Microsoft Releases First Round of “I’m a PC” Commercials
Well there you have it. Microsoft did in fact ditch its Seinfeld / Gates campaign at least temporarily, in favor of a new run directly targeting Apple’s “I’m a Mac” ads. The new series of commercials features an eclectic bunch of people, all claiming to be PC users. The message in theory being that PCs don’t necessarily have to hide in pizza boxes to attract an interesting customer base. Instead, they are used by people in all walks of life and are “connected to over a billion others worldwide.” The slogan of this new campaign, “Life Without Walls,” is an effort to show viewers how versatile and capable PCs are - contrary to the notion conveyed in Apple’s ads. A few celebrity cameos within the first run of the “I’m a PC” series include William Gates himself, Mrs. and Mr. Eva Longoria and BGR pal Pharrell Williams. The commercials also features a number of Microsoft employees and offers an email address along with each one, including Mac commercial “PC guy” look-alike Sean Siler (sean@windows.com). While we think these new ads are fine and good, they’re still missing one of the key factors that makes Apple’s “I’m a Mac” commercials, and even it’s iPhone and other commercials so compelling. Features. Apple’s commercials use interesting scenarios and catchy themes to highlight actual capabilities of its products. In fact the key theme behind just about every “I’m a Mac” commercial is, “I can do this, this and this. PC can’t.” Here’s to hoping that this first “I’m a PC” run is just a little taste to get us used to the campaign and that eventually Microsoft might actually show us all of the great things about PCs as opposed to just telling us that “real people” use them. Hit the jump for two more runs of the commercial.
Tags: Advertising, Apple, Commercials, Mac, microsoft, PC, vista
I thought they were pretty cool, and I did something I usually never do. STOP A DVR FF TO WATCH!!! The only commercials I do that for are, yep you guess it, Mac vs. PC commercials.
The commercials did a nice job of showing the diversity of PC users, and the fact they arent all nerds in cheap suits.
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No commercial, no matter who’s in it, who’s format they copy, or even how clever they try to make it, will make up for the disaster that has been Windows Vista.
MS should focus on making a clever OS instead of commercials. The fact that they are copying Apple commercials, or copying anything from anyone else, is not surprising. MS should have been called Xerox.
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Evilhomer you make no sense. How is this copying Apple when they are doing the complete opposite? Did you actually read the article? Because if you had you would’ve noticed the spot where Zach says they should’ve done what Apple did and listed exactly what a PC can do. However, they did not and went their own route. And the fact that Apple still pays Microsoft money for every MAC sold or anything else with an OSX for that matter should be an indication of who’s in charge. Not to mention the fact that Apple has to mention the PC in ALL of their ads just to get their point across. Sad.
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oh yea, these commercials are hilarious and quite clever if I might add lol
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LOL the Borg pays these people to send a clear message, Am a PC and i get paid for it lol, a few of those people have been spotted saying clearly they’re Mac users, BGR, should know who am talking about
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Hey am A PC also where’s my Money????
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@keymaker: An Intel Mac is PC hardware, so it’s all good
The ads aren’t terrible, they make their point fairly clear…
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The best part of these commericals is the first 5 seconds of video #2, where “PC Guy” says, “Hello. I’m a PC, and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”
haha, so true…
Also, someone above me referred to MS as the Borg; think again. Who’s trying to assimilate who here?? Apple is with their inaccurate, but funny ads that people mindlessly accept as truth.
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I’m a Mac!
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Hey Keymaker, hypocrisy can go only so far. Case in point: Justin Long (the ugly Seth Green look-a-like) publicly admitted to never using a Mac before making these commercials. Even now that Apple has given him Macs, he admits to rarely ever using it!
It’s been a long time coming for Microsoft to defend itself. These commercials are exactly what I had hoped for. Showing the various facets of our world, all linked by the Windows PC. It appears that Microsoft wants to link people while Apple looks to put down the majority and segregate.
By the way I have 3 PCs and 2 Apples at home. I use each for its particular strengths. For the most part, I use Windows (whether its on PC hardware or on the Mac).
I’m Skeptic by nature, which means I don’t blindly close my eyes to defend a particular religion or Apple (it appears they are almost the same).
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Come on Pharrell!! How can you appear in the ad talking about I’m a PC, when Macs have been the systems you trust in becoming as prominent as you became in the music industry. There’s even a video here on BGR that confirms it and your gold iPhone. I guess enough money can make folks say strange things.
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I’m a PC, I have a ton of choices when I wanna buy hardware and I don’t think I’m cool because I use hardware with fruity logos on it.
Yeah, that bite in the apple might be Microsoft chomping their ideas hard but it’s not like Apple didn’t steal too. They stole their OS from Xerox didn’t they? Isn’t their current OS basicly FreeBSD or something? iPhone looks a lot like that Prada phone. Hardly the first phone with a friggin touch screen and mp3 capabilities. Only thing that made iPhone hot was that browser and now Google went and spoiled that for them by putting the webkit browser in Android.
Most people that claim Windows Vista is crap never used it. I’ve had Vista for months now and it hasn’t crashed once. I put a load on it too. I usually have Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and a ton of tabs on Firefox open at the same time.
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Wait a minute!!!
Hit the BGR Pal jump for the Pharrell interview and he specifically states that is a MAC fan “for sure”!!!!
BG Question: “So… Mac or PC?”
Pharrell Answer: “Oh! Mac FOR SURE…”
Hmm… Let Apple get a hold of that one!!
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Hey Evilhomer,
How will Apple make up for the disaster called iPhone? I now use mine simply as an MP3 player with all of its other gadgets. I had a Zune, but got rid of it because it sucked balls. The iPhone is far, far from competing with the Blackberry.
BTW, Vista has really improved over the past year. I got it the day it came out and shelved the hard drive until SP1 came out. Since then, it has really been solid. And now I’m starting to roll it out on our enterprise. We are a clothing manufacturer so we have 85 Mac, 230 XP, and 53 Vista installations (3 of them running on Mac hardware).
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Apple was not the first on the market with an MP3, yet most the the sheep, I mean the majority of the people assume the iPod was first (and many think its the only).
By the way, let me try to figure out Apple. They are trying to be “cool”. The only “Cool” people I see with iPods and Macs are really old people who are in denial of their age. they color their hair to hide the greys. The other people I see are stupid kids who cry to their parents for an Apple product. These kids are to naive to know what cool is.
Apple = Pretentious hollow people trying to fill a void.
Windows = Down-to-earth, get the job done and still capable of having fun, if not, even more fun.
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Ok, I’ll just say it. the only people that buy Apple are mindless idiots that need to feel cool by buying into expensive hardware and a Think Different, Think by thinking exactly like US, punchline. Yeah, I said punchline. It’s a joke. I could not count the amount of times I ran into an idiot with an iPhone and a sudden ego hard-on like it was viagra for their patheticly geeky lives.
My Crackberry Curve can do everything your iPhone can do and then some. I have mms and I’m on 4.5 so I can record some kick ass video.
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I guess you really like the apple commercials, but other than the few iphone commercials, apple commercials are usually just glitz and no substance.. the macbook and ipod commercials just show music videos or a gimmick, taking a laptop out of an envelope..
the I’m a Mac, I’m a PC commercials usually focus how Windows have so many errors, but not much on what a mac can do..
Their best features advertised are the apple stores and the genius bar..
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LOL, to all you Microsoft homers, get over yourselves. We realize you’re defensive because Apple/Mac is rapidly mopping up consumer shares, but why don’t you try and improve your product instead of simply covering the wound?
Everybody knows that Macs are easier to use, have fewer problems, and are just plain more fun! We do not have to worry about one of the 32048390482 new viruses out there every day, nor do we have to press “yes” every four seconds when our computer is trying to do something– Are you SURE you want to do this?…(4 seconds later)…Are you SUPER SURE WITH SUGAR ON TOP you want to do this?…
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Those “hi i’m a mac” commercials just put the icing on the cake. they show how big of a duchebaggery attitude those mac-loving users have.
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How did this get to the iPhone and Blackberry?Some of you have been in mom’s basement too long.
The rest of this post is for Likeabite, since he’s the dumbest kid in an already dumb room: One thing to clear up big guy. . .Apple doesn’t pay MS for anything it sells. This is a ridiculous assertion of which both the Obama and McCain campaigns would be proud. Now, MS did invest in Apple years ago, so they may still benefit from share appreciation. Think about it. . .if MS were “in charge,” would these ads have continued for as long as they have? Even the other tools here have grasped this, but somehow you have not. Apple isn’t paying anyone for OS X, and to make such a claim is demonstrative of your irrationality. . .you really do need help.
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I love “pc” because you get better hardware specs for the price, easier to get hacked programs, and its compatible with more hard/software.
That being said, pc commercials suck.
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I’m a Mac and I love these ad’s
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“I’m a PC and i have a beard!” LOL..hilarious and scary at the same time!
I like this…way to go Microsoft!
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Can Apple see into Msft future? lol, i think so, check this out made almost 2 years ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwn-0Vu71qo
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The only thing Apple computers are good for are photo/video editing and graphic design. PC’s are better at everything else. I do a lot of computer gaming, the only way to can play the high-end graphic games are on a PC.
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