I fear you have me on that one. 
The ‘Human Doing’ guy? I’d heard his name and knew he was some sort of writer or something, but I’d never seen him.
Yes, that’s him.
STRONG FEELINGS OVER MARKETING :):mad::eek:
ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!
They’re sensitive about the reception Vista’s received, is my guess. Their Mojave Experiment is similarly attempting to defend Microsoft from negative campaigning, only that one’s word of mouth while the Mac ads are professional.
It’s a good ad.
I use PCs, but I acknowledge Macs are a better OS (though above my pricetag, especially given that I like video games and would need to buy Vista anyway), but the Hodgeman ads have always bugged me.
First of all, because John Hodgeman is fucking awesome, and any ad that tries to sell me something to make me **less **like him is just bewildering to me. But even if I was unaware of Hodgeman’s gradeur, I’d still identify with the nerd over the hipster guy.
And really, that’s what this commercial is doing. It’s showing the diversity of people who use PCs and rejects the implicit elitism of the stereotyped PC from the Mac commercials.
Anti-elitism is something that’s big in popular culture right now. It’s pretty much the cornerstone of the McCain campaign. Anyone see that McCafe commercial with those women glad to finally be able to enjoy their lattes without embracing Starbucks culture?
It seems that right now a big force in this country is the fear that someone somewhere is looking down on you for not being cool enough. Microsoft is just plugging in to that. And they’re being a lot more inclusive than most people who choose this tact, which is a point in their favor.
The ads are more PR than marketing. It’s Microsoft attempting to stop being made Apple’s bitch. They won’t have any effect on anyone’s behavior. Apple’s ads target the millions of people who use Windows and find it wanting, who have wished for something better but didn’t think anything existed. Those people aren’t going to be won back by Eva Longoria telling them that she uses Windows too. But Microsoft needs to show its investors, and to a lesser extent its customers, that it won’t let a rival brand define it in the marketplace any more. I think the damage is well done, and that Apple is going to keep picking off Windows users until, at the very least, a new version of Windows comes along that provides tangible user benefit while avoiding Vista’s failings. (Assuming such a Windows will – or even can – ever exist.)
No they don’t. Microsoft bought $150 million in non-voting stock years ago, which has since been bought back.
Do you really think there are millions of Winbox users who are unaware of the existence of Macboxes? Seriously?
I think it’s rather a question of cost. To get the same stats I have for my Winbox (about $2k) I’d have to get a Mac Pro and load it. I just checked and it would cost me $3 800. I think of Macs as I think of Bang&Olufsen: If the machine were as good as it looks, it’d own the market.
The thing with Hyundai is that they are relative newcomers to market and with a new standard and a need to break their previous image. This is why most of their commercials are about comparing themselves to other brands.
Ditto for Apple, they are trying to break from being a niche computer and their ads need to be comparative ads.
Honda, for example, is well established and dominant in the market. For them, mentioning competitors in their ads is reminding customers of their alternatives and admitting the possibility of comparison. Not something they want. Imagine a Honda ad where they say they are still better than Hyundai, wouldn’t this be an admission that the gap has closed enough for them to need to mention that there is a gap? Wouldn’t it lead to some potential customers thinking about whether they can live with that gap?
This WAS Windows. Until this ad.
Unaware of their existence? Of course not. Unaware that it is an actual option for them? I think so, yes.
And this is something Apple has failed to market, I think. The Mac as an appliance, vs the usual image of computers as unstable enemies of document destruction. For the stereotypical grannies out there, a Mac for email and internet use could be a set and forget appliance that works everyday just as it did the day before. With a PC you need to keep current, it does unexpected things and overall requires some regular maintenance.
And this is why many people don’t think of a Mac as an option open to them. The thinking goes “Joe helps me with my PC all the time, who is going to help me if I get a Mac? he doesn’t do Macs and I don’t know anyone who does”, not knowing that they wouldn’t need a Joe at all.
FTR: I haven’t had a Mac since the time of the first PowerPCs. I think they are better in ways that don’t justify the additional expense. 90% of my computer use is internet use, so operating system mean nothing, as it shouldn’t for most people.
I’ve never felt cool enough to own a Mac.
That’s not the main reason I’ve never bought one (other reasons include the price, the unavailability of software, the fact the the mouses only have one button, and the fact that every piece of Apple software I’ve ever encountered has been fucking annoying), but it’s a factor.
You need to get out more often.
Unavailability of What software?
Apple Mice haven’t had one button for around 10 years…
Annoying? Well, that’s a personal call, but the next time I have to put a 26 hex digit WEP password into Windows, blind, TWICE, I’m going to shoot that box.
Any software. Games, for instance. I’ve never seen a Mac game in my life.
REally? I’ll have to find a graphic designer and check that out.
One word - iTunes. The thought of entire OS designed by the same people who made iTunes makes me throw up a little.
We’ve been though the iTunes hate before, and I still don’t get it. It seems perfectly simple to me - what don’t you like about it?
Yeah, so the games exist. I’ve still never seen them on a shelf, nor have I ever known someone who could lend one to me.
As for iTunes - it’s an overcomplicated, unintuitive, *smartass *piece of software. It does things I don’t ask it to do and doesn’t do simple things I want it to do. I don’t want some stupid piece of code to start cataloging my HD; I want to drag a file from my computer to my iPod, period. The problem with iTunes is that it thinks its smarter than I am. Like everything Apple does, it has an air of smugness about it.
I shouldn’t need a dedicated piece of software to transfer files to a handheld device - my Sandisk Sansa doesn’t need one. The fact that Apple requires me to use one is just another symptom of their general jerkishness.
I have the same problem with Microsoft products. They seem to think they know what I want to do better than I do.
That’s the thing I’ve never been able to understand. Apple always has to break out of its niche market. But what niche market? I don’t think that was ever Apple’s doing, it was Microsoft’s, and all the pimply faced nerds at the local electronics store.
When I first started using Macs back in the late 80’s, they were “mostly for games.” Oh, the irony, no one wanted a computer that was good at games. Then it was mostly for education. Then it was mostly for documents and graphics.
It’s always mostly for something or other but not for general use and it’s the assholes at the computer store who continually spread that misinformation. I can’t tell you how many times over the years I’ve had friends who have decided to join the computer age, saw my Mac, thought it was really cool, when to the computer store and pimply faced geek convinced them “Macs are only for…”
I think Apple’s ads are trying to break that specialty niche image, but I don’t think it’s their fault they perennially have to.
Unaware that it is a viable option for them, yes. Most people think Macs are some sort of desktop publishing appliance, or that it uses entirely non-standard parts, or that they’re impossible to fix, or …
Sensitive much?
What about arranging songs into playlists? Or smart playlists that can update themselves based on dates, play counts, ratings etc? How do you edit your songs’ metadata without a media manager?
That is not true. Microsoft products know what THEY want to do better than you. They don’t care about what you want at all.