Despite yesterday's rant, occasionally an commercial comes along that I actually, well, not "like", but find to be clever and non-annoying.
And I really like this new Windows commercial, with a woman shopping for a laptop with speed, a good keyboard, and 17-inch screen all under $1000. It really shows how most non-techie people actually shop for computers.
Sure, I'll spend time searching online, reading reviews, and virtually building different configurations before buying a new rig. I do this for all tech purchases except for those under about $40.
I'm always amazed at people wheeling a cart stacked with a computer, monitor, and printer out of Best Buy, because I don't think that is the "smartest" way to buy a computer. They probably could have found a better deal online buying the CPU one place and the monitor another, or in a smaller store, or with a custom build.
However, the truth is most people buying a computer don't really care about these things. They perhaps have one or two tasks they want their new computer to do (e.g., surf the net, word processing, digital photos), and really don't care about most of the other features. They're more concerned about the price, getting the computer right now to take home (as opposed to the month & hassle it took to finally receive my new rig), unpacking it and pressing "on". This commercial demonstrates that perfectly.
2 comments:
Well, my opinion on the content of the commercial is as easy to predict as the pope’s on condom use, so there’s no point it rehashing the Mac vs. PC debate. But I do wonder why you would praise a commercial expressly because it shows people making uninformed decisions. Yes, as you say, what’s depicted is true to life. Does that make it admirable?
This is also a weird strategy for MS. They don’t sell computers, so why would they care which one Lauren buys? As long as she doesn’t buy a Mac, the benefit for MS is the same no matter which PC she buys. I’d have preferred a straight-up attack ad instead of this weird soft-pedal approach.
And observers have criticized this ad for breaking the cardinal rule that the market leader in any category should never mention the #2 (or #3, etc.) product because it just adds legitimacy to it. When you’re #1, mentioning #2 signals customers that #2 makes you lose sleep at night. Does Coca-Cola run ads telling you not to drink Dr. Pepper? I think not. Number 2 can mention #1 — heck, Avis designed a whole ad campaign around “We’re #2, we try harder” — but the other way around, it’s a sign of weakness.
Memo to MS (using yet another ad slogan): “Never let ’em see you sweat.”
I find this ad amusing because she apparently shops the Mac store for one-half second. If you watch the ad closely, I'm pretty sure the same guy who is walking by the front of the store when she goes in the store is still walking by the front of the store when she comes out of the store... meaning she had approximately enough time to walk in, get out of camera range and walk back out again.
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