The Problem with Microsoft-Part 2: It’s a ad about nothing!
And here comes the next installment of the three part series “The Problem With Microsoft”. Sorry about it being a series. The first part can be found here, and don’t worry, like yesterday’s part, this part is going to be more of a suggestion box to Microsoft, but it’s going to have it’s fair share of necessary bashing to do on my part. Have fun reading this!
To start off, you might have noticed that this is about Microsoft’s ads. Now, you might be wondering, what ads? Well, if you think really hard about it, it’s those ads that have “I’m a PC” at the end. Yeah, I know, they’re not to be confused to the more successful, and funny(and truthful, considering one commercial had the bimbo going in the Apple store, and coming out a second later). Remember those? No? Well, there’s the problem!
One thing Microsoft’s new ads stress is that PCs are more affordable, less fancy, and that they have better software for home users. Well, yeah, they’re more affordable, but they crash more, and get more viruses more easily than Macs do(granted, Macs have less marketshare, but if Macs were as big as Windows PCs, I doubt they’d have even 1/4th of the problems PCs have). Also, I don’t want to have a computer that looks like it came from a trailer park/the 90’s. Oh, and about the better home software? Yeah, ever heard of Apple’s iLife suite? Much better, they even come free, and aren’t just used one time when your kid needs to use it for some obscure school project because the school district is behind the times. I know, more bashing. But still, I’m getting to another point.
Microsoft’s new ads are just retaliating against Apple’s Mac vs PC ads that they’ve been doing, and are probably going to be doing for a few more years. When Apple did it to get recognition, it worked. When Microsoft does it, it seems like they’re crying about competition that they haven’t seen in so many years. Sure, you could be a Microsoft fan(there’s fans of Microsoft?) and say that Apple was crying about being behind Microsoft, but Apple can claim to be better than Microsoft when talking about operating systems, and they weren’t riding on the “PC” line that Microsoft is trying to do.
Microsoft’s ads aren’t easily remembered. Most people have forgotten about the Seinfield ads, and the reason behind that is Microsoft deems a marketing campaign unsuccessful within a month, and ditches it. Also: their ads are just flavors of the month, trying to shock people. They get that right, but that’s not the best thing to do. Anyone remember the “What do you want to do today?” line? I do. Most people do. That’s because it worked. Why did it work? Well, Microsoft focused on the business section, which, is where they do the best at. They talked about a program in detail, or as much detail they could. Now? It’s a girl printing out pictures, and saying a quick blurb about “Microsoft Program #262727 which is also on PCs. I’m a PC and I don’t know what a PC is.” Microsoft doesn’t embrace the products they spam out, they say a quick line and that’s it. Apple on the other hand, they actually spend a commerical on a topic talking about the iProduct that does that topic.
What does any of that mean to you? Or to Microsoft? Well, it means that people forget Microsoft’s commericals because they suck, and that people forget about their commericals because they just see a quick Windows logo. It’s like Microsoft is shamed of the Windows brand so they just throw up a two second logo. What’s the deal with that?! Oh, and they try to be edgy by telling people PCs(not Windows, the product they DO make) are cheaper and “not made of unicorn tears”, when they should skip the cute taglines and z-list actors and talk about the products that they make, without comparing them to Macs, because when they do that, it actually makes the Mac commericals seem egotistical. Isn’t that the point of these? To drive people back to the Windows platform, and to make the Mac look bad, without having to make up (warning, cursing:) bullshit about the Mac, and PCs?
Seriously, Microsoft. Why don’t you focus on the programs you do make(without BS), and less time on trying to force taglines and crap actors on us? Maybe then the Mac vs PCs wouldn’t hurt so much.
Tune in on Wednesday for the final part. It’ll be about the part I really want to get to: Managing, and Windows.
