3 ms·

One of my professors is the creative director of an ad firm. I asked him what CP+B's plan has been with Microsoft, since their route has really been baffling me

by unalone 17y ago

One of my professors is the creative director of an ad firm. I asked him what CP+B's plan has been with Microsoft, since their route has really been baffling me. He said that in his mind they're making a mistake by trying to address Apple, because Apple can play better on their terms than Microsoft can. So from that point of view, this new ad is more effective, because it's stopped legitimatizing Apple's Get A Mac campaign. I still think that CP+B is over their heads in this campaign. They do great for Burger King, where they're competing with equal brands, but Apple has a better brand than Microsoft, and so "edgy" isn't cutting it for them. Chiat has a powerful set of ads, so it's not like they're playing against a void.

anigbrowl 17y ago
I think your professor is missing a few things (or they haven't made it to this conversation so far): Microsoft's campaign exhibits a lot of diversity - ethnicities, ages, roles. Apple's poster boy (singular) is a smart-alec white hipster. I didn't particularly care for the 'laptop hunter' ads but one of them included the line 'I guess I'm just not cool enough for a mac', which I thought was a clever dig at the snob appeal and pricing of the Mac products. It's also, I suspect, aimed at offsetting the grumbles of nativists about Microsoft's public support for H1-B workers - though perhaps I'm attributing too much vision to CP&B there. More importantly, most of the commercials emphasize what people do with their computers - they run busineses (tattoo guy), study or make movies (laptop hunters), or grow up doing creative things (Kylie, the terminally cute little girl). The Mac guy just stands around saying how much better he is because he's a Mac - he doesn't actually do anything. So the CP&B ads mostly establish a direct connection between customer's goals and the product they can use to achieve them (Windows and the computer it runs on). The Apple 'tech' commercials (this is a Mac/iPhone - look, you can do this, this and this) are much better in that regard, but they do present a solution and invite the viewer to consider how it might solve a problem or ease their routine. I think think it's interesting that the MS ads are built around the idea of the user articulating the goal first and then exercising or expressing a choice to do it with a PC. In narrative terms, they establish character first and then offer (their) technology as an aid to that. Finally, the MS ads show Windows running on a variety of different hardware - premium to be sure, but that variety carries connotations of choice, flexibility, and mutual confidence among manufacturers in Windows, whereas Apple is an all-or-nothing proposition. You want to go Mac, well say goodbye to your existing hardware whether or not it works...not an easy decision in recessionary times. I'm actually pretty impressed with CP&B. Even the Shoe Circus commercial with Seinfeld was clever: by playing off the dorkiness and incomprehensibility, and ending with an image of a departing bill Gates (but with a hint that new things were in the pipeline), it effectively leveraged the existing preconceptions about Microsoft and used them as a pivot to direct attention towards what was coming next in the campaign. It was like one of those movies where there's an opening scene which makes no real sense until later...'all will be revealed'. Its purpose was to engage people's attention, at which it succeeded very effectively. And for those who say Seinfeld was way out of date - for one thing, the show is still in syndication and regularly advertised (staying power) and for another, isn't that what people were saying about Windows, that it was past its peak and washed up? And yet Seinfeld is still a big wheel in his industry and is about to launch a new series...which had already been in the works for several months when he appeared in 'Shoe Circus' just over a year ago. Matter of fact, I bet any time you see a computer in that series it'll be running windows 7.
- unalone 17y ago
  My conversation with my professor was really informal; I just thought his was an interesting view. Microsoft's campaign exhibits a lot of diversity - ethnicities, ages, roles. Apple's poster boy (singular) is a smart-alec white hipster. Justin Long's a yuppie, but he's far too casual to be a hipster. Apple isn't a hipster company. They're trendy, but that's different. I've always held that Apple's strategy is to dehumanize their ads and focus on product. Most of their ads are simply shots of their product. I think that attempting to use diversity to sell a product indicates an underlying weakness in the product. one of them included the line 'I guess I'm just not cool enough for a mac', which I thought was a clever dig at the snob appeal and pricing of the Mac products. Sniping at a minority product was a bad idea. It made Microsoft out to be both petty and inferior. It's like if an Apple commercial made fun of a Zune. Also: Selling a product by saying it's for uncool people never works. It gives you identification but not emulation. So the CP&B ads mostly establish a direct connection between customer's goals and the product they can use to achieve them (Windows and the computer it runs on). That's an interesting way to look at it. I hadn't thought about that. Not totally sure what I think of it but I see what you're saying. I responded to the Seinfeld discussion in our other thread. I'd bet that his new series shows a lot of Macs, though. Seinfeld is famously a Mac user.
  - anigbrowl 17y ago
    I must be getting old - to me yuppies have power suits and blackberries and hipsters wear hoodies :) 'Cool' is a very elusive concept; look at Napoleon Dynamite. Embracing the underdog role can be a very effective social strategy. I'm coming at this from a screenwriting perspective...Justin Long is like Buzz Lightyear or Lightning McQueen in Toy Story and Cars. Coming soon: a brash young contender and old workhorse must overcome their differences and team up to defeat an evil giant who wants to turn the world into a giant server farm - staring Justin Long, John Hodgman, and James Earl Jones as the voice of Larry Ellison! It'll be interesting to see what Seinfeld does on the show. I'm sure MS insisted on value for their $10 million deal with him, and that he's enough of a businessman to see the big picture.
    - 17y ago

by unalone 17y ago

anigbrowl 17y ago

I think your professor is missing a few things (or they haven't made it to this conversation so far): Microsoft's campaign exhibits a lot of diversity - ethnicities, ages, roles. Apple's poster boy (singular) is a smart-alec white hipster. I didn't particularly care for the 'laptop hunter' ads but one of them included the line 'I guess I'm just not cool enough for a mac', which I thought was a clever dig at the snob appeal and pricing of the Mac products. It's also, I suspect, aimed at offsetting the grumbles of nativists about Microsoft's public support for H1-B workers - though perhaps I'm attributing too much vision to CP&B there. More importantly, most of the commercials emphasize what people do with their computers - they run busineses (tattoo guy), study or make movies (laptop hunters), or grow up doing creative things (Kylie, the terminally cute little girl). The Mac guy just stands around saying how much better he is because he's a Mac - he doesn't actually do anything. So the CP&B ads mostly establish a direct connection between customer's goals and the product they can use to achieve them (Windows and the computer it runs on). The Apple 'tech' commercials (this is a Mac/iPhone - look, you can do this, this and this) are much better in that regard, but they do present a solution and invite the viewer to consider how it might solve a problem or ease their routine. I think think it's interesting that the MS ads are built around the idea of the user articulating the goal first and then exercising or expressing a choice to do it with a PC. In narrative terms, they establish character first and then offer (their) technology as an aid to that. Finally, the MS ads show Windows running on a variety of different hardware - premium to be sure, but that variety carries connotations of choice, flexibility, and mutual confidence among manufacturers in Windows, whereas Apple is an all-or-nothing proposition. You want to go Mac, well say goodbye to your existing hardware whether or not it works...not an easy decision in recessionary times. I'm actually pretty impressed with CP&B. Even the Shoe Circus commercial with Seinfeld was clever: by playing off the dorkiness and incomprehensibility, and ending with an image of a departing bill Gates (but with a hint that new things were in the pipeline), it effectively leveraged the existing preconceptions about Microsoft and used them as a pivot to direct attention towards what was coming next in the campaign. It was like one of those movies where there's an opening scene which makes no real sense until later...'all will be revealed'. Its purpose was to engage people's attention, at which it succeeded very effectively. And for those who say Seinfeld was way out of date - for one thing, the show is still in syndication and regularly advertised (staying power) and for another, isn't that what people were saying about Windows, that it was past its peak and washed up? And yet Seinfeld is still a big wheel in his industry and is about to launch a new series...which had already been in the works for several months when he appeared in 'Shoe Circus' just over a year ago. Matter of fact, I bet any time you see a computer in that series it'll be running windows 7.

unalone 17y ago
My conversation with my professor was really informal; I just thought his was an interesting view. Microsoft's campaign exhibits a lot of diversity - ethnicities, ages, roles. Apple's poster boy (singular) is a smart-alec white hipster. Justin Long's a yuppie, but he's far too casual to be a hipster. Apple isn't a hipster company. They're trendy, but that's different. I've always held that Apple's strategy is to dehumanize their ads and focus on product. Most of their ads are simply shots of their product. I think that attempting to use diversity to sell a product indicates an underlying weakness in the product. one of them included the line 'I guess I'm just not cool enough for a mac', which I thought was a clever dig at the snob appeal and pricing of the Mac products. Sniping at a minority product was a bad idea. It made Microsoft out to be both petty and inferior. It's like if an Apple commercial made fun of a Zune. Also: Selling a product by saying it's for uncool people never works. It gives you identification but not emulation. So the CP&B ads mostly establish a direct connection between customer's goals and the product they can use to achieve them (Windows and the computer it runs on). That's an interesting way to look at it. I hadn't thought about that. Not totally sure what I think of it but I see what you're saying. I responded to the Seinfeld discussion in our other thread. I'd bet that his new series shows a lot of Macs, though. Seinfeld is famously a Mac user.
- anigbrowl 17y ago
  I must be getting old - to me yuppies have power suits and blackberries and hipsters wear hoodies :) 'Cool' is a very elusive concept; look at Napoleon Dynamite. Embracing the underdog role can be a very effective social strategy. I'm coming at this from a screenwriting perspective...Justin Long is like Buzz Lightyear or Lightning McQueen in Toy Story and Cars. Coming soon: a brash young contender and old workhorse must overcome their differences and team up to defeat an evil giant who wants to turn the world into a giant server farm - staring Justin Long, John Hodgman, and James Earl Jones as the voice of Larry Ellison! It'll be interesting to see what Seinfeld does on the show. I'm sure MS insisted on value for their $10 million deal with him, and that he's enough of a businessman to see the big picture.
  - 17y ago