Microsoft's 'I'm a PC' campaign created with Macs

[AppleInsider]

Metadata found on Microsoft's creative copy used in its 'I'm a PC' ad reveals that the graphics were actually produced using Macs running Adobe Creative Suite 3. After the details were published on the Flickr photo sharing site, Microsoft scrambled to polish off the embarrassing details last night

Microsoft's new ad features contrasts a "stereotyped PC user" dressed up like John Hodgman in Apple's Get a Mac ads with a number of people who say, "I'm a PC" apparently to affirm that they run Windows.

However, not even Microsoft itself can wean itself off the Mac, as the metadata discovered by Flickr user LuisDS points out. Microsoft was not only using Macs but also Adobe's software in place of its own Expressions Studio, which the company bills as software that "takes your creative possibilities to a new level."

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[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[ByronVanArsdale]

This is so priceless!

[DimMok]

Another slap in the face for CrapOSoft......

[wheelhot]

priceless.....now, if only this is released on the news then that will be the most awkward news of the month

[amac4me]

Gotta love it.

[MacTel]

But the accountants were using PCs.

Isn't that every major corporation? Macs in the creative departments and PC in accounting and finance.

[harrison]

BWAHAHA

I love it...

- From a long-time mac lover who finally got his first mac this summer (and runs Adobe Creative Suite on a Mac...)

[bloggerblog]

I just checked the accuracy of the Inspector window in the Preview app
Yeah... It's damn accurate!

Microsoft=
Apple=

[Mark W]

So let me get this straight...

They couldn't come up with their own ideas for their software features - so they copied what's on Macs.
They couldn't come up with their own ideas for their an ad campaign to advertise said software, so they copied the ads for Macs.
They couldn't even use said software to create said ads for said campaign, so they used a Mac.

[fuyutsuki]

Originally Posted by Mark W

So let me get this straight...

They couldn't come up with their own ideas for their software features - so they copied what's on Macs.
They couldn't come up with their own ideas for their an ad campaign to advertise said software, so they copied the ads for Macs.
They couldn't even use said software to create said ads for said campaign, so they used a Mac.

Yup.

Next question.

[kaioslider]

I think I can see the next Apple commercial. PC sitting down in front of an iMac making his new "I'm a PC" commercial.

[nevenmrgan]

That's gold, kaioslider, gold!

[Bageljoey]

Originally Posted by kaioslider

I think I can see the next Apple commercial. PC sitting down in front of an iMac making his new "I'm a PC" commercial.

Heh! I like it...

[SpinDrift]

Priceless!

[fazekas]

Originally Posted by SpinDrift

Priceless!

I love the irony of this, an pro Windoze anti Mac campaign made on the platform they are trying to trash. Looks like Mirco$loth is just as crappy as we always knew

[Macfabulous]

Originally Posted by kaioslider

I think I can see the next Apple commercial. PC sitting down in front of an iMac making his new "I'm a PC" commercial.

This would definitely be the best response from our beloved fruit company

...Someone; leak this idea to Apple´s Ad campaign team

[bloggerblog]

Originally Posted by kaioslider

I think I can see the next Apple commercial. PC sitting down in front of an iMac making his new "I'm a PC" commercial.

[iVlad]

Ahahaahhahaaaaa

[quinney]

Come on MSFT trolls. I know you are out there. Let's hear some spin.

[8CoreWhore]

They just don't get it. And when you don't, you just don't.

[denz]

[Jimzip]

You know what's interesting?

Watching what's happened over the years, Apple being the underdog, MS leading the pack. Then, simply because of great products and a couple of colourful commercials, Apple slowly began to eat away at MS from various angles. Sneaking a couple of switchers here and there, until finally here we are, MS is scrambling to find a way to get people to stick with them. But people are realising now that Windows really is terrible, and that there is a much more elegant and functional solution out there. All Apple did was mind it's own business and wait for people to realise. It's a tipping point because MS has officially recognised Apple as a threat, and we might well see the end of MS as we know it soon. (That's not to say they'll go kaput. Just that there could be a major overhaul to their business model and methodology.)

It seems they've been on top so long that they have no idea how to handle losing ground. They throw money around to the first person that puts their hand up, and hope that money fixes the problem. The ad campaigns have been a great example. But that approach doesn't work. Only amazing creativity will save a further downward spiral for MS.

Of course I could also be magnificently wrong. Just my 43c.

Jimzip

[bitWrangler]

Was the content created by Microsoft themselves (and no, just because it was sourced from the Microsoft site doesn't mean that Microsoft actually created it) or by the ad agency that made the commercials to begin with. If it's the latter, then this is really a non story, though fun for all the pro Apple/anti Microsoft folks.

[jawporta]

Most creative professionals use macs, they always did. If it wasn't for graphic designers and printers Apple would have never made it threw the 90's.

Out of all the design job interviews I've been on only 2 places used Dells instead of Macs and I actually turn down the job. If they don't care enough to get me the right tools they're not going to care that much about my work or position. I'd just be another number puncher to them.

[ALPICH]

What is up with it. It actually plays into the idea that PC users are drones who can not make a choice for them selves. One guy second from the end states

"I am a PC and a human being, not a human doing not a human thinking, a human being".

So there we have it. PC users don't think. Its good to clear that up.

Lol they used a Mac

By the way. Since when does majority rule mean that was the right choice? We have all been polluting the world for so long that it may actually be a problem now. But hey let stick with old forms of energy and not try to change to a cleaner way to run our cars. After all even more people around the world use gas cars than PC's they must be be better than hydrogen and other alternatives. Right?

[jawporta]

The last 8 years sucked and McCain is still ahead in the polls, people don't know anything.

Originally Posted by Jimzip

You know what's interesting?

Watching what's happened over the years, Apple being the underdog, MS leading the pack. Then, simply because of great products and a couple of colourful commercials, Apple slowly began to eat away at MS from various angles. Sneaking a couple of switchers here and there, until finally here we are, MS is scrambling to find a way to get people to stick with them. But people are realising now that Windows really is terrible, and that there is a much more elegant and functional solution out there. All Apple did was mind it's own business and wait for people to realise. It's a tipping point because MS has officially recognised Apple as a threat, and we might well see the end of MS as we know it soon. (That's not to say they'll go kaput. Just that there could be a major overhaul to their business model and methodology.)

It seems they've been on top so long that they have no idea how to handle losing ground. They throw money around to the first person that puts their hand up, and hope that money fixes the problem. The ad campaigns have been a great example. But that approach doesn't work. Only amazing creativity will save a further downward spiral for MS.

Of course I could also be magnificently wrong. Just my 43c.

Jimzip

[ALPICH]

Why would they employ a Mac group to do this. Isn't there a PC version of Adobe CS3? That just seems to be a major slip up. Mind you I think I saw a picture of Bill Gates laying over a Mac once. Maybe he is actually trying to promote the Mac. Maybe he is a closet Mac user.

[FrankenSigns.biz]

By using a John Hodgeman parody, aren't they just giving Apple FREE ADVERTISING by continuing Apple's own ads? How goofy are these guys? Can they do just ONE original thing? This is embarrassing.

[solipsism]

While I got a quick chuckle out of it, it's relaly not a big a deal or surprising when you think about it for more than a second. It's in the same boat of the WinMo-based Moto Symbol PoS handhelds Apple Store uses.

MS didn't make this commercial in house (though it would explain a lot if they did ) and I don't think they cared about what OS completed the task of editing the commercial so long as the company they choose did a bang up job. Perhaps we should look at MS and Apple as not being so petty as to "cut off one's nose to spite their face" because they aren't caring about what OS the companies they hire use, so long as they do the work.

PS: Isn't MS the largest 3rd-party OS X developer with Office for Mac? Wouldn't they have plenty of Macs in house to test their software with? Can anyone of use say that we have been coding for Apple as long or have had as many Macs as MS has?

[bloggerblog]

Originally Posted by ALPICH

Why would they employ a Mac group to do this. Isn't there a PC version of Adobe CS3? That just seems to be a major slip up. Mind you I think I saw a picture of Bill Gates laying over a Mac once. Maybe he is actually trying to promote the Mac. Maybe he is a closet Mac user.

Well they employed an agency, most agencies have Macs and PCs, but most experts have been in the design field before 1995 and are therefore Mac users.

[bloggerblog]

Originally Posted by solipsism

PS: Isn't MS the largest 3rd-party OS X developer with Office for Mac? Wouldn't they have plenty of Macs in house to test their software with? Can anyone of use say that we have been coding for Apple as long or have had as many Macs as MS has?

Size means nothing, just take a good look at their Mac products... Yuck!

[Daniel0418]

I can't defend this... Damn microsoft I still love my vista machine but damn... Lol nah macs are definstley tight for pruduction that's a given.

[mpertz]

Originally Posted by kaioslider

I think I can see the next Apple commercial. PC sitting down in front of an iMac making his new "I'm a PC" commercial.

That would be the funniest thing in the world. I would honestly pay to see that. I hope Apple see these postings and does it.

Or maybe a commercial where someone beats the shit out of Steve ballmer. That would be fun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc

That youtube video is by far the funniest video I have ever seen in my life, mostly because I feel bad for Microsoft having that tard run the company

[nutts]

I can't believe people are making a story out of this. They were created by a third-party agency.

A couple of years ago I stopped working for an agency of Microsoft, and they did (and indeed still do) *all* of their creative work on Macs. Microsoft isn't their only client, and they have to use the best tools and felt that those were Macs. It's not like Microsoft can demand that their work be produced in Windows, it just doesn't work like that.

[Lictor]

I don't see what's surprising... Do people actually believe that a company like Microsoft (or Apple for that matter) does its own advertising? They just outsource it, like the rest of the corporations. And contractors work with whatever software and hardware they work the best with. Though they made a huge fault by not covering their track properly...

It's no more surprising than it would be to find that the latest Canon pack shots were made with a Nikon (or the reverse). Or that Apple doesn't trust it's own OS enough to use it to host its website but uses Linux instead like we all do.

Really nothing new there, people "discover" these facts once in a while, it makes a lot of noise and then the buzz dies...

[Lictor]

Originally Posted by ALPICH

Mind you I think I saw a picture of Bill Gates laying over a Mac once. Maybe he is actually trying to promote the Mac. Maybe he is a closet Mac user.

No, he's not a closet Mac user... He was seen countless times using a Mac and never hid from it. Many of the demonstrations of Vista were done on a MacBook Pro, since, as Gates stated, it's one of the best notebook to run Vista on. Which is true, at least for the MacBook Pro.
Besides, Microsoft sells software for MacOS X - and I'm willing to bet they make more money out of Office than out of Windows. As such, the Mac is as much a marketing target as a competitor...

Macs can run Vista through BootCamp as well as the rest of the PCs. And Bill Gates actually had $150 million invested in Apple - making Apple the only PC manufacturer Microsoft ever invested in...

But the most important reason Microsoft loves Apple is that Microsoft could not exist without it. Apple is the reason Microsoft can claim it doesn't have a complete monopoly. And the competition with Apple is rather comfortable: not too threatening, with prices kept very high and Apple and Microsoft share a similar philosophy (closed platform with a tight control). Better Apple than Linux I guess...

[TBell]

I really do not see why people are being so hard on Microsoft here. It isn't like Microsoft (or Apple for that matter) creates it's own advertising. It hired an adversing agency to do the ads. It is a known fact that most creative agency's use Macs. Big surprise there.

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Metadata found on Microsoft's creative copy used in its 'I'm a PC' ad reveals that the graphics were actually produced using Macs running Adobe Creative Suite 3. After the details were published on the Flickr photo sharing site, Microsoft scrambled to polish off the embarrassing details last night

Microsoft's new ad features contrasts a "stereotyped PC user" dressed up like John Hodgman in Apple's Get a Mac ads with a number of people who say, "I'm a PC" apparently to affirm that they run Windows.

However, not even Microsoft itself can wean itself off the Mac, as the metadata discovered by Flickr user LuisDS points out. Microsoft was not only using Macs but also Adobe's software in place of its own Expressions Studio, which the company bills as software that "takes your creative possibilities to a new level."

.

[Hands Sandon]

It's funny that Microsoft trying to create an ad to combat all the slaps in the face by Apple would use there products to do it.We all know everyone's using Macs,but in this context it's sublime irony at it's best!

[michaelb]

Hardly the first time this ironic twist has happened: it was revealed back in the day that the Windows 98 logo was designed in Freehand on the Mac.

But on the other side... Apple uses Windows Mobile based mobile tills in their stores. Dollars to donuts their CFO and his accounting team use Excel on PCs to do the books, etc, etc.

[Hands Sandon]

Originally Posted by michaelb

Hardly the first time this ironic twist has happened: it was revealed back in the day that the Windows 98 logo was designed in Freehand on the Mac.

But on the other side... Apple uses Windows Mobile based mobile tills in their stores. Dollars to donuts their CFO and his accounting team use Excel on PCs to do the books, etc, etc.

Come on,even my German friends thought it was funny!