adjust your shorts?

Any one else seen this commercial?

I found it hilarious... and I want to see it again.

best,
mike

I really admired the way the humour was directed within rather than making fun of someone else's efforts.

The idea that even Mr. Gates has to "put his shoes on like the rest of us" seems like a great way to emphasize the humanistic qualities of a guy who could imagine open architecture free market development (I know, I know, there have been lots of controversial exceptions to that statement)

My Mother taught me the genius of guys like Bob Hope and Johnny Carson who made great comedy while remaining positive and squeaky clean. I've long admired Jerry Seinfeld for the very same reason.

I thought it was the ulimate response to the funny yet very mean spirited ads Brand "X" is using.

Hat's off Microsoft! Job well done.

best regards,
mike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afR5J7eskno

jerry got $10 million reportedly... nice pay day

is that what your on about, or there's more?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdVoc8FXhz0

here's an interesting one... although they did another one featuring the hairy one to "total eclipse of the heart"
the main character is rendered, as they couldn't find enough banana's to pay a real one

heres ones from years ago.. but I remember them like yesterday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8CTscW3dpI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqBa7eay6Fo

right I'm off to buy some carpet freshener + some lemonade.. (not really shops shut 40 minutes ago)

papa.. it was run in an NFL game also? or the super bowl? as you can tell I'm well clued up.. what you mean john madden don't play any more?

for that , $300 mill to run it.

Job well done.

Hello,

I'd say it was a "Jobs well done." As in Steve Jobs. I heard a MS PR spokesperson say, about the new ad campaign, that it was due to a "particularly vocal competitor." The Apple campaign has been very effective in selling the "Mac is cool" message. Steve Jobs is a product and marketing genius (think iPOD and Pixar). Steve Ballmer (who runs MS) is a stiff. Without Apple pushing the envelope we'd still be sitting in front of PS2's looking at a character-based interface. I don't think the Apple campaign and Mac's increased sales has hurt MS. MS has decided to present a more "human" company persona to counter Apple's advertising. It hasn't helped that Vista is a no "pizazz" product. Do you know that Intel with 90,000 employees world-wide has announced that they are not upgrading their gazillion machines to Vista? They're going to wait for W7 and see what it brings. Its lost sales like this that cost MS big bucks, not someone buying their kid a Mac notebook instead of a ThinkPad.

I wouldn't characterize the Apple campaign as "mean spirited." After all this is business. If MS could put Apple out of business they would. And Bill Gates would spit on Jobs’ grave. Macs don't really offer more functionality than equivalent PC systems but the Mac fans believe it does and the Apple ads have increased the perception. More quickly than advertising MS can remedy the situation by giving us a "killer" OS. Unfortunately what ever "killer" means to MS won't be the features we need (better real-time communication with the sound hardware, hard drive streaming and much better use of the multiple cores at the OS level) it will be something much more "happy" and "friendly" and "Mac-like" I'm afraid.

GK

Steve Ballmer (who runs MS) is a stiff

Steve Ballmer a stiff???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc

George, people go on about jobs.. for me.. it's about 2 others

John Lasseter... pixar and Steve Wozniak..apple..

i remember seeing the first pixar luxo anim before apple were involved and other things like red's dream / tin soldier etc.

George Lucas , pretty cool also.. .the films obviously , video games etc.

imagine if IBM hadn't allowed clones etc. and it was a closed shop like apple ... wonder how different things would be.

beagle that video still scares me.

one thing remains and won't be beaten.. the commodore 64 is the worlds best selling computer , even after all these years

the uk's answer to Jobs and Gates. Sir Clive Sinclair, he's a legend here, maybe not there

Marah,
That's a very astute realization of how I feel about those brand "X" ads. I couldn't really put it into words... you did a great job of helping me focus. Thanks.

When I watch the new Windows advertisement all I see is two really crazy smart people having fun and being entertaining while doing their part to keep the Windows product at "top of mind". It's refreshing.

best regards,
mike

ORIGINAL: mudgel

I have an acquaintance who owns a very high profile High end Audio store in Australia. If he ever hears one of his sales staff 'dis' a competitors product (to a prospective client/customer) its good bye go look for another job. See it doesn't take any skills to rubbish the competition but it can take quite some expertise to legitimately promote a product or service. totally agree with his philosophy on that subject.

well if he was the director of where I used to work , that specialised in mac for audio / video.. 75% of the staff would have been sacked for slating pc's.. I used to go to work into "cult of apple" every day.. what's more funnier was one of the directors was also on a show as a "computer expert" yet I ended up giving him the answers to all the PC related questions.. and he'd palm them off like he knew, the last time he asked.. I gave him totally the wrong answers, my leaving gift

wasn't MS a share holder of apple after a certain disagreement? Jobs stuck with computers... Gates stuck with O/S's .. although it was interesting with other things like mp3 etc.

A friend told me a joke years ago.. why have mac's got only 1 mouse button.. coz most of the users have limp wrists.. whatever that's supposed to mean

Has anyone the other fake 'Mac' ads on youtube? There are some pretty funny ones. I think the best one is setup like the typical apple ad, the cool/slacker mac guy is standing around being smug, while the chubby geeky PC guy is standing there. And then, here comes a big tall body builder "hunky" type who introduces himself as a PC ("Hi I'm a Dell XPS"). There's a little manhandling of Mr Apple-Smugs. It's pretty funny.

There's a whole bunch. The best part is that Mac-buyers don't realize that Apple sold them out big time when they decided to go on a full scale consumer marketing attack. There was an article on CNN.COM about the declining quality of Mac/Apple manufacturing and quality - but it doesn't matter because people admit that they'll keep buying it anyway.

The mean spiritedness of the Apple ads wasn't only that they emphasize the competitor's faults. The one constant refrain across the entire campaign has the characters in the ads identifying themselves not simply as users of the two product brands, but explicitly as the products themseleves: I'm a Mac; I'm a PC. In the coded conventions of advertising, the PC guy is a nerdy schleppy and schlumpy schlemiel, inept both socially (not cool) and technologically (not smart) with zero sex appeal, while the Mac guy is a cool and smart dude on all counts, like a Maxim-reading Axe deodorant user.

Most ads want you to identify with or aspire to the user being portrayed. But in creating this unity between the products and users, the Mac ads don't simply put down the other brand's product, they put down the other brand's users, who they want to convert -- and flatter their own. It's not like they're showing us two more or less equal consumers, one of whom happens to be using a lesser product, and who is then enlightened and brought up to speed by the the other one -- try this computer, try this soap, try this fiber-rich cereal. In those ads, Apple is selling the Mac as a lifestyle symbol, not too different from a fashion accessory (which is what the iPod is as well.) I think the ads disresepct both those already using Macs and those they want to cross over.

It's very cult of personality. Very Steve Jobs.

i think you nailed this. i agree 100%. the ads are very disrespectful and i am amazed how many people are attracted to/by such shallowness. unfortunately image means everything to many these days. too many :/