The latest Mac vs. PC ad was on CNN.com yesterday and this morning.
Love:
• Context awareness. News article on CNN! So clever!
• Politeness. Why yes, I will click to play with sound, thank you for asking.
• Justin Long. Yesplz.
In light of the new Microsoft ad, I can't help but see the PC character pulling out his Clown Club membership card. It's not much of a stretch to think of Jerry standing in for Justin and Bill for John Hodgman in all the Apple spots. Clearly, Microsoft and CP+B played right into the personality Apple created for them. So now I'm wondering: Is it smart to accept when your competitor has defined you and decide to go with, not against, that persona? It's one thing to accept your consumer's perceptions for better or for worse, but should you keep giving your competition more ammo against you?
Maybe the next Seinfeld spot will clear up this massive confusion.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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4 comments:
Mac v. PC ads also took over the home page of the NY Times (as they've done in the past). Look for it.
I think you make a valid and interesting point about how a brand should react when their brand has become the butt of someone else's joke. This particular case reminded me of a case study in Fallon's book "Juicing the Orange."
The British car Skoda faced a similar problem and even though the Skoda evolved Brits still thought of it as the German POS it was in the past. People were embarrassed to be seen in a Skoda. With the tag "It's a Skoda. Honest" they poked fun at themselves and changed perceptions too.
So maybe there is some hope for Windows, but they are going to have to be brutally honest with themselves.
The Skoda commercial: http://www.juicingtheorange.com/
I agree miss J9, they will need to be honest with themselves. I just read this article and it reminded me of this entry.
http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=828
My mac won't turn on. It's supposed to last at least 5 years not 4 weeks. aaahhhh!
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