Gold! Gold! Gold! Two well known brands, somewhat stagnant and somewhat desperate getting into bed for an ad. If you haven’t heard yet, Microsoft is paying $300 million to create an ad campaign starting Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. They plan to create the campaign around the slogan ‘Windows, Not Walls’. Apparently, Jerry is receiving $10 million for the job. Not bad!
It is obvious that Microsoft is responding at long last to the highly successful ‘Get a Mac’ ads, which I’m sure you know about. The ads will attempt to change people’s views about Windows Vista from the current scathing criticism of the product and to let people know that it works now (like it should have at launch. Boy did Microsoft screw that up). I admit, there is nothing wrong with Windows, but from personal experience I have found that Macs are easier to use as a personal computer. In my opinion, Windows belong in the office and Macs belong at home. It’s as easy as that.
Microsoft’s history of ad campaigns doesn’t set a very high benchmark for the new campaign to reach. The ‘Realizing Potential’ campaign (created in 2005) was so forgettable that I had to check Wikipedia to check what Microsoft’s last ad campaign was. For the record, the ad featured a series of deep and profound phrases that were so tenuously linked to anything to do with Microsoft that it took until the logo appeared for people to realize what the ad was for. Even after that appeared I still found myself wondering what they were trying to sell. I liked the tone of the ads, but they failed to sell me something. Note to Microsoft: try to sell something in this new campaign.
The huge hurdle Microsoft have to overcome is the known fact that Microsoft and Windows aren’t cool! Nobody from my generation gets excited about a Microsoft product release. Apple on the other hand have the infamous self driven free PR machine that I am a part of. Even though nobody my age (excluding me) jumped out of their chairs when the iPhone reached Australia, it was discussed and people knew about it. Microsoft just don’t have this appeal to the younger generation who are moving increasingly towards the Apple platform.
Using Bill Gates is a mistake in my opinion. Yes, he is rich, yes he is famous but does he make you want to use Windows? “Look kids! A giant security center!” Bleh! Seinfeld doesn’t really connect with the younger generation either. So when it comes down to it, Microsoft is failing to appeal to those who will be buying the PCs of Macs in the future. Apple succeeds in advertising their product so bluntly and unashamedly in the ‘Get a Mac’ campaign that everyone knows what they are selling and why they should buy it. For Microsoft to aim at countering these humorous yet effective ads, they need to do the same. They need to use the personalities of Seinfeld and Gates to create a tone of “Wow Vista is better then I heard it was” without making it looked forced.
In the end, this campaign will prove very little. At most it will prove that Microsoft feels compelled to compete with a certain company that is succeeding at swaying the personal computer buyer. What Apple fails at is what Microsoft excels at: business. So Microsoft, don’t try to sell the unsellable to those who don’t want to buy it, stick with what you’re good at and don’t feel pressured to fight Apple. Go with the flow and fix Vista, then you’ll sell computers regardless of an ad campaign. It’s worked before, right?
Posted by James Wilson 
James and the Giant Apple 