I AM A MAC if I am being honest

By Davey Winder
Wednesday, 24 September 2008 23:52

Strategy

Could things get any worse for Microsoft from a marketing perspective, after the embarrassingly bad Seinfeld ads and the embarrassingly embarrassing Steve Ballmer I AM A PC video clip? Oh yes, yes they could...

Look, we said it would end in heartache for Microsoft, using a middle-aged man to somehow counter the young and trendy image enjoyed by the Apple branding machine.

We knew that letting someone film Steve Ballmer going off on one and then dropping that video clip onto a Microsoft marketing site was as bonkers as the Monkey Dancing man himself.

Now, it seems, Microsoft is feeling the sting in the tail of moving away from the Seinfeld ads as it is revealed that far from being a PC, the celebrities endorsing Microsoft are actually more MAC than anything.

Let's start with the recently departed Seinfeld, shall we? The same Seinfeld, it has to be remembered, who was 'thinking differently' in an Apple Mac advert just a few short years ago.

Then there are the photos of folk which appear on the Microsoft marketing sites, declaring 'I AM A PC' for all the world to see.

Trouble is, some clever folks such as LuisDS happened to spot that the metadata behind those images revealed they were created not using Expression Studio on a Windows PC, but rather on a Mac using Adobe Creative Suite 3 instead.

Perhaps Microsoft Expression Studio software does not take your creative possibilities to a new level after all. Although the images do appear to have rather swiftly had all the metadata carefully scrubbed from them now. Odd that.

But not as odd as the celebs themselves, still declaring 'I AM A PC' while actually rather happily using, er, Apple products it would seem.

ValleyWag just could not help itself, it had to point out that Deepak Chopra has written about how he prefers the iPod to nuclear weapons, how Eva Longoria has been spotted using a MacBook and how Pharrell Williams has a gold plated iPhone.

Even Seinfeld, sorry it is him again, used a Mac in his TV comedy series apartment it seems.

Can I just say that 'I AM A PC' as well? As long as the money is right...