MS pours some more petrol on the ever burning flamewars.

This ad has been hitting the web today... and I'm sure its gonna poke the fires.... with lines like "I'm not cool enough for a Mac".

However I will have to hand it to MS, this is a much improved advertising campaign compared to the seinfeld/gates thingo last year. And I reckon it will work, esp with the current state of the economy.

The reality is Apple doesn't play in the budget computer market... (just like sony, alienware, voodoo etc), & I don't think there is anyway they can compete in that market successfully. So its always gonna cost more for a Mac.

As it is much more difficult to place a $ value on the less tangible things like personal preference, weight, size & design, the debate will for ever rage over the "value" or "apple tax".

At the end of the day, the most important thing is that people get the computer they want and that it does what they need... doesn't matter if its a pc or mac.

But I doubt this will stop those on either side of the fence from hurling abuse... and to those people let it begin!
a

 

I think it's a move in the right direction, i.e. it has an element of humour, which is something that was lacking in all previous ads by Microsoft and is in abundance in ads by Apple. I wouldn't mind seeing an ad war, especially if people can get a good laugh out of them. Hope they release more soon.

 

i didn't like the ad, she shopped a laptop as if it was a handbag.

 

I wasn't impressed with the ad, it seemed to scripted for an "unscripted" shopping spree. "I'm not cool enough for Apple" has nothing to do with her shopping and sticks out like a poor thumb. Talking about how the "looks" of a $699 17" notebook is drawing her in also seems a bit over the top. As a recent convert I can honestly say I've never been attracted to the looks of a cheap notebook. I give MS props for trying but this isn't much of a step up from their other ads, including the "WOW" campaign for Vista.

 

The same can be said about the Apple ads. Same marketing BS.

 

I liked the ad, even if it may have seemed too "scripted" at times. It had an interesting premise and caught your attention for the right reason, unlike the mindnumbing, vague, bland, grayness of the WOW ad campaign for Vista, and the bizzare world of churros and such that the Gates and Seinfeld ad's brought the world.

This is most likely how average people who could care less about what specific Core 2 Duo processor they get in their laptop buy a computer, from a retail store. Unlike us techies who read tons of reviews, watch unboxings, etc., they could care less about that sort of thing.

 

That commercial is dumb. You can find a computer under a $1000 from the Apple store.

Buy the $599 mac mini and spend $180 for a 22" monitor somewhere else and spend $49.99 at the apple store for the aluminum keyboard and $40 bucks somewhere else for a logitech mouse. There ya go, that'll be all around $900 and $100 still left to eat for 2 weeks.

Edit: Ok I missed the part that she saids she wanted a laptop with a 17" screen.

 

MS has a huge uphill battle trying to find a marketing campaign to compete with Mac. Good Luck.

 

I really hope that this microsoft's commercial hurts Apple, I'd actually prefer it this way. Because if this campaign actually works, maybe Apple will lower their prices and more people will buy Apple products.

And I'm hoping they drop the prices so that I can hold to buy Apple only, lol.

Also whats the point of the 17" screen on that hp when its only 1400x900? I would just much rather go the mac mini combo with a 22" screen way. That way, it'll still last me 5-8 years without the os slowing down, getting viruses, or having people secretly stealing your ip address to traffic kiddy pr0n on windows (actually true story of someone I know that was a victim of this for several years).

 

Yeah, this ad didn't work out. Okay, here's my take. Microsoft is advertising "price" rather than overall experience. It's cheezy and says nothing about the customer more than, "Hey I'm a cheapskate ". What's not being "cool enough" have to do with not finding a Mac in her price range? Stupid. I actually like the MS ad with the little 4 year old asian girl that edits pics on her PC and emails them to her parents. It's not only cute but it sells the experience, although not a true reality when it comes to using a PC and Windows.

This is exactly what Apple does in their ads is sell the experience and that's exactly what you get when you buy a Mac or any Apple product is a good experience.
It doesn't make any difference if the economy is in a recession, people are still buying expensive goods, cars, going to the movies, going on trips so not everybody is a "cheapskate ".

 

http://i.gizmodo.com/5187031/lauren-we-have-someone-whod-like-to-talk-to-you

 

1440x900 on a 17" screen looks really good dependng on which screen you get. The quality of screen far outweighs the resolution IMHO.
And I have seen a LOT of notebooks and LCDs.
I'm actually not fond of 1920x1200 unless you get a REALLY nice screen as it looks shoddy unless the quality level is high.

That being said, macs generally do ship with nice screens... but then again those HP screens are quite decent given the price.

You just told us that you don't know much about internet security or about what happened to your friend.

More than likely what you meant is your friend went somewhere he shouldn't and his system was compromised and used without his permission or knowledge.

This type of attack is just as easily perpetrated on mac users. Indeed its easier.

Less users = less desire to attack = less attacks = less stories
MacOSX does not get the number of attackers so it isn't tested.

In the "Pwn to Own" contest, hackers compete to hack into and take control of a laptop to win it. For the second year in a row, the macbook was the first hacked in record time. The Vista/Win7 laptops lasted AGAIN almost until the end with only *nix systems being harder.

This year was special for the MacOSX as it gave COMPLETE CONTROL to the record-breaking hack.

MacOSX is NOT SECURE.
That's right... its weaker than Vista security-wise.
If apple ever becomes more than a niche market and lowers its "mac tax" as you desire, its going to have to actually start dealing with attackers and software designed to beat it... and quite frankly its currently horrible at it. Worse, its users think they are invulnerable.

I completely agree that PCs and Macs becoming real competitors is good for BOTH PC and Mac users. I completely agree that lower prices on Macs is a wonderful thing.

However, IF those things happen, Apple is going to have put money into security and Mac users will be needing to shed their blinders.

 

http://blog.intego.com/2009/03/19/hacker-contest-mac-hacked-in-10-seconds/

you forgot to add that the hacker developed this hack a while back.

I could careless for any ad about MS vs Apple. If it helps drive down the prices then we, the customer, win in the long run.

 

Basically what happened was actually it was my cousin's friend who used a pc to browse the net. Anyway he clicked on some banner where you could play a free game and eventually found out that link/advertisement was the blame. He was the average american as this advertisement would portray him as, and he was a devoted catholic and was devastated that his machine was trafficking such things. Actually he knows a little more than the average american person would. Anyway he switched over to a mac several years ago and not once he complained that anything slowed down or he had viruses that shutdown his os or not able to open anything or filled up his hdd's making things crash.

As for the 17" screens, wouldnt you rather have a 22 or a 24" screen from a mac mini as a desktop solution. My point is that she's an average american and doesnt know much about software or hardware differences. I would much rather have someone with little knowledge about computers to buy a mac and just be headache free for the next 6-8 years or even 10.

My mother is computer illiterate. I mean she knows NOTHING about computers let alone even touched a computer until 3 years ago. I bought her a macbook and it still works perfectly fine to this day. I only setup her email once and taught her how to browse the web, use the isight camera and thats it.

To this day she never asks me anything about osx tiger and just uses it, closes the laptop when shes done and wake it back up when she wants to check her email or surf the net.

I ordered my dad a dell laptop... too many times have I reinstalled windows because he moved or deleted something, blue screen of death, I had to come over literally once a month to fix something under windows!! And yes it had viruses up to ying yang.

Funny part is that my dad gave up on his dell and actually hogged my mothers macbook until he bought one himself.

Anyway a 17" screen I would assume it should at least have a 1680x1050 resolution if 1920x1200 is overkill. I think 1440x900 looks stretched out on a 17" screen.

As for the pwn to own contest, yes safari is vulnerable to attacks and this was discussed heavily on arstechnica. But then if a hacker takes that much time to hack into safari, they could do the same for IE (especially with activeX that can have thousands of trojan and worms to enter easily) and firefox.

My point is if a hacker takes his time he could hack into any browser. Anyway everyday life most people probably wont get hacked pc or mac. But having a mac is that much secure overall especially with virtually no known viruses.

Also a pc user can use firefox and be safer than IE but the average american doesnt know that. Trust me when I was at compusa this average american dude asked what sony vaio he should buy since compusa was closing out with some deals. Anyway I told him get this certain sony model as its about the same price as buying online and told him to install firefox. He was like.. whats firefox!?!~ Do I need it?? I remember thinking to myself.. uh oh...


Also I noticed a lot of pc users use the myth, less users= less viruses. This is not true. Macs been around for over 20 years now, you would think by now at least one of the thousands of groups of hackers would come up with a virus to devastate the mac community and would have infected millions of macs by now. Sure in a contest you could probably hack anyone but in real world its probably less likely to happen with pcs or macs.

 

why should someone who is buying a mac care about why there are less viruses on macs anyway?

also,did the hacker "hack" safari 4 beta?or it was the old version?

 

Dont get me wrong, I'm actually all for this commercial. I hope it does something to apple's reputation on pricing and hopefully they lower their prices.

I have my eye on the mac pro xeon desktops and at $3299 entry its giving me a hard time for me to pick one up. I actually want the 2.66GHz 8 core model thats on my sig but thats $4600 with tax and student discount!~

A 17" unibody mbp is what I want if I go the other route away from the mac pro desktops but those are pretty pricey as well. I'm thinking about getting a student adc membership for $99 bucks and buying either a mac pro or a 17" mbp with the one time in your life 20% student adc discount.

I'm so lucky that I have a brother who loves dell and doesnt care for apple. I can use his student id and sign up for the student adc get the 20% off the mbp and probably use mine to get another 20% off the mac pros. My little devious plan in the near future, lol.

If you really think about it, this commercial gives apple new ideas and new approach to bettering apple.

 

lol, that cracked me up.

 

^it is cheapo move,but somehow right-how can you judge something w/o using it?

 

Actually its not the same BS. Apple ads are obviously scripted and not passed off as anything else.

 

Hey I guess Mitch can kill 2 birds with one stone. Meet and hook up with the cute red head + give back the good name of Apple.

 

No. Their users do all the BSing for them

 

Of course, Mac OS X is not invulnerable to viruses, it simply hasn't been targeted yet. However, to say that the MacBook was first hacked is a means of saying Mac OS X is most secure is not really the case. Let's analyze the whole Pwn to Own contest; Windows is hacked so often, what fun is it to a hacker to hack that in a contest? Obviously, they will choose to attack OS X or Linux, which isn't regularly attacked.

Also, the exploit was a website that a user had to click on.

So I don't see how using "Pwn to Own" is proof that OS X is less-secure. Windows XP and Vista were subsequently hacked. Again, I am not saying Mac OS X is more secure, or less secure, but Pwn to Own is not a means of saying whether it is secure or not. The whole "Pwn to Own" thing, in my opinion, is basically a gathering of hackers demonstrating that they can hack any OS, and that's already known.

 

The ad pretty much markets PC's as being cheap and in this economy, there will probably be a lot of people that would be drawn to this ad. If you actually look up the computer she bought you can see that it is very poorly spec. Here it is actually:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9166635&st=HP+17+inch+laptop&type=product&id=1218041148373

All in all, it's just marketing. Apple has been doing the same thing for years.

 

Your argument is flawed. In the PtO contest, the hackers are getting PAID for any flaws they can find. And if Windows is so easily hacked, then why didn't they go for that first. Can't find the quote but it said that the Mac was easier to exploit because it doesn't make you jump through the hoops that Windows and Unix do. The reason the Mac fell is because it was the "low hanging" fruit, mostly because of Safari.

 

Very generous of Mitch.

This is the part that gets me somewhat wary of his offer. It's obvious that he's a huge, and probably biased, fan of Apple.

With regards to the original topic, it's definitely a better ad than the Gates/Seinfeld one that was aired last year. As mentioned, it felt scripted, but definitely more casual than the previous ads.

 

True that. But when you get down to it, it's not really a fair comparison either. Instead of comparing that (wild guess) $2000 (when new) Mac to a $1000 HP, they should have then compared what $2k would have gotten her on the Windows side. No doubt it would have beaten the specs of the Mac with $ left over.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pwn2own-mac-hack,2254-2.html

The Mac was not actually hacked in seconds. Even Miller himself is upfront that people interpreting that way are falling for Hollywood tricks and propaganda. These hacks are prepared and tested for days on end before the contest to make sure that they work and they can be implemented quickly. If anything, the quick hacking of the Mac just shows that it's an easy platform to program for, whether for good or bad.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pwn2own-mac-hack,2254-6.html

Interestingly, despite his successful hacking of the Mac, his primary computer is still a MacBook and he still recommends that the average person should be buying a Mac.

I don't doubt that safety through obscurity has been a major benefit for Mac over the years. Miller thinks this security blanket will remain for a few more years at least. In the meantime, Apple is thankfully not standing still. The major vulnerabilities in OS X, poor NX bit support and memory randomization are being addressed. It's already partially implemented in Leopard and will be fully added in Snow Leopard where the 64-bit address space will really make things random. As such, OS X's security should be significantly tightened up before OS X emerges from obscurity. The implication is that OS X is the safest OS now and will hopefully remain so.

And about the commercial itself, I think it's funny that Microsoft paid for an ad with the line "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person". And what do "not cool" people do? As the rest of the ad demonstrates: buy a computer with Windows of course.

Maybe Microsoft should have edited things better.

 

A Turion X2 2.1 Ghz? What. A. Piece. Of. ####. Nothing like 4-year-old technology to play around with. This is like someone shopping for a car with the main requirements that it have four wheels.

Apple does have something to worry about and that's on desktops. I just bought a cheap ($569) Core i7 2.66 Ghz Desktop and this thing screams. It actually runs Vista quite well and my complaints about Vista on one of my Dell laptops are gone. The only thing is that you practically need a supercomputer to run Vista along with the anti-malware products that I like to have on any Windows platform.

On a laptop, I find Vista to be a dog - even on my MacBook Pro. Mac OSX runs quite nicely on the laptop.

In general, I buy Dell for desktops and Apple for laptops - I like Mac OSX.

 

This ad was great. The "I not cool enough to own a Mac" line was a stroke of genius. I was able to figure out the sarcasm in it as were the average Joes sitting around me. Really, not a lot of people even know what a CPU is and the ones that think they know think it is the big box that hooks to your monitor. In today's economy this ad strikes gold. The fact that it has HDMI, makes it better than a Apple.

 

Did she really get the laptop for free? Ms, please hire more people to do your ads!!!!(including me)

 

LOL, yes, actually many people did-they recruited average people from postings on craigslist and Facebook among others. They claimed that they would just be doing market research, and didn't tell the participants until the end of their shopping trips that they could be in an ad. Pretty cool if you ask me!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j21_czE2W3qfqjnCXv_pZEimzGNQD975VIA80

 

"I am not cool enough" is like an ad for apple.It kinda says that macs are for cool people...also,anyone notice what car was she driving?

EDIT: BTW,you can get macs relatively cheap- I got my mb 2.4 from ebay for 1099-cashback.

 

Turns out the ads is a fake
No real surprise there. Although I'm surprised at the lack of detail the ad agency went too. To have the same guy walking by the apple store is just bad.
oh and for the hacking contest. People should go read what the one guy who hack both the Mac and Windows systems said.
All that contest shows is that hackers don't want to part with a good windows exploit for such small $$$... esp when said hack could earn them 10x the $$ in the real world. As there is no black market and no $$$ for Mac hacks it makes financial sense to go after that first.
a

 

Given the ginourmous response to this commercial, both from fans saying it's good to Apple fans going completely nuts over it I say it was a success.

Pretty much says it all. Really.

 

HAHA!!! The Ad was not idiot proof!!!!!

 

just 1 little thing-MS says that "Lauren" is "real" and not an actress...FAIL!

 

I think the ad is a good idea. Microsoft's play in that they help provide affordable computers for the average person is a good call. It brings to mind Bill Gate's ultimate mission when Microsoft was first started: One computer in every home.

Think about it, that was 1980.

 

A few other things about the ads and this one specifically. If you responded to a listing asking for you to shop for a computer for "marketing research" but they gave you cameras and a crew to film you doing it, would you not figure out they were going to make a commercial with it. Lauren, being an actor, surely would be smart enough to figure this out and hamed it up a bit.

I thought it was funny when she first goes into Best Buy and sees the first computer and uses the Vista slogan "WOW!!". She also goes into detail about the looks of the system, specs and price which all screams "script" rather than simply documenting a purchase. If the video was just to serve as proof of her purchase there would be no need to go into all the detail and "excitement" she showed. If you watch the video again you will not only notice the bald guy but also that several takes were used in slightly different spots at the same location and later pieced together.

 

I'd like to see her get decent warranty support when her laptop breaks down in 6 to 9 months. You aren't just buying the hardware when you buy apple, you're buying the OS and support as well, which in my personal experience has been the best I've ever experienced with any computer manufacturer.
Besides, if you want to buy a truly overpriced computer, buy alienware or voodoo.

 

True, Lauren turns out to be an actress as well as a person who just graduated college (why didn't MS weed her out-FAIL on that part, they really should have made the commercial "nitpick" proof) and perhaps there is a question of whether she actually went into the Apple store (cool looking place btw, always wanted to go to one to check it out, ) but many are noticing that there is a definite difference in the position of the sunlight from when she walked in and when she walked out, suggesting that perhaps they hired people to walk around in front of the store.

Also, regardless of her "actress" status, why are we getting caught up in her title? Who knows how well her acting career's been since she graduated. She's also a Office Manager so it's clearly not her primary job at the moment. Any recent college grad would want a new computer after 4-5 (or more ) years worth of heavy wear and tear on their current laptop and aren't exactly flush with money. Now granted, she could have "played it up a bit" to the cameras, but how would she have known that she would have been chosen to be on the Ad?-remember they picked many people and documented their experiences.

They should really come up with a "How we did it" behind the scenes thing for this ad.

 

I spent about 8 hours removing malware from a computer this week. This does remind me of some of the niceties of the Mac.

 

I am going to just sit back and enjoy this nice fire. . .

My feet were a little cold earlier so.

OG Poster hit the nail on the head, or whoever it was. Apple doesn't really play in the budget computer market at all. And the PC she got is about as budget as budget gets. I feel bad for her really.

If the ad was real and Microsoft gave her $1000 to get any computer she wanted, what do you think the results would have been? I would be surprised (if the ad was real) if she did not ask if she could just get a 13" MacBook instead of a computer with features she didn't need.

 

From a completely business perspective, the ad is very prudent and relevant to current times. I agree completely with what the article said.

As far as I can tell, this mentality (people just not willing to spend, opulence abhorred), will be here to stay for quite some time. Apple will be taking a significant hit.

Yes, the ad says MS computers are "cheap". But "cheap" will be "in" for quite a while now.

BTW, people who are cribbing about dell and windows security, buy a dell preloaded with linux form your grandma. Once linux is configured, its just as easy to use as windows for the "grandma" crowd.

 

again,the phrase "I am not cool enough" ruins the ad-it says

"macs are for cool people"

or

"cool people buy macs"

or

that she is not cool...

though I agree,apple must lower the prices,but this kind of ad making fails.IS IT THAT DIFFICULT TO MAKE PROPER AD EXPLAINING WHY WINDOWS IS BETTER?

 

Apparently it is. :wink:

 

The average person will take "I am not cool enough" as mockery or AKA big time sarcasm. If you are a big fan of Mac you might not get it. It seems that a lot of people on this thread are butt hurt over this ad and I think it is funny.

 

Oh yah, speaking of flame war, Apple started it a long time ago. This is the first ad that MS ever put out that even had anything Apple in it.

 

The point may be to point out that "Mac = cool" is not true, but the sarcasm only works because it relies on the common belief that "Mac = cool". Whether it's justified or not, Microsoft's ad is acknowledging that the general public views Apple's products as cool.

Personally, this type of ad trying to point out that PCs are cheaper, therefore buy PCs, should be something that PC makers make. A Microsoft ad supporting Windows should be pointing out the wide Windows software ecosystem and the number of unique, critical programs that you won't find on Mac. Therefore, Mac users should be buying a copy of Windows for BootCamp or virtualization use in addition to OS X. It shouldn't matter to Microsoft whether people buy Macs or PCs as long as they buy a copy of Windows too. Besides, Microsoft will actually make more money getting Mac users using Windows in addition to OS X than getting them to buy PCs, since a Mac user buying Windows will be more likely to buy a retail copy of Windows, which are priced higher, than the OEM copies that come with PCs.

 

You are missing the point. The ad is not working on convincing people that windows is better. It is working on "macs are hell lot expensive, good or not" and "can you really afford to spend $$$ on a laptop in this economy when reasonable alternatives are available for far less"

 

i just saw this commercial and i can't believe how stupid it is. at least the mac vs pc ads have some element of humor in them, even if they are sometimes off-base... but this is just a blatantly poor shot at apple computers. the whole 3 second going-into-the-apple-store scene is so forced and scripted that it sticks out like a sore thumb.