Three New Microsoft Commercials Making PCs Cool(er) 16 comments
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The three new non-Seinfeld commercials, which the New York Times described earlier this week, still don’t talk about Vista features. But they do try to break the stereotype that cool and interesting people use Macs, and everyone else is on a Windows machine.
The ads features a number of Microsoft employees and include email addresses for each. The star, Sean Siler, has an autoresponse to his sean@windows.com email address (try it):
Hello! I’m a PC – and I can’t answer your email right now. I’d like to say that I’m out climbing Mt. Rainier or biking across Europe with the Swedish Beach Volleyball Team, but in fact I’m probably just chained to a desk somewhere in the depths of Redmond pounding out product specifications.
Now that I have been in a commercial, Microsoft has given me access to super-secret “BillyG” level of executive resources. That’s right – I have my own email auto-responder!
This, as you have probably surmised, is my pre-prepared auto-response (All natural, no filler. No animals were harmed in the making of this response. Except for a ferret.) I really would like to have answered you myself, but if I did, (a) I’d probably get no work done, and (b) then I’d get fired, and (c) then I’d have no chance of doing any more of those really awesome commercials.
So let me try to prognosticate a few of your questions and answer a few of them.
Why did they put you on TV?
I think it’s my devastating good-looks and animal magnetism. No, really – there’s a ferret stuck to my leg right now.But really – you aren’t even an actor!
No I’m not. But I play one on TV. I really am a Microsoft Program Manager. I work on IPv6, and other things that you haven’t heard of.How did you get selected?
I auditioned along with a couple of hundred others. I guess I looked very Engineery. And the ferret probably helped.Are you interested in more acting?
Oh no, I think that Engineering is MUCH more fun.What’s with Windows Vista?
You’ve been watching those commercials again, haven’t you? Windows Vista rocks. Listen to real users, not actors.-The Real PC, Sean Siler
The three new commercials are below:
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This article has 16 comments:
Even more reason for me to stick with my Mac.
However, it is sad in a way, that the giant of the industry feels compelled to try to defend itself against a small, although spunky, challenger. It's as though Ali suddenly got the feeling that he needed to retaliate against some fly-weight.
No matter WHAT Windows does to tout their OS or dress it up, will always be what it always has been - a poor knock-off of the Mac OS. As we used to say when they first ripped off the concept; "Windows 95 = Mac '89" Has anyone noticed that Mr. Ballmer is desperately trying to become Apple? Not only by the commercials, but he is even sending out memos to the staff saying that they have to "do it like Apple."
Microsoft has done some things well in the past. Word (which was originally written for Mac) was a good WP before they crammed it with useless add-ons and bloated it beyond belief.
Same with Works - formerly one of the better office suites out there. (Most people don't need Office, unless they are in (Big) business.)
My advice to Microsoft is get back out of the OS business (which has always been mediocre) and on to doing what they used to do well - developing useful software.
I was primarily a Microsoft user (DOS 3.x through Windows NT) for over a decade, though I also used Apple, as well as Unix, Linux, and other platforms.
I have run LANs (both Windows and Mac) as a sys admin, and used and taught all major applications for both.
Though I had my Windows systems as well-tuned and maintained as possible, they still required infinitely more work to keep running than the Macs. I also noticed the differences in ease of use for the end user, and how everything just WORKED together.
It was that exposure to Mac that made me a convert, and I made the switch just before OS X. Though one of the last iterations of OS 9 was a bit rocky, I have still never regretted it, and only wish I'd done it years before. I have been running only Apple for over a decade now, and am still LOVING it!!!
DOS or Windows was NEVER as smooth, easy, and fun as the Mac, and is incapable of being by its nature and design. I will NEVER return to Windows (I'd sooner stick pencils in my eyes!), and loathe even helping friends who are still mired in the MS nightmare. My sincere advice is get a Mac and join the growing legions who are actually using their computers for fun and as a useful mind-tool (what I originally wanted a computer for) instead of nursing a finicky, slow, annoying, buggy, pain in the posterior!
However, Macs now run Windows too - if you really need to - and they run them smoother, better, faster, and more stably (at least through XP). I have installed it on several computers whose users needed the Windows for work - and it works better than on comparable PC-designed boxes. (I can't explain this, because the parts are all obtained from the same manufacturers these days!)
BTW, I notice how some people in these columns attack Mac users and use demeaning descriptors for them. (And I will admit some of the Mac fans can be annoying at times.) However, did it ever occur to any of these people to wonder just WHY the Mac users are so strongly loyal and enthusiastic about their product? Could it just be because it actually IS a pleasure to use?
(Disclosure: I hold shares in Apple and remain long despite the turbulence of the present market. However, I was as big an Apple enthusiast even when I didn't have a dime of stock!)
Apple is an image concerned wannabe system , that while it performs well in its playground is not able to compete outside that arena. In the big bad world MSFT provides the systems the tools and the products people want and or just need.
The ads address this well by simply showing that the PC "IS" everywhere, MS is the company that people turn to when they want to do cool stuff. Apple is for when you just want to try and look cool.
businesses will be turning to apple products more and more..they're easier to run, less virus prone and that means less time wasted and also smaller IT departments. unless microsoft can be more innovative, their ads won't matter much. students are buying apple products...once they use those, they won't want the hassle of Windows or Vista. i think microsoft has enough ground yet to be around for awhile, but their territory is shrinking.
Windows is losing ground, Mac OS is doubling marketshare every 18 months, so at that rate, so IF that rate can/will be maintained (and in fact it appears this marketshare change is ACCELERATING if anything) then Mac OS X will have as much marketshare rivaling WIndows (in the US) within 3 years. If that could happen, Apple's marketshare could easily tripple in the world. Additionally, Apple is cleaning up in the iPhone/iPod markets worldwide, with new stores and expansion going on in global markets.
WE are defensive? It's MSFT shelling out 300 million. I just like to keep an eye on the competition.