Microsoft's Lauren ad faked say bloggers
Accusations are flying within the blogosphere that Microsoft simply faked its latest ad portraying a real buyer named Lauren shopping for a 17" notebook under $1000, who supposedly couldn't find what she was looking for in the Apple Store.
Bloggers forensically studied the advertisement in slow motion, pointing out that the shots of Lauren entering and leaving the store appear to have been shot all at once; the surrounding people walking past in both shots appear in the same place. This must mean, they conclude, that Lauren never entered the store looking for the $1000 17" notebook, and that the ad simply included a scene at "the Mac store" to offer Apple some additional free advertising.
Of course, it doesn't really matter if Lauren walked into the store and spent any length of time there. The entire ad was contrived by definition. Lauren wasn't given money to find the ideal computer for her needs, she was given a specific budget and told to find a specific hardware feature that Apple does not carry.
Apple only sells one 17" notebook with a high quality, full resolution screen. No PC maker ships anything comparable to the MacBook Pro for under $1000. As the ad points out however, there are plenty of low quality, low resolution 17" screens available from PC makers trying to dangle low prices in front of consumers in the overcrowded, low differentiation market for low end, generic PCs that ship with Windows Vista.
Why would Microsoft's production company waste its time following Lauren around the Apple Store with a camera, when they knew full well that the PC definition they'd cooked up wasn't one of the three simple notebook family members Apple offers? And why would Lauren, a member of the Screen Actor's Guild, waste her time acting out a role that she wasn't even making union wages on?
Lauren may well have simply been looking for a free computer on Craigslist, and not intending to act out a fake role for Microsoft. After all, pretty much everyone in LA is in the SAG, just as everyone in San Francisco is a DJ. Nobody has uncovered Microsoft's ad script telling Lauren to pretend to fruitlessly search among Apple's notebook offerings for a period of time. The company didn't need to do that; it merely wanted to create the suggestion that Lauren failed to find a specific combination of features because she "wasn't cool enough for a Mac," and that Apple's products are too elite and smart and customers should fear them with angry resentment.
Watch Lauren never really enter the Apple Store.
Microsoft's pattern of contrived marketing
It's certainly not anything new to find Microsoft itself putting together contrived attacks of the Mac. During Apple's Switchers campaign, Microsoft ran a print ad entitled "Confessions of a Mac to PC convert," portraying a professionally dressed woman complaining about her Mac stating, "Yes, it's true. I like the Microsoft Windows XP operating system enough to change my whole computing world around. [...] Windows XP gives me more choices and flexibility and better compatibility with the rest of the computing world."
It turned out that Microsoft's "convert" was a stock photography model from Getty Library, and her adspeak was written by a freelance writer Microsoft hired. When the sham convert was exposed by the BBC, Microsoft yanked the ad and killed the copycat campaign, but not before it generated more free publicity for Apple.
Microsoft has since copied Apple's Get a Mac ads, this time replacing comic actor John Hodgman in the role of a Bill Gates-inspired PC character with a real person: a Microsoft employee named Sean who acted out his virtual victimization as a generic PC with the line "I'm a PC and I've been made into a stereotype."
Microsoft tried to promote his identity as a sympathetic character by adding a [email protected] email address in the ad. Somewhat ironically, that attempt at viral PC marketing did not take off nearly as well as the typical PC virus. Instead, it was reported that Microsoft had used Macs to create its ads maligning Apple's platform and suggesting that PCs could do anything and everything better.
Microsoft ads promoting Macs
Microsoft returned to its roots with a Songsmith ad that clearly did not use professional actors, this time portraying its new software running on a Mac notebook. Bloggers suggested this was an effort to promote the new program by attaching a contrived controversy of Microsoft using a MacBook in its advertising. That too fell flat, with viewers left in shock by the ad's embarrassing production values and its cringe-inducing music voiced by stilted, soulless shells lacking any personality.
Microsoft's Songsmith promotional video.
The company's inability to effectively market Windows, a product that seemingly shouldn't need marketing as a utility monopoly in the generic PC market, is particularly hard to fathom given Microsoft's vast resources. The company went from hiring bad actors to spending $10 million to bring on Jerry Seinfeld for a couple ads that trail off into cancelation before that campaign ever got around to pitching the product.
Microsoft's $300 million marketing campaign, which the company itself touted to the press, has also been used as fodder in Apple's advertisements, which poke fun at Microsoft for throwing money at ineffective marketing rather than addressing efforts to actually solve the problems Windows Vista users were experiencing.
Microsoft even launched the Mojave Experiment campaign to suggest that real users weren't actually experiencing problems with Vista, and that the software was really just a victim of unfair press coverage. If anything, that effort directed even more attention to the actual problems in Vista.
Microsoft might not be actually sending its advertisement's actors into Apple's retail stores as it films its commercials (and the Apple Store probably wouldn't allow a film crew in anyway), but the real problem for Microsoft's shoppers is that the company has to acknowledge that too many real PC shoppers are headed to the Apple Store, and many are buying a Mac. And while those Macs can run Windows, few actually will. If this keeps up, Microsoft is in danger of losing the remains of the PC market that actually matter, the higher quality sales above $1000 where sustainable profits are made.
If the company isn't careful, it will find itself stuck in price comparisons with Apple that only highlight how much cheaper Linux PCs can be without Windows, and usability comparisons with Linux that highlight how much more attractive Macs are to buyers who don't want to deal with complication.
Bloggers forensically studied the advertisement in slow motion, pointing out that the shots of Lauren entering and leaving the store appear to have been shot all at once; the surrounding people walking past in both shots appear in the same place. This must mean, they conclude, that Lauren never entered the store looking for the $1000 17" notebook, and that the ad simply included a scene at "the Mac store" to offer Apple some additional free advertising.
Of course, it doesn't really matter if Lauren walked into the store and spent any length of time there. The entire ad was contrived by definition. Lauren wasn't given money to find the ideal computer for her needs, she was given a specific budget and told to find a specific hardware feature that Apple does not carry.
Apple only sells one 17" notebook with a high quality, full resolution screen. No PC maker ships anything comparable to the MacBook Pro for under $1000. As the ad points out however, there are plenty of low quality, low resolution 17" screens available from PC makers trying to dangle low prices in front of consumers in the overcrowded, low differentiation market for low end, generic PCs that ship with Windows Vista.
Why would Microsoft's production company waste its time following Lauren around the Apple Store with a camera, when they knew full well that the PC definition they'd cooked up wasn't one of the three simple notebook family members Apple offers? And why would Lauren, a member of the Screen Actor's Guild, waste her time acting out a role that she wasn't even making union wages on?
Lauren may well have simply been looking for a free computer on Craigslist, and not intending to act out a fake role for Microsoft. After all, pretty much everyone in LA is in the SAG, just as everyone in San Francisco is a DJ. Nobody has uncovered Microsoft's ad script telling Lauren to pretend to fruitlessly search among Apple's notebook offerings for a period of time. The company didn't need to do that; it merely wanted to create the suggestion that Lauren failed to find a specific combination of features because she "wasn't cool enough for a Mac," and that Apple's products are too elite and smart and customers should fear them with angry resentment.
Watch Lauren never really enter the Apple Store.
Microsoft's pattern of contrived marketing
It's certainly not anything new to find Microsoft itself putting together contrived attacks of the Mac. During Apple's Switchers campaign, Microsoft ran a print ad entitled "Confessions of a Mac to PC convert," portraying a professionally dressed woman complaining about her Mac stating, "Yes, it's true. I like the Microsoft Windows XP operating system enough to change my whole computing world around. [...] Windows XP gives me more choices and flexibility and better compatibility with the rest of the computing world."
It turned out that Microsoft's "convert" was a stock photography model from Getty Library, and her adspeak was written by a freelance writer Microsoft hired. When the sham convert was exposed by the BBC, Microsoft yanked the ad and killed the copycat campaign, but not before it generated more free publicity for Apple.
Microsoft has since copied Apple's Get a Mac ads, this time replacing comic actor John Hodgman in the role of a Bill Gates-inspired PC character with a real person: a Microsoft employee named Sean who acted out his virtual victimization as a generic PC with the line "I'm a PC and I've been made into a stereotype."
Microsoft tried to promote his identity as a sympathetic character by adding a [email protected] email address in the ad. Somewhat ironically, that attempt at viral PC marketing did not take off nearly as well as the typical PC virus. Instead, it was reported that Microsoft had used Macs to create its ads maligning Apple's platform and suggesting that PCs could do anything and everything better.
Microsoft ads promoting Macs
Microsoft returned to its roots with a Songsmith ad that clearly did not use professional actors, this time portraying its new software running on a Mac notebook. Bloggers suggested this was an effort to promote the new program by attaching a contrived controversy of Microsoft using a MacBook in its advertising. That too fell flat, with viewers left in shock by the ad's embarrassing production values and its cringe-inducing music voiced by stilted, soulless shells lacking any personality.
Microsoft's Songsmith promotional video.
The company's inability to effectively market Windows, a product that seemingly shouldn't need marketing as a utility monopoly in the generic PC market, is particularly hard to fathom given Microsoft's vast resources. The company went from hiring bad actors to spending $10 million to bring on Jerry Seinfeld for a couple ads that trail off into cancelation before that campaign ever got around to pitching the product.
Microsoft's $300 million marketing campaign, which the company itself touted to the press, has also been used as fodder in Apple's advertisements, which poke fun at Microsoft for throwing money at ineffective marketing rather than addressing efforts to actually solve the problems Windows Vista users were experiencing.
Microsoft even launched the Mojave Experiment campaign to suggest that real users weren't actually experiencing problems with Vista, and that the software was really just a victim of unfair press coverage. If anything, that effort directed even more attention to the actual problems in Vista.
Microsoft might not be actually sending its advertisement's actors into Apple's retail stores as it films its commercials (and the Apple Store probably wouldn't allow a film crew in anyway), but the real problem for Microsoft's shoppers is that the company has to acknowledge that too many real PC shoppers are headed to the Apple Store, and many are buying a Mac. And while those Macs can run Windows, few actually will. If this keeps up, Microsoft is in danger of losing the remains of the PC market that actually matter, the higher quality sales above $1000 where sustainable profits are made.
If the company isn't careful, it will find itself stuck in price comparisons with Apple that only highlight how much cheaper Linux PCs can be without Windows, and usability comparisons with Linux that highlight how much more attractive Macs are to buyers who don't want to deal with complication.
Comments
She should be able to afford a Mac. I'm betting cold hard cash she doesn't eat.
Accusations are flying within the blogosphere that Microsoft simply faked its latest ad portraying a real buyer named Lauren shopping for a 17" notebook under $1000, who supposedly couldn't find what she was looking for in the Apple Store....
WTF?
Why is this news? Did anyone really think she was a real consumer?
It's not like the USA has any truth in advertising laws that would make this illegal or anything. Do people believe that the grainy films of "Mr. Schnieder" on the wiener commercials are real too? Or that the housewives on the Swiffer commercials are as well?
Ellen Feiss was way better.
The SAG membership argument isn't so convincing; anyone, even non-union can audition for these commercials.
Check out the final Best Buy checkout price: $699.99
Where's the tax!?? hahaha
WTF?
Why is this news? Did anyone really think she was a real consumer?
It's not like the USA has any truth in advertising laws that would make this illegal or anything. Do people believe that the grainy films of "Mr. Schnieder" on the wiener commercials are real too? Or that the housewives on the Swiffer commercials are as well?
The commercial certainly tries to make you think she is a real consumer, doesn't it? Is it illegal? Heck no. Is it misleading and deceptive? Heck yes. That's the point the article makes.
She's famous now, that's for sure. I bet she owns a Mac.
The SAG membership argument isn't so convincing; anyone, even non-union can audition for these commercials.
yes the non union can audition but if the contract is SAG, there's a fine to pay if you hire someone that isn't SAG. which I'm sure Microsoft can afford.
the real reason why she wasn't followed into the store when she went into Apple is because they would never allow it. no company would allow someone to come in and film an ad for someone else when said party is looking to bad mouth them.
so they had no choice but to stand on the street, which is a public place, and film her walking in and out. still they were dumb for not having her go in, goof off for ten minutes and then come back out when there were different folks on the street. she could have used the time to check her Hotmail.
and I love how they dowdy her up to make her seem all 'everyman'. they probably would have gotten more hits on their little web ad if they hadn't done it. horny boys would load it up just to drool over her boobs.
Can you do everything on an iPhone in 30 seconds that they show on the ad? Nope.
Are all of the "facts" stated in the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads accurate? Certainly not.
Do MacBook Pros really get 8 hours of battery life in real-world use? No.
Let's not get nitpicky over a few details when Apple themselves haven't been exactly 100% forthcoming in their ads either. It's advertising; it's the way it is done.
1. Many of the 'actors' are MS employees.
The main character (Dan Morris) and the Indian male customer (Sumit Basu) are the creators of Songsmith
The Indian female barista/customer (Latika Kirtane) is a product manager
2. It's supposed to be cheesy/bad, the creator Sumit mentions in interviews that he loves really loves akwardly cheesy stuff.
HOWEVER, I don't think this changes anything.
If it's supposed to be bad, it's so intentionally bad that it actually becomes bad again - and then surpasses that to become horribly bad and then laughably bad but is still so bad that it becomes terribly bad . . . and circles back around again to be just plain bad.
If you look at Sumit's other 'serious' work - it is also . . . bad.
Accusations are flying within the blogosphere that Microsoft simply faked its latest ad portraying a real buyer named Lauren shopping for a 17" notebook under $1000, who supposedly couldn't find what she was looking for in the Apple Store.
Oh yeah? Well the guys in the Mac vs. PC commercials aren't actually computers, they're just people who CLAIM that they're computers! Totally misleading.
HUMAN! (Not Mac)
Oh btw... gotta love people with websites where the site is just one big image
That commercial is far from proof that she never entered an Apple Store to look for a 17" PC under $1000. All it shows is the typical editing that is used. For all we know there were something they noticed later that made the exiting of the store shots unusable. We see at 8 seconds that they split up her sentence about the 13" MB being the only one at $1000 into two takes. None of this should be a surprise to anyone. Of all the things to mock MS over this is the weakest I've seen.
Good parody/comedy etc. has a true core which in this case is that MS struggles to find a marketing message. Well and maybe that MS does somewhat sloppy work (how much would it have cost to cut the Apple Store scene in a way that it would not have as obvious? Next to nothing, but MS somehow attention to detail was never MS's strong point.
I am simplifying for effect but there really is some truth in advertising.
Next thing you know, they'll tell us that Justin Long and that fat "I'm a PC" guy didn't actually have those spontaneous conversations.
In all fairness, have all of Apple's ads been 100% honest? Certainly not.
Can you do everything on an iPhone in 30 seconds that they show on the ad? Nope.
Are all of the "facts" stated in the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads accurate? Certainly not.
Do MacBook Pros really get 8 hours of battery life in real-world use? No.
Let's not get nitpicky over a few details when Apple themselves haven't been exactly 100% forthcoming in their ads either. It's advertising; it's the way it is done.
Well obviously advertisements are going to paint their featured product/service in as positive a light as possible compared to the competitors.
Microsoft is trying to present advertisements in which it appears that nothing was scripted, they just found a random person, gave that person a specific budget, and had them go find a computer with the features they wanted and they just happened to settle on a Windows PC. That's what it appears to be at first glance.
But as this article so adeptly points out, it's simply not the case. The whole thing was contrived, probably scripted, and controlled by Microsoft the entire way.
Same with the Mojave Experiment ads. The "experiment" was nothing more than a carefully staged show meant to look like something it wasn't. Microsoft supplied the hardware that ran Vista and had a person right there at the controls showing these people what Mojave (Vista) could do.
If they had these people bring in their own computers running XP and tried to upgrade them to Vista, the "experiment" probably would have had less enthusiastic results.
I see a difference between this kind of advertising and the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads. In the Mac ads, it's obvious the guys are actors. The Mac ads are clever, relevant, and focus on Mac's strengths vs Windows PC's weaknesses.
Microsoft's "Lauren ad" doesn't even mention Microsoft's software. And they're a software company, aren't they?