now it’s up to the product to deliver… no pressure.
September 19, 2008 at 3:35 pm
This IS Classic. As in PC, not OS 9.
Desperate to view PC’s “I’m a Mac” campaign rebuttal (because they seemingly can’t invent anything on their own anymore – ok, that ZUNE logo was pretty original), I clicked the above link and found myself in Microsoft world. Which, as the name sort of implies, is quicksand.
Lo and be old, there’s a fresh proprietary Microsoft Presspass Silverlight video player! And I thought video would never come to internet. Leave it to Bill. I suppose ultimately we can always use more formats… and icky player installs on our crowded laptops. Sigh. Pardon my tone, but if Mac doesn’t continue to gobble up market share in the evolving webworld of personal computing, Google will. Because they get it. Simple sells. Bill should put that on a Post-It. Or maybe he’s busy inventing those now.
Ok, just checked and my .wmv download is done. I’m not a super shining bright bulb, but still, consider this. The only way I could find to make PC’s self-promotional video play on Bill Gate’s own freaking corporate site was to copy down the file to my desktop. And it crawled. And here’s what it did. By the time we got to “I blog for Obama… and I’m like Rush Limbaugh” I about blogged into my lap.
THAT said, it’ll probably “move product” and maybe talk some people down off the fence, if not stem the tide going over it. And it probably kills the “I’m a Mac” ads – which are endlessly funny, but not endless. But – and this is a buge hairy but – Apple’s ad people are locking and loading. PC better duck, because – and I’ve been building up to this – Alex sold out. That is not the work he wanted to sell. It’s the work Microsoft wrote and bought. Just a huge hunch. And here’s another: Apple’s agency won’t have that problem.
September 19, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Good point on the link, MJR! I actually thought I’d redirected that to YouTube (as in the copy)…I hated the Microsoft Press Pass Silverlight player, too.
Fixed it. Enjoy the non-pain-in-the-ass videoing now.
September 19, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Did not mean to imply the link was the issue. My bad. Microsoft is the issue.
Or maybe happy hour needs to be moved up to 3.
It goes without saying that I’m a genius who’s best work was killed by clients. Or met a fate worse than death.
But I did meet Alex Bogusky once after he gave a presentation to our Ad Club on how you don’t need a big budget if you have a big idea. He was inspiring. I asked him if I could get a copy of his reel and a tape showed up at my office in the mail. I was floored. It contained early low budget tv that he did. Awesome. Still have it.