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Get your Mac and PC Cubee cutouts here
Got some time to kill at the office today? Steal some heavy weight paper from the supply closet and print out your very own Cubee cutouts of Mac and PC. The cutouts are designed by Jay Hauf, and they work best when you download the 1482 x 1173 versions and print them on heavy stock letter paper. For video instructions on how to assemble your Cubees, see here. If you get bored recreating all 66 Get a Mac ads, you can mix it up a little by downloading the Steve Jobs Cubee cutout (which, IMO, looks a lot like a square version of Stewie Griffin when assembled). Now, get back to work! [via iPhoneSavior]
New Laptop Hunters ad proves Macs are just for children
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/microsoft/New_Microsoft_Laptop_Hunters_ad_says_Macs_are_for_kids'; Microsoft's latest installment in its popular series of ripped-from-the-headlines, "real America" style 'puter-buying adventures follows a mom and son duo -- Lisa and Jackson. We learn during the commercial that the two need a computer which is "fast" because they need to "look up stuff" before they "get to baseball." Luckily for them, there are plenty of great PC options for their under-$1500 budget. Sure, they veer off in the middle there, almost buying a Mac -- which Lisa notes are "popular at this age" (we guess what she meant to say is that they're for children). Regardless, they're both so turned off by the cute-but-small computers that they hurry back to the affordable VAIO section and make off with a sweet 16-incher. But hey, don't take our word for it -- check out the really real mother and son for yourself in the full video after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Microsoft's new ad shows how people shop for computers in the real America
Microsoft's latest ad -- a companion-piece to its new "Laptop Hunters" website -- stars "real person" Lauren. Lauren's a little funky, a little folksy, and 100 percent real. She doesn't have an agenda to push, she's just out in the world, living in "reality" searching for a sweet laptop that's under $1,000. She admits to herself she's "not cool" enough for a Mac (though cool enough for a Volkswagen) and gets on with her life. She's a real American -- with an unpretentious, pragmatic life. The ad rather smartly puts the focus on our current economic climate, while expertly reinforcing that age old Apple-user-as-dick stereotype, pejoratively wielding the word "cool" as an underhanded insult -- odd, since the Microsoft portal it wants you to visit helps "socialites" pick a laptop. All in all? It's kind of a brilliantly mean piece of work -- check it out after the break. [Via BoingBoing]
Microsoft placing "I'm a PC" recording booths outside Apple stores
The Apple / Microsoft ad war keeps escalating -- while Apple continues to insist that John Hodgman is the human representation of all PCs, Microsoft is taking its populist approach to the streets. Very specific streets, actually -- it's placing "I'm a PC" recording booths outside of Apple stores, like the one pictured here in Birmingham, England. The booth is staffed with three 'Softies who'll try to sell you on the latest in Windows tech while making nyah-nyah faces at Apple store patrons, and guests are invited to make a short video explaining why they, too, are PCs. Not to be outdone, Apple has pledged to send Justin Long to your house to charmingly condescend to you about his various abilities while still pretending to be your best friend.
Analysis: Microsoft offers "I'm a PC" retort that falls flat
After canning Seinfeld, Microsoft is now starting stage two (planned all along, they say) of their campaign with a new series of I'm a PC ads by the Crispin, Porter + Bogusky ad agency. As is clear from the John Hodgman look-alike at the start of the ads, they're supposed to be a direct response to Apple's Get a Mac campaign that's been running since 2006.It almost goes without saying that it's rather sad for one of the richest companies in the world to stoop to this level of reaction. But I think one of things that's interesting here is the difference between the central motifs of the respective ad campaigns. What Get a Mac suggests is that your Mac is your kinda cool, but laid-back and easy-going friend that'll help you get things done. In other words, your Mac is your friend, not who you yourself are.On the other hand, the I'm a PC ads say exactly that: you (the user) are a PC. Who the heck would want to be that? What they're trying to maintain is that PC users are unfairly being stereotyped as besuited, boring, glasses-wearing losers. But with the repeated exclamation "I'm a PC," the ads actually suggest a kind of Borg-like insistence that I as a user have to be assimilated into my computer. In short, Microsoft and its ad agency still don't get it. We Mac-heads don't see ourselves as all being Justin Long (or, heaven forbid, wanting to be Justin Long). I can proudly say I'm not a Mac, and I'm not really planning to become one either. Or to put it another way: I use a Mac in no small part because I don't want to be a computer (Mac or PC).What's your take?(The three ads can be seen on YouTube: Pride, Not Alone, and Stereotype.)
Microsoft's "I'm a PC" ad gently alights upon the airwaves
Microsoft started airing its new "I'm a PC" advertisements on TV this evening, giving Mr. Seinfeld a bit of a rest while it faces Apple's campaign head-on. It's very touching "we are the world" kind of stuff: smug-free, heart-string-tugging and so forth, but basically it boils down to 100 points for zero Justin Long, minus 100 points for zero John Hodgman. The ad is embedded after the break.Update: YouTube version added for the Silverlight-averse. Also, is it just us, or does Microsoft's Hodgman-clone kind of look like Paul Dano? Just something to think about.
John Hodgman not a PC, just plays one on TV
Initially I found those Get a Mac commercials charming, but after a while I started to wonder why Apple chose to make the intellectual and funny guy represent the PC and the annoying dork represent the Mac. What twisted logic was used there? Anyway, I'm a fan of John Hodgman's work on The Daily Show, while I find Justin Long's snide arrogance to be perfect for sitcoms like Ed and movies like Dodgeball, but counter-productive for a pro-Mac marketing campaign. So it's with great pleasure that I read Engadget's interview with Hodgman and learned (as I had suspected but never truly cared enough to find out) that he's a Mac user in real life and has been for 20+ years, excepting "...a brief period in the wilderness between 1997 and 2003," which he'd rather not speak of. You can see more of the interview over at Engadget... don't worry, it's a short read.
