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Game On!

Submitted by Sarah Wagner on Fri, 2008-10-03 18:43

I couldn’t be happier. After years of watching new versions of one of my favorite commercials

Microsoft finally took up the challenge and came back with a counter-ad.

It’s one of the clearest examples of ethos in a visual argument that I’ve seen. Bill Gates (“BG” to some) is there, looking like his next-door-neighbor-professor-y self, along with Deepak Chopra and others maybe more recognizable to people more in the know than I am. Being a PC is not depressing and brown, it’s rich and colorful and happy! It’s not office drone uncool, it’s rebelliously hip! Being a PC means you’re worldly, eco-friendly, caring and nice. A challenge to authority—but in a good way.

If you're a PC, you’re Everywoman or Everyman. And you’ve got friends.

BG sure knows how to throw down. What’ll Mac do now?

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Comments

MS on the offensive

Submitted by John Jones on Wed, 2008-10-08 16:49.

As you point out, this is some clever marketing by Microsoft. I also enjoyed the Seinfeld ads which they recently pulled. I was talking to a source in the marketing industry here in Austin and I was told that many people in the industry found the Seinfeld ads to be incredibly off-putting, but I thought it was a nice move. The ads were entertaining in their own right, and I thought they had fun with Gates and his nerd image. These ads are more pointed, of course, and possibly more effective (although, AdAge is reporting that the Gates/Seinfeld ads are far more popular online than the Mac/PC ads).

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