Microsoft Commercials...

[pasithea]

Tired, so I'm watching a little TV and being bombarded by advertisements. Always likely to put me in a mood.

Anyhow. I'm really being struck by the Microsoft "I'm a PC" advertisements.

Let me see if I understand the premise... So... Microsoft finds some inbred rube and says, "We'll buy you a computer if you jabber inanely for a few minutes on camera"

... And somehow, bribing someone with a free computer equates to their OS not being a flaming pile of dog shit?

... I'm kinda confused. I mean... If you have to bribe someone to do your advertising, it seems like your product is full of fail.

But perhaps I'm merely basing my opinion on having used Windows. C'mon Microsoft, give me two grand to buy a computer. I'll get something way better than a stinking piece of crap Dell Boat Anchor and it won't even be a single-purpose machine. I'll be able to use it for just about anything.

Comments

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

You've completely misread the "I'm a PC" commercials. They're a devastating rebuttal to Mac's churlish "I'm a Mac" commercials wherein the adorable, but geeky John Hodgman is repeatedly one-uped by the twee trendy douche bag Justin Long. Hodgeman is supposed to be the sterotpyical PC user, an uptight geek in a badly fitting flannel suit who looks like he's being choked by his tie, while Justin Long's hair is just so casually unkempt that you know he spent two hours in makeup to get it right, he's wearing a long fitted T, and some tight jeans that are too long at the legs and comfortable shoes, cause he's mr cool, like all stereotypical Mac folks. In one installment of the ad campaign he even holds hands with an Asian girl(!) who Hudgeman, the socially inept PC totally strikes out with, the rational being that digital cameras can't be plugged into PCs.

Microsoft's campaign to counter this shows people of great diversity using Microsoft products and saying "I'm a PC." It's brilliant, because in the first place John Hodgeman is more charismatic than Justin Long in the first place. And Long's Mac approved representation of being cool is positively insipid.

Microsoft's campaign exposes Mac's ad strategy for the elitist class warfare that it is, while portraying itself as an egalitarian force for all people, even ones not dressed in designer casual ware who's personality consists of affected disinterest and inoffensiveness masking the quiet assurance of someone who considers themselves incontestably superior due to their superior bank account.