'I am a PC' campaign by Microsoft targets Apple's market
19 Sep 2008
Microsoft has decided to cancel its much publicised Gates-Seinfeld ad campaign that was initiated to spruce up the image of Windows Vista.
The company clarified that a new advertising strategy was devised which aims to target Apple's ''Get a Mac'' adverts directly. The creatives for Microsoft are done by Miami ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
Jerry Seinfeld in Microsoft ads will be substituted by new celebrities like Eva Longoria, author Deepak Chopra and singer Pharrell Williams. Seinfield was the part of the only first two ads of $300 million ad campaign.
Mind-body medicine expert Deepak Chopra says in the new ad, "I am a PC and I am a human being. Not a human doing. Not a human thinking. A human being."
'Life without walls' was the first ad of the new series and features multiple devices like the Microsoft desktops, notebooks, and several handheld devices.
The second ad of the new series will have various celebs declaring ''I am a PC'' which will counter Apple's portrayal of PC's as outdated and stuffy. The "I'm a PC" spot opens with Microsoft employee Sean Siler standing against a white background and channeling the frustrated "PC" character from Apple's "Get a Mac" campaign, which has been bashing Microsoft and its flagship Windows Vista operating system since 2006.
"Hello. I'm a PC. And I've been made into a stereotype," Siler says with a wave.
Later, Microsoft also plans to introduce its own employee Sean Miller, who bears resemblance to Apple's PC guy, as part of its new advertisement series.
The 60-second spot, will see heavy rotation on prime-time network television and on the Web, has a series of testimonials by Microsoft employees (including Bill Gates), ordinary people and celebrities in diverse settings around the world who proclaim, "I'm a PC."
The spot closes with the tag line "Windows: Life without Walls," which Microsoft tested globally for a year, said Bill Veghte, senior vice president of Microsoft's online services and Windows business group. It's part of the company's $300 million marketing blitz, including print, Web, television and outdoor advertising.