Ever since Mac launched its Mac v. PC campaign the battle between Mac and PC has been going strong. I am a huge fan of this campaign and was interested in how PC would respond. Much to my disappointment, PC did not respond with a campaign that came anywhere close to the Mac campaign.
One of the newest PC commercials joins forces with Best Buy to tell the story of the journey of a girl that needs to buy a laptop. She begins her journey by describing her $1,000 budget and stopping by the Apple store to look at their laptops. Much to her dismay, the only laptop they that is under $1,000 is a 13" screen (because she wouldn't want to strain her eyes looking at Facebook for hours on such a small screen). So she heads over to Best Buy where she is able to get everything she needs to become a PC for under $1000. Okay, not only is this a boring commercial but I really feel the need to mention a small fact - BEST BUY SELLS APPLES. I guess in the poor economy being able to stay under a $1000 budget does sound appealing, but for all those youngsters that do not arm their PC with virus protection (or even use it, for that matter) this will quickly spiral into a much higher budget when the techies will have to be called in just to have their computer work again. I have personally been witness to a "Macboom" on campus in response to frustrated college students that were tired of their PCs failing at the most inconvenient times, but this is beside the point.
There are other aspects of the PC campaign that just do not work. Take, for example, the following two commercials:
Wow, aren't they cute? Thanks Kylie and Alexis for reminding all of those computer illiterates that as long as they have the intelligence level of a child from 4 to 7-years-old they too can use a PC! I hope those parental email controls are keeping Kylie from opening bad email.
The original "I'm a PC" TV spots were a bit better:
A great effort to build a PC brand community, but the ads fall short. I would really love this spot if it didn't seem like such a rip off of the Mac spots. Plus, the ad does not do much to break that PC stereotype set by the Mac campaign.
Maybe I am being biast... I am a Mac & a brand loyal member of the Apple community. I have had my Mac for almost 4 years now and it is still running strong. However, in the world of advertising I am still waiting for something big from PC that will make me say to people, "Yeah, I'm a Mac. I love my Mac, but being a PC is just as good." But while PC figures that out, Mac has moved onto being the Greenest Family of Notebooks.
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