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PC to Mac: Who's Square Now?

Microsoft's $300M ad campaign fights 'snooty' Apple

By Victoria Floethe, Newser User

Posted Oct 1, 2008 4:29 AM CDT

(Newser) – Apple's ads have long painted Microsoft users as square, but the PC has effectively stood up to the cool kids in the company's $300 million campaign, writes Farhad Manhoo in Slate. "Even if they are a little saccharine, the core message of Microsoft's ads—that Apple is snooty—should resonate," he writes. "That's because Apple is snooty." If you don't choose a Mac, Apple's self-affirming line goes, you're part of the lazy masses who don't stand up to the "IBM-Microsoft regime."

The message that PC users don't need software to define themselves—and that they can fire back at Apple for calling them clunkers—is a good beginning to a rebranding effort, Manhoo notes. Even if the ads could be funnier and more stylish—more like the Apple ads—Gates should feel he got in a good punch.

[Images (2)]

[Videos (1)]

[Quotes (4)]

Deepak Chopra announced in one of the new ads: "I am a PC and a human being. Not a human doing. Not a human thinking. A human being" in a Microsoft add. (WindowsVideos)

Gates says, "I'm a PC, and I wear glasses," in a Microsoft's comeback to Apple. (KRT Photos)

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I'm a PC (Microsoft). (shawsharacom)

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After two years of seeing Justin Long's Mac tweak John Hodgman's PC, don't you want to grab him by the hoodie and tell him to get a real job? -

"I am a PC and a human being. Not a human doing. Not a human thinking. A human being." - Deepak Chopra

In reality, I'm slightly embarrassed by the suggestion that I should be doing something great with my machine. I'm a PC, and I spend my days looking for silly things online. Am I using the wrong computer? -

"The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste." - Steve Jobs

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PC to Mac: Who's Square Now?