14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has started airing two new Get a Mac ads, hitting back at Microsoft soon after the Silicon Valley Windows maker kicked off its own advertising campaign, “Windows, Not Walls.” As always, Apple's concise and straightforward adds make Microsoft's attempts at improving its image futile.
First off, let's see how each company stands at the moment, from an advertising point of view. Apple has enjoyed a good dose of popularity with its Get a Mac ad campaign, which touts Mac OS X as everything you'll ever need. While Apple's ads also talk about Apple hardware, they mostly emphasize Leopard's abilities to do everything much faster, being an overall more stable and reliable OS. Apple greatly stresses Leopard's ability to run Windows too, making it one of the primary reasons why Apple says you should “make the switch.”
As you would imagine, this attitude upset Microsoft, prompting the Silicon Valley giant to take steps at reducing Apple's influence in the market. And so, Microsoft's thought up this lovely $300 million ad campaign using comedian Jerry Seinfeld and other celebs. Only it didn't work quite as planned. Besides the fact that the protagonists were actual Apple fans, as revealed later, Microsoft was (allegedly) forced to dump Seinfeld over the course of the campaign. As if these two weren't enough, it was also proved that Microsoft's ads had also been made on (you guessed it) Macs.
With all this having occurred, Apple realized it was time to give Microsoft's ad campaign the final blow. Apple picks on the “Windows, Not Walls” ad campaign in its first new Get a Mac ad, pointing out to the fact that Microsoft is spending its cash reserves on the ads, rather than on fixing Vista, as it should. Even if Microsoft were to throw equal amounts of money at both, Apple still makes a good point. Microsoft should stop trying to put on a show and just deal with the issues already!
As for the second new ad, PC is portrayed as trying to cover up Vista's problems. Vista is no longer a term PC users want to hear. The “V” word is not to be pronounced starting now, PC suggests. "Bean Counter" and "V Word" are available for your viewing pleasure below. Let us know what you think about Apple and Microsoft on the advertising front.
