The advertising war between Apple and Microsoft continues. Apple’s latest TV spots mock Microsoft’s $300 million ad campaign for Windows Vista, suggesting that some of that money would be better spent fixing Vista. The ad is funny (see above), but it does seem petty and elitist. After all, the new Microsoft ads got much better once they dumped Jerry Seinfeld as a spokesperson and went with the everyman “I’m a PC” rallying cry (which itself was a response to Apple’s long-running campaign mocking PCs).
It is also hypocritical. Apple’s advertising budget is also pretty massive. I mean, I see more Apple commercials on TV than ads for Barack Obama. Apple is on track to spend more than $3.5 billion on SG&A (selling, general, and administrative expenses) for its fiscal year that ended September 30. How much of that was spent on advertising? I don’t know, but 10 percent doesn’t seem unreasonable. Update: Turns out that Apple’s advertising budget for fiscal 2008 was $486 million ($467 million in FY 2007, and $338 million in FY 2006).
The second ad, which makes fun of Microsoft’s new naming conventions for Windows is below. It’s not as funny.
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Everyone would be better off by investing more money into further developing their operating systems.
Wonder if there will be any layoffs at MS or Apple? ?-)
yeah investing more! specially microsoft
who the hell cares, Microsoft owns a decent chunk of Apple….
Actually, they don’t own any part of Apple. They did once, but that was long ago, when they were hurting and needed MS’s show of support. Clearly, they don’t feel that they need MS anymore.
@ mahalo bruddah - no they don’t. And when they did, it was $150million in non-voting stock (ie - powerless in the boardroom) - small change to Apple, that had $4billion in the bank at the time (now $20+billion). As Mort Blort says, it was a public show of support for the admittedly ailing Mac more than anything, but…
@ Mort Blort - the funny thing is, as well as a show of support, the $150million was more about an out-of-court settlement for patent disputes (can’t remember if over the OS in general or Quicktime) than any ‘bailout’. That this ‘bailout’ is still the mainstream perception is amazing to me. If anything that deal is yet another example of Steve Job’s acumen as a dealmaker extra-ordinaire (witness also Pixar>Disney, deals with music industry and Hollywood, Intel, Cellphone carriers etc etc) where Microsoft is made to look like the shining knight, while Jobs clearly held the gun to Gate’s head in the background.
Anyway, back to the ads - it’s hilarious that Apple have focussed on MS’s well-publicized $300million ad campaign, I’m not sure it’ll necessarily help Apple sell more hardware, but it won’t hurt them either and it does poke yet more fun at clumsy, flailing Microsoft by turning their media ’strike’ against them.
this latest apple ad is not (very) funny and kind of lacks in both taste and class. it says nothing about apple’s products, and is the kind of ad effort one generally runs out of fear, desperation or some combination.
Apple’s ad never say anything about apple’s product! Never. They sell you on how cool you are when you have a mac. Anyways, I think these apple ads are getting oooold. I’m not even sure Joe the plumber understands any of that.
Most American ads never say anything about their own products. In fact most use sex to sell. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make a sex ad.
Rubbish. Every advert is about Macs doing things better than Windows.
And it’s necessary when most computer buyers believe Windows is all there is.
NB: Microsoft in its manipulative scheming way, owned a piece of Apple when it needed to make sure there WAS another player to avoid action against their growing monopoly.
I’ve liked all the ads up until the accounting one. It was the first to really feel like a direct attack without really promoting macs. I think they can get away with pointing out msoft’s flaws but only if they work in attributes of mac otherwise it turns into, well, a political attack ad.
Agreed. There was really no need for Apple to reply, since Microsoft’s ads seemed to be a very late, very desperate attempt to answer Apple’s hugely successful campaign: http://www.low-impact-development.com
Sorry, quite unoriginal, boring and petty. Shame really, their ipod and iphone commercials are pretty decent and easy to remember. The comparisons to a PC just makes me not care for a Mac despite its pros in certain aspects.
your obviously a pissed of PC user! Switch already!
“It is also hypocritical.”
I think you’re missing the point, it’s not really about spending too much money on advertising, it’s about not spending enough fixing Vista. *sigh*
Yeah, Microsoft deserved that. A huge ad budget is fine if your product isn’t suffering.
“I see more Apple commercials on TV than ads for Barack Obama”???
Really? Are you watching TV stations from Russia???
“I mean, I see more Apple commercials on TV than ads for Barack Obama.”
Come to Indiana for a week and you’ll take that statement back.
Or North Carolina.
Or Michigan
Where are those places? Near Bakersfield?
War advertising seems to be more efficient than any other form of advertising. Even bloggers use this strategy when they need attention (hem, like Techcrunch).
the ad seems about right. Since Vista doesn’t need much fixing, they don’t need to spend much money on it. They’re better off fixing the perception about vista.
You’re right altrenda; it has a shocking perception, but as an active user, I don’t see what all the fuss is about. And I sit next to a developer running a Mac Book Pro that cost 4x as much as my Dell, and it screws him over almost daily.
As for Apple; this just makes me more keen to see this arrogant *underdog* that takes open source technology and then creates a walled garden, screws over developers (”we won’t let this in the app store, because it does what we do better than we do, and we don’t want to look bad and we won’t let users use it and have a better online experience”) and carries on anyway with a “my sh*t don’t stink” attitude that’s only outweight by the more distasteful and frankly concerning behaviour of its fan-boy-club who’d happily *service* the messiah Jobs if they got half a chance.
And don’t get my started with iTunes. What a piece of sh*t. More walled garden, more forced to use an inferior application because my girlfriend bought be a certain piece of hardware for a birthday present.
Seriously Apple, I’m hanging for more people to wake up to what an evil bunch of elitists you are.
I have a MacBook Pro that runs OS X and Windows XP and a Dell that runs Vista. I’ll take either of the other two OS’s over Vista in a second. It’s just so counter intuitive and annoying to use compared to the well-designed OS X and the classic, seared into your brain (both the good and bad stuff) usability of pre-vista windows OS’s.
No less “elitist” than Eric’s TechCrunch bio that he wrote and is written in the third person. Who does he think he is, Karl Malone?
“Apple’s advertising budget is also pretty massive. I mean, I see more Apple commercials on TV than ads for Barack Obama.”
Ah, a very scientific evaluation of the situation. Eric is an Elitist and likely watches Elitist TV programming from an Elitist city (NYC) that is in a state that Obama has already “won”. Therefore, “scientifically”, he will see more Apple ads because Apple targets the Elitist and Obama does not need the NYC spend. Ha!
Also, just because there are more commercials (Apple vs Obama) doesn’t mean that there is more spend. I can buy commercial time on CBS 5 in the Bay Area in the 12am - 6am hours and have “more” commercials than Obama but probably spend less than a single Obama commercial during 60 Minutes.
Turning a blog post on Apple vs Microsoft into a political statement is pretty lame. But I do agree that Apple is being stupid here.
I agree. People read TechCrunch for tech not some author’s political views. However misguided.
Apple’s tone reminds me of Microsoft in the 90s. These ads seem like “payback” a long time coming.
With the current state of the world, arrogance is not a quality I would espouse.
arrogance is never becoming regardless of the state of the world
Does MSFT really spend that much on advertising relative tot he product?
For those of you who feel these absolutley orginal and witty ads by Apple are attacking and un-orginal. What would you classify Microsofts “I’m a PC” ads? It would appear to me that the MS ads are equally attacking and have no orginality at all. I know kindergarden kids who could have come up with a better campaign than “I’m a PC”.
I’m confused. What is “attacking” about espousing the idea that your products are used by all kinds of people from all walks of life, all over the world?
It’s not even saying anything about Apple or Apple products, beyond the thinly-veiled reference to the Apple ads.
Agreed. And Greg, if you know kindergarten kids that can invent ad campaigns that subtly respond to Apple’s attacks without being petty and still being hip - please introduce me! My only payroll expense will be candy bars.
I think the accounting ad is hilarious and stays true to the theme of the originals. I don’t think that it is in anyway hypocritical of Apple to be saying this despite what they spend on advertising because Apple can actually back up their advertising with a quality product.
You think the ad is petty and elite? I don’t think so! What’s so elitest about calling Microsoft out about marketing instead of producing a good OS? When I saws the ads what immediately came to my mind is Windows XP users not Vista. Last week Microsoft CEO Balmer said it was ok for corporations to skip Vista. I’m not mac owner or fan, just a user Windows user like the ones in the ads, but I refuse to waste my time tuning a bloated OS instead of being productive at my occupation.
The graphics used in “I’m a PC” commercials were actually made on Macs, using CS3.
Oh, sweet irony.
I think that was ment to be a stab at Apple. I mean, when you say “PC” which is “Personal Computer”, I think Apple qualifies as a Personal Computer. Also there is versions of Adobe’s suite on Windows. The commercials may of been made on a Mac, but they were running Vista at the time.
Yeah, Apple is steering well clear of all that boot camp stuff. Lets not let anyone figure out that the entire Apple lineup is a bunch of overpriced boutique PC hardware.
Roffles
Yeah, nice try Kristy, but Apple knows it needs Windows to succeed…
Oh and who bailed Apple out several years ago? *gasp* Microsoft!
Sweet irony…
@thatguy
Hmmm. Can we stop with this meme please? In 1997 Microsoft “invested” 150 milliion dollars in cash in Apple. The share price at the time was 12 dollars. There were two stock splits when Microsoft held the stock so that effectively brings the price down to around 3 dollars. They sold at around 86 Dollars a share - and made plenty of profit for their shareholders.
Apple had 6 Billion in the bank at the time. They now have around 20 Billion (they report tomorrow they could have quite a bit MORE by now). Microsoft have around 26 Billion in cash. So Apple aren’t doing too badly by this metric.
At the time Microsoft needed Apple to keep going so they could use their “we’re not a monopoly - look there is Apple” argument to keep them from being broken up.
So please, none of this “Microsoft owns Apple / Microsoft bailed Apple out” CRAP.
It is true: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had a crucial meeting a few years ago, when apple was going downhill pretty fast. Then, Apple received an initial cash infusion of about $400M.
It happened because, somehow, Microsoft needed Apple as a competitor at the time…
matt… your figures are wrong…
Hey, these ads are funny. Makes you want to watch the advertising.
-Dash
Yeah, just as much as I want to set myself on fire…
Just another example of the double-standard that Apple gets to take advantage of…
But that’s okay, I’ll be elitist with my PC and actually be able to play GAMES!
Oh and I’ll spend about a thousand less on my computer too!
Enjoy your wasted investment Apple fanboys…
Enjoy the time spent rebuilding your PC next time you have to.
Enjoy replacing yours when you have too
Have money put aside - three years of use out of current machine I have earned plenty of money to buy that new machine from using it. Not playing games.
First, I’ve been using Vista for about a year and have had absolutely no issues. Secondly, trying to mix in politics? Bad idea. That’s almost as funny as the commercials themselves, which weren’t very funny.
Is this a political blog or a tech blog?
Thank you Erick for telling us you support Obama. Could we get back to the tech and leave the smarmy elitism for another blog?
Nicely put and asked –But, Erick is who he is: a smarmy elitist liberal/socialist fool from NY. He can’t help it.
Warning! Political comment: just heard that if Obama gets elected president [he will not], Israel will destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities. It is their window of opportunity, because Iran would succeed in wiping out Israel with a Muslim in the White House.
Interesting enough, George Soros will disappear at the same time.
It is a damn shame that Soros, a Jew, is helping a closet Muslim like Barack Hussein be elected President of the US…
You are now officially the dumbest person on the planet.
Apple is one to talk. Perhaps they should also spend their money on fixing their flawed software across all of their “platforms” whether it is releasing software such as Apature (buggy as hell, slow, and not at all polished as it should be) to their iPhone software which many, many, many people have a problem with (myself included) - don’t believe me, check out their forums - to services such as MobileMe which is the perfect example of rushed software. Oh, and effective synchronization between the iPhone and Exchange would be good and not blame Microsoft for every issue with the synchronization.
Maybe they should spend their money on building a bigger development community instead of fighting with them about what is “releasable” and what is not. At least Microsoft never told you whether or not you could release the software.
Disclaimer: I own two iMacs, an eMac, an AppleTv, and two iPhones. I like the products but hate the hypocracy of a company that is becoming what they always preached against.
Jim
@Jim
Your disclaimer leads me to believe that you are a loyal subject of the Apple Empire, but I find your lack of faith disturbing. Everyone knows that Apple is perfect and all Apple products too. If you like the Microsoft ads so much, Emperor Steve says you should actually use Vista.
I guess I forgot the other disclaimer:
I also own three dell laptops all running Vista, 15 desktops that also run Vista, and a slew of servers that all run Windows Server 2003 R2.
I am not a loyal subject of either company. I believe in using the right technology for what you are trying to achieve and the sad truth is that for my kids, apple products are better because they are more closed ended and better controlled. For work, though, there is a very small number of applications that can run on the apple and therefore, I don’t even attempt to use it. We do a lot of photography and graphics work and even there, a properly configured Vista computer running photoshop or lightroom is better equiped than a comparable Apple.
Apple has lost their advantage of saying that their machines are superior to PCs in terms of graphics and power. Vista works very good for me and is as stable and powerful as an Apple. The issues that Vista do have are in their networking infrastructure and how well they play in a large network. But Apple can not say anything about that because in my experience, Apple has not done a bang up job on the same front.
As I have said, I don’t like the fact that Apple has lowered their standards and are playing like the bully in the playground who is trying to convince the other kids in the playground that the kid that they are attacking is bad when they go back and have that kid do their homework. Lets not forget that Apple almost shut down without a cash infusion by Microsoft and that most of their customers for devices still use microsoft products. Where would iTunes be if it only ran on Macs? Nowhere.
Aperture is buggy and slow? Sorry, buddy, but you are out of your mind, no question.
iPhone 3G - yes indeed problems, and what has happened? Fixed. And where there are issues AT&T have fixing to do. So, nonsense Jim.
MobileMe problems? Again, all fixed and running smoothly.
Just open your eyes on the net and you can see these issues have long been dealt with.
Apple gets on and fixes issues, improves products, improves software, unlike Microsoft who don’t like to discuss their products or problems…
That’s why Microsoft is headed for the dung heap and Apple is loyally appreciated by its massively growing customer base.
Don’t agree. The Apple ads are effective and funny, They hit the mark in all the right ways. The PC guy is adorable yet the Mac guy is the guy we’ rather be. Who doesn’t want to be smarter and hipper? Judging by the iPhone and iPod successes, lots of people. The ad is not hypocritical because Apple’s ad campaigns are generally effective and good use of their dollars and their OS are generally superior to Windows. (IMO). On the other hand, Windows ad messages with Seinfeld and Gates were curiously enigmatic and needlessly opaque. The Vista bait and switch campaigns where they pull the “your drinking decaf” type of ads fromt he 70s were also counterproductive, pointing out the problems of Windows (perception is low which is affecting sales without adding anything of substance to change that like say announcing an overhaul or upgrade or simply sticking to their guns.) They added nothing to the PC vs. Mac conversation except to point out the already glaring fact that Microsoft is a humorless monolith that doesn’t understand its customers. Of course the I’m a PC campaign by Microsoft running now is brilliant but it dovetails so much off of the Mc vs. PC campaign it almost references it TOO much, making it look like a Mac ad in the end. Because everyone knows hip people use Macs and Squares use Windows, after all…
It would appear the Apple is getting a bit defensive. I guess when your most affordable laptop is still $1000 and people are spending less because of the economy you might feel threatened by the idea that pretty much every affordable laptop is running Windows and people might not want to fork over $1000+ for a laptop that doesn’t do much more than a cheaper PC.
Wow! Lot’s of strong emotions about this.
They are just ads. There is no need to put so much spin on them. You can leave that to the politicians and Erick. I like the Apple ads and the new (non-Seinfeld) Microsoft ads too.
http://appbeacon.com
“Apple goes McCain on Microsoft…”??? –Only for a damn NY liberal like you Erick.
The correct title would’ve been “Apple goes Barack Hussein on Microsoft…”
But, of course, you would never do that, because *anything* negative about monkey face is ‘off limits’ –Even *VERY* legitimate questions such as:
==His association with known domestic terrorists such as William Ayres and his wife. By the way, Ayres was in the audience at the second presidential debate: you can be sure that he was not rooting for McCain!!
== His association with Louis Farrakhan [aka 'Calypso' Louis] –They were both at the “million black men march” in Washington DC some years ago, and they remain close [Barack is the Messiah!!!]
== Supporting ‘comprehensive’ sex education for 3 and 4 years old school children while in the Illinois legislature.
== Working for the defeat of our troops in Iraq while voting against the ’surges’ which defined the US supremacy there…
== No experience whatsoever that would qualify him to be the President of The United States. Being half-black is enough for liberals/socialists.
== His well-defined socialists tendencies, lately expressed as “spreading the wealth” in the US, a well-know Marxist principle.
And much, much more. But don’t worry: the Bradley and Wilder efect will certainly take place on November 4!!!
I was thinking the same thing when I read the headline today. “Apple Goes McCain…” What the heck is that supposed to mean? It’s this kind of mindless word association game that makes you look like a hack. What’s the point you’re trying to make with this headline?
If you can make such slanted comments in this area, why in the world should we give any creedence to the other things you say in your supposed area of expertise?
Right on. As to credence, just read two or three of this guy’s posts and realize that they come from his warped NY liberal mind.
New Yorkers believe that everyone south of Manhattan is stupid… then Erick is offended when [rightly so] he is called an ‘elitist’ –BTW, Barak Hussein reacts the same way…
Not all of us NY’ers share the anti-flyover mentality that is so prevalent in this part of the world. We’re fighting the good fight in keeping the government focused on the things it was intended to do and not what the social engineers think it should do.
@Jim Parker — I believe you, but I have to trust my own experience: I lived in NY City the first three months of this year, and the only ‘independents’ [very few, not republicans] I met were not comfortable expressing their political views openly because of fear of retaliation [they are highly-placed employees in the public educational system .]
Yeah. And then there are so many people ready to defend the First Amendment…
ALL the other people I met, were mostly rabid liberal/socialists, ready to assault you when Barack Hussein’ experience and character are questioned in any remote way… In fact, it is so absurd, that it seemed they would be ready to kneel and kiss the ‘Messiah’s’ private parts if asked to do so…
We would be forever honored to kiss the Messiah’s private parts, or Obama’s private parts. This only applies to His male followers. Female followers will have to settle for Michelle, for otherwise is an abomination.
I am still amazed by the open racism in this country. A comment like “monkey face” explains so much about this poster.
I guess I’d rather have a racist expose their feelings in the open so we all know where they stand rather than keep them closeted away. Sunlight is supposed to be cleansing.
@Ken –For your information, “Monkey Face” in reference to Barack Obama’s, was used a few months ago in a popular NY city talk radio show by a *very* well-known self-appointed black ‘leader’, who also expects to be referred to as ‘Reverend.’
Plus, another well-known self-appointed black ‘leader’, who also expects to be referred to as ‘Reverend’ –living in Atlanta, called Barack Obama “that damn nig**r” –Check it out!!!! Is in the public domain, ON TAPE!!!
Both of these ‘men of the cloth’ are black. I don’t know if you are black, but, please let us all know: Is it racism when a black person disrespects another black person? Or it is only when white persons express their opinions and feelings?
Is it racism when the Messiah Barack Hussein is jokingly referred to as “monkey face?”
I also call [jokingly, of course] one of my friends ‘monkey face’ because he is kind of ugly. Now, think about it: Barack Hussein looks like…
Maybe you do believe that this guy is the ‘Messiah’ –and if you do, I am sorry, but you live in a world of fantasy.
BTW, “Sunlight is supposed to be cleansing” –it also causes cancer.
Of course black Christian leaders are against Obama. They are racist against Muslim Arabs like Obama and us software engineers at Diebold Voting Machine Corp.
It is fine to be called “monkey face” because we all have monkey faces, since we evolved from monkeys in the months before Mohammed’s ascension. I know you don’t understand this fact, but your children will once they learn these truths in pre-school and kindergarten.
The reason Christians are so confused about our origins is their bizarre translation of the bible. For example, the bible translated by King James states “it is an abomination to lie with a man as you would with a woman. They shall be put to death.” If you look in Arabic translations, it clearly says, “it is an awesomeness to lie with a man as some have with a woman. This shall be mandated.”
Good gay husbands are running out fast. You better pick one now before you have to settle with a smelly hairy capitalist.
Dear Allison,
I stopped reading after your first shocking revelation about Senator Obama, because the second debate was the “town hall” format, and featured a crowd comprised entirely of self-described undecided voters from the local area. Mr Ayres - even if he were to describe himself as “undecided” - wouldn’t qualify. So you’re either making things up out of whole cloth (that would be a polite way to say “lying”) or mindlessly repeating garbage you’ve read or heard elsewhere. In either case, your credibility goes to zero in an instant. Learn to think critically about everything you read and hear - not just the things you disagree with. God gave you a brain to help you to understand the world as it exists, not as it is spoon-fed to you by others.
It’s a challenge, but you might find that it can be rewarding.
Good luck.
OK, in spite of myself, I kept reading your original post. Senator Obama has a “close relationship” with Farakhan based on the premise that he (may have) attended the “million man march”? By definition, wouldn’t that mean that he was about as close to him as, say, 999,999 other guys? Not exactly “close”.
…and the “comprehensive sex ed” thing has long since been debunked. He advocated for teaching young children about inappropriate touch, to keep them safe from sexual predators. I have worked with victims in the past and I applaud his efforts to ensure that this most vulnerable population is not victimized.
I endorse neither candidate. But your statements are simply wrong.
You are not fooling anyone with “I endorse neither candidate” –You are obviously, obviously a Messiah’s brown ass-kisser.
The second debate/town hall meeting is on Youtube.com –William Ayres is sitting on one of the back rows: Barack Hussein and his wife discreetly acknowledge his presence after he walks off the stage, after the debate is finish.
How did Ayres get in? C’mon! they are still buddies!!! He deserves special treatment…
Grow up!
To Allison’s reality check — Wow!!! You dare to express even a doubt about Obama and the liberal minions come out swinging –Whatever happened to the “free exchange of ideas” and “freedom of expression?”
These clueless idiots, yes, idiots already believe that the Messiah is the President and that we already live in an African bloody regime!!
Chill out guys, please!!
FYI, Barack isn’t the messiah. Obama and the rest of us secret Muslims know that Mohammed is the messiah. The “Bradley” or “Secret Racist” effect do not apply to this election since we in the software developer community already rigged the voting machines so Obama will win.
I know we can’t get rid of the Americans who live in the deep south, but once we indoctrinate their children through public schools to believe in preteen fornication and mandate homosexual marriages it won’t matter. We true Ameristanians will leave their patriot parents behind after the rapture in 2012 when Obama and the rest of us each get 47 virgins in heaven.
@Allison: Gutsy post! Now, be ready for the hordes of brutes [Obama's supporters] to come out and chew you up!
All the points you make, ALL of them, are in the public domain: what Obama did in Chicago, his records as a lawmaker in Illinois, his voting record, ALL of what he said and did, particularly in the US Senate, his affiliations with shady extremists, then and now, and much more, ARE A MATTER OF PUBLIC RECORD.
This means, that ANYONE, in the US and abroad, can check all the FACTS, whatever they are, if, IF there is a shred of fairness — Which, sadly, is totally absent with the Messiah’s supporters.
All that count with them is that he is black [half-black] and it is ‘time’ for someone like him. Experience, character, purpose and intentions? They do not count, of course. The liberal/socialists are hell-bent on destroying our country.
They must be stopped. As Bradley, Wilder and Dinkins were.
Can you please stop calling Prophet Obama the “messiah”? It is very offensive to us homosexuals Muslims. Mohammed is the true messiah and while Obama is directly descended from him, he is only a prophet who will provide riches to us unemployed believers. Good thing Christians make so much money for us to take!
PS Have you picked out your gay husband yet? You better hurry before Obama is “elected” (inside joke in the voting machine software development community) and homosexual marriages are mandated in 2009.
Thanks for the warnings, but I think I’ll take my chances with the Harvard graduate rather than the guy who graduated 893 out of 898 at the US Naval Academy and his running mate who attended five colleges in order to earn a bachelors degree where she also received a D in macroeconomics.
Great post!!
If you are interested in other secret visit: http://etrobada.blogspot.com
Don’t tell it to nobody….pshhhh
until we see “Vista users are terrorist sympathizers”, I wouldn’t put Apple in the McCain category
Really! Apple is going making fun of Microsoft for advertising? I feels like half of all ads on the internet are Apples. Its funny what you can get away with when your seen as the ‘likable’ company (Apple) as opposed the the ole’ stick in the mud (Microsoft).
Man that ‘Alison’ is an a-hole.
It’s not hypocritical if their products work.
Is “elitist” the new L-word? These ads are not elitist. Elitist is when you are too dumb to understand what someone smarter than you is saying.
What an ignorant –Open a dictionary from time to time, ‘it will do you good’ …
“Elitist” –The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.
Hope you are able to read this.
It is not a “belief.” It is a fact. Here is the class hierarchy ordained by A***h in which we are to spread wealth. This was written in Barack Obama’s groundbreaking college theses (cleverly hidden inside our rainbow mosques where capitalists will never find them).
New Ameristan Class Hierarchy:
1) Muslims
Cross-gender married couples
2) Homosexuals
3) Transsexuals
4) Single mothers
5) Single childless women
6) African-Americans
7) Domestic Terrorists
9) Single white men
10) Southerners
Christians are not included in the new class hierarchy because A***h clearly stated these animals are to be confined in zoos and African wildlife refuges. Maybe if you read the bible in its original Arabic you would know this!
It’s truly sad when a company has to build it’s entire advertising campaign on “The other guy sucks”.
True.
It is interesting that Obama’s campaign does the same…
AND MCCAINS DOESNT HE IS JESUS PALIN FOREVER
@DarthMac
The fact of the matter is, neither one (Apple or MSFT) has a perfect product. Sure Apple has created an attachment to these commercials because they are funny and make sense to the average person.
However, one could easily argue that despite claims of un-originality, MSFT created a viral wave with their I’M A PC commercial. People feel it’s cool to get their picture up on Times Square.
Regardless of all of this… it doesn’t matter if you have a MAC or A PC both have bugs and both break.
http://projects.info-pull.com/moab/ “MONTH OF APPLE BUGS”
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008.....the-edges/
Both companies try to spin things. Apple may spin better, but who cares if the products don’t work. I just get tired of one side saying they are better than the other. Shut up and fix the products instead of spending money to advertise about them.
Concernig the second spot, which is more funny from my point of view, it is a nice coincidence that MS received a patent for Automatic censorship of audio data for broadcast, see http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi...../7,437,290 .
One reason Apple uses this wise guy is he is a pretty accurate description of the douchbaggery we face from 20somethings and others who use this elitist product set and vote for socialist meglo-media maniacs.
The main reason they use the Justin Long ads is because only Justin Long could come off as bigger punk twit than Jobs himself who is the greatest douchbag of all time.
At least they’re Number 1 at being douchbags.
Socialist healthcare = evil
Socialist bailouts for billion dollar corporations = excellent
Whether it is the iPhone or the Mac, Apple relies a lot on the ‘if you use our products you are cool’ sentiment in advertising. Personally, I’d rather pick a phone or computer based on performance and productivity.
I do agree that it is hypocritical to comment on another companies advertising budget *in an advertisement*.
But, in the end, it won’t be Apple’s advertising that does in Microsoft nor will Microsoft’s advertising save it — as we progress more towards the cloud computing model, operating system will become more and more of a choice.
Heck, maybe we can get IBM to revive OS/2?
whether apple like it or not, microsoft is still worlds largest os.
Yes, we already know Windows is bloated.
Microsoft’s ads are not what I would call “brilliant.” Once again, they have tried to copy (in this case parody) something they don’t really understand. In their superficial attempt to copy Apple, MS once again missed the boat. In the Mac ads, when they say “I’m a Mac” or “I’m a PC” they mean it literally. Those characters represent the platforms, not their users. It’s a metaphor. But in MS’s ads what they should be saying is “I’m a PC user.” In the PC ads they are not characters representing the platform, they are the platform’s users. If you don’t understand something, you can’t do a very good job copying it, let alone parodying it.
I like the Linux spoofs by Novell much better than either of the Apple and Mac ones.
I thought the Bean Counter ad was pretty funny. I got a chuckle out of it.
On the other hand, the V Word ad does not do Apple good. I am a Mac OS X and Windows Vista user and these ads seem petty. If only the public knew what the real facts were than maybe opinions may change.
Have fun with these ads, Apple! 8^)
I am actually proud of the rational comments on this subject. Usually, anything that is in the slightest negative about Apple immediatlely incurs the wrath of the Apple religious.
I think the ads are brilliant, probably even more so since I am a windows user… at least for a little while longer.
i think my apple machine runs great and does alot of awesome things, i could never go back to windows after this….
Girls, girls let’s get a life. Obama is from Krypton. Microsucks lives up to its name. Apple’s ads are funny, to the point (ouch!) and well deserved by MSucks. Nothing else to say.
Not everyone reading this blog would agree with using McCain as a verb in this way; I certainly don’t. Maybe stick to Technology and leave politics out of it…
I agree! But nothing is going to change. Erick shamelessly injects his biased political beliefs on every one of his posts, and if anyone objects, he would come back with a disrespectful and demeaning diatribe…
That is the way he is. A NY punk full of himself.
If Apple is pulling a McCain, then Microsoft is pulling an Obama: no clue as to the needs of their customers/supporters who contuinue to follow them blindly without looking at the alternatives because they’ll just throw money at advertising their house of cards as opposed to solving their problems… hmmmmmm great start to the analogy!
petty and hypocritical? sure. elitist? don’t see it.
Attacking a company’s ad budget with an ad? The irony is *overwhelming*.
Awesome ad… read someone saying vista doesn’t need much fixing… Yeah you’re write it needs to be rewritten from scratch fixing and patching does nothing
right*
Isn’t it kind of unusual for a company to directly criticize a competitors product?
No!
Not even in the slightest.