

Windows 7 is reduced to rainbows and unicorns - edw519
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-neil15-2009sep15,0,6305142.column

======
astine
_I'm a computer bisexual -- I use a Mac at home and a PC at work_

\-- I have a request to make to bloggers and journalists: please don't use
this analogy unless you are in fact screwing your computers as it makes it
difficult for me to take you seriously. "OS agnostic," has been around for a
while and is clearer.

It's especially annoying as he has a real point to make and the most
noticeable thing about the article is what looks like a ribald joke.

~~~
anigbrowl
Perhaps he feels screwed by the computers...but seriously, I agree.

------
unalone
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
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
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
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.

~~~
unalone
<http://latfh.com/>

That's the hipster stereotype nowadays.

------
SamAtt
Despite the author's claims to the contrary he's clearly biased (at least
towards Apple's brand). He basically says he thinks every Ad that Microsoft
has done sucks and every Ad that Apple has done is genius (which is a stretch
on the most recent one). So is it a surprise he doesn't like this one?

Microsoft's goal in this Ad is to open people's eyes to the positive buzz
Windows 7 has gotten. So they grabbed a cute, recognizable kid and basically
had her do the intro because adorable catches people's attention. On that
level I think it's a rousing success.

~~~
unalone
Apple's most recent ads are definitely pushing it, but they're working.
They've taken every attack Microsoft has attempted and reversed it. They're
starting to get really obnoxious, but that's because Microsoft got obnoxious
first.

Are you saying Microsoft's ads didn't suck? First Bill Gates talked to a
washed-out comedian about buying shoes. Then Microsoft launched an ad
_directly_ combatting an ad run by a competitor that has 8% market share, and
the ad ignored the point of the original ad anyway (namely, that Mac and PC
represent computers rather than actual users, and that PC users aren't
likable-but-incompetent, PCs themselves are). Then they ran an ad that took
Apple's claims of being a better computer and implicitly acknowledged it by
focusing on how cheap Microsoft was, which—oops—backfired because in a
recession, though people want cheaper computers they're more likely to make
fewer quality purchases than many cheap ones.

This new ad wasn't nearly as bad, but what it is is _generic_. I don't watch
that and get any feeling that Windows 7 is better than a Mac. In fact, as the
author says, the stuff the kid's doing seems low-quality and bad. The kid
could make better clipart on a Mac with stuff like instant alpha, an awesome
feature that Apple doesn't use in ads because unlike its competitor Apple has
a hundred different features it could use for offense. So it's not as bad as
the older ads, which were negatively impacting Microsoft's image. Now it's
back to being neutral and bland. But that's not good. It's just neutral.

~~~
thismat
I actually liked the ads with Seinfeld(who isn't really washed out if you
consider his earning power), is that weird?

You have to consider the image Microsoft has to repair here, at least they're
moving in the right direction, and I'd rather them focus on their products and
.NET framework than purely advertising first anyway. While the ads are not
making me want to run out and buy Windows 7 right now, using the release build
absolutely solidifies the fact that I will purchase a copy, it's really a
pleasure to use, which says a lot about how far they've come since Vista/XP.

~~~
unalone
I'm excited about Windows 7. I just wish there were better ads.

The Seinfeld ads weren't hideous, but I can't imagine Crispin thought it would
give Microsoft a better name. And Seinfeld's washed out after Bee Movie. My ad
prof suggested yesterday that the ads might have made more sense with a guy
like Jon Stewart or Steven Colbert.

~~~
thismat
Jon Stewart definitely would have been a better choice, but the off-beat humor
fit Seinfeld well I think.

Washed up after Bee Movie? My kids loved it hah, but yes, I thought he was
washed up as well, until I read he netted more total cash I think it was
2008-2009 than any other comedian.

~~~
unalone
I'd need to see that in writing.

Bee Movie after something as monumental as the Seinfeld show? That's a wash-
out. Reminds me of the scene in Extras where Ricky Gervais goes to work for
Doctor Who.

~~~
anigbrowl
Seinfeld is the 6th highest-earning celebrity in the over-50 set, earning $85
million last year. Like many other top earners, he doesn't just get paid, but
was shrewd enough to retain rather than sell his financial interest in the
properties he created, so he makes money as both a performer and a producer.

[http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/13/top-
celebrities-50-business...](http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/13/top-
celebrities-50-business-entertainment-oprah_slide_7.html)

His overall net worth is well north of $200m, plus he's about to launch a new
series.

~~~
unalone
Oh, right, syndication profits. I thought he'd given up stand-up, though.

I don't think that making money stops you from being washed-out, though. Look
at Charlie Sheen and 2.5 Men. It's one of the most popular shows on
television, but it's a washed-out show nonetheless, receives bucketloads of
negative press, and Sheen is a loony B-list actor who pitches 9/11 conspiracy
theories. I'm sure he makes more money than, say, Jason Bateman, but Bateman
isn't washed-out whereas Sheen is.

The attitude about Seinfeld is that he was great 20 years ago, sold out in the
process of ending Seinfeld (some people are a _little_ more generous than
that), and hasn't done a damn thing since. Bee Movie generated waves of bad
press, and that was supposed to be his comeback. The fact that I haven't heard
of his doing a new series says something. If he was still trendy, I'd have
known right away.

~~~
thismat
I'd rather Seinfeld end positively than continued until it had dried up. I
don't think it's really fair to call him washed-out, Seinfeld was incredibly
successful, how does anyone ever expect him to top it? He just has the bar for
what's expected of him set too high to achieve that again.

It seems a majority of actors on a hugely popular syndicated TV show really
fail to jump start their careers afterward, likely because people expect the
same performance quality every time, no room for error.

~~~
unalone
I was actually referring to _the_ end, where Jerry and his friends get into
trouble for doing nothing. There was some unrest about that choice of ending.

------
heyitsnick
For those who haven't caught it: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssOq02DTTMU>

~~~
steverb
Thank you for the link.

I have to admit, I splurted coffee out of my nose when "The Final Countdown"
started playing behind the slideshow.

~~~
mixmax
I think this Steve Jobs quote adequately explains it.

 _"The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have
absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a
big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't
bring much culture into their products. "_

------
ZeroGravitas
Doesn't this undermine the last advert with Kylie? I thought she'd actually
done the stuff in that one, but in this one it's clearly not her work. Are we
supposed to re-think our impressions of the first one?

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhre2C4THT4>

------
makecheck
The main thing that bugged me about Microsoft's commercial is that a young
girl isn't likely to do all of the things she was said to do. That is, she
supposedly reads rave reviews of Windows 7 (that were probably in words above
her grade level), understands them, and turns them all into a fancy slideshow
with music; all while using Windows, the most awkward of all operating system
user interfaces in the world?

I think the idea of using children to sell the computer is fine, but why not
show them doing what a child _would_ do? After all, isn't the point to show
what makes a PC valuable to your family, and not what makes it valuable to
marketing on behalf of Microsoft?

~~~
jws
_…Windows, the most awkward of all operating system user interfaces in the
world…_

JCL?

~~~
jcl
Hmm? ;)

------
psranga
Where was this guy when Apple used Gandhi, MLK etc?

And he uses the most tired argument of all: "think of the children!".

Sorry, I am not persuaded.

------
neovive
Regardless of the opinions on the Microsoft advertising campaigns. It is clear
that Windows 7 addresses many of the problems with Vista and most large
companies (with large contracts with Dell and other PC vendors), will likely
be upgrading this time around resulting in large adoption of Windows 7 in the
enterprise. Most people are pretty tired of using Windows XP at this point.

------
embeddedradical
the funniest part, more so than ineffective advertisements, is that that which
got everyone's panties in a bunch was happiness. down with happiness! heh

