Not Cool Enough (or Rich Enough) to Be A Mac: New Microsoft Ads

Nicole Martinelli ()

A series of Microsoft ads are aimed at budget consumers worried about price tags, further perpetuating the pricey Mac myth.

Associated Press reports the ads were shot by recruited unwitting subjects by posing as a market research firm studying laptop purchasing decisions.

It picked 10 people who answered a call for volunteers on Craigslist and other websites and sent them out with a camera crew and budgets ranging from $US700 to $US 2,000. If they found a computer that fit their criteria, they could keep it.

In the first 60-second ad, a red-haired recent college grad named Lauren is on the hunt for a speedy laptop with a 17-inch screen and a “comfortable” keyboard, all for less than $1000. She strides into an Apple store; then, the scene jumps to her walking out empty-handed, telling the camera that the only laptop in her price range has a 13-inch screen.

Back in the car, she sighs and says, “I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person.”

Lauren heads to Best Buy next and buys a Windows notebook made by Hewlett-Packard Co. for $US699. And she wasn’t alone. While some might have been able to find an Apple computer that fit the budget, Microsoft said none of the people they filmed picked a Mac.

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Via The Age

57 comments »

About the author

nicole_martinelli

Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco native who has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek. You can find her on Twitter , Facebook and Google+.

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  • http://torristravel.typepad.com b

    Isn’t this just sad…every PC user I encounter is confused, has problems from the get go and wishes they had a mac. If you can’t afford the latest model with a big screen get a 13 inch….for goodness sakes people this is the instrument you work with all the time. You get exactly what you pay for! Sigh!!!

    b

  • Sinister Joe

    Why is she driving a trendy VW? She could have got a used Buick Skylark off Craigslist much cheaper.

  • Bo

    Fanboys suck no exceptions..

    Operating System Fanboys, Gadget Fanboys, Console Fanboys or any other types of Fanboy.. They all suck and refuse to acknowledge that anything is cooler than what they like

    So Microsoft made a PC ad big fucking deal, who cares honestly other than stupid fanboys.. A comercial is made to sell stuff you don’t make an ad where you trash your own product..

    So ofcource Microsoft will make an ad where they make PC’s look good.. Apple does it too with all their ads..

    I don’t get why people have to get all anal about an ad.. It’s an ad for christ sake their are more important things in life than too argue about trivial stuff..

  • Andrew

    This ad reminds me way too much of the ‘Bang Bus’… I think ad men have been surfing too much porn.

  • Andrew

    Especially the ‘Money Shot’ at the end!

  • Blue Monkey

    A person gets a gym membership and therefore thinks he’s fit.

    A person trys to understand and is there branded a sympathiser.

    A person buys a Mac and is therefore instantly cool.

    A person buys a PC and is therefore instantly dumb.

    Personally, I’d rather be “dumb” like Lauren than show how “cool” I am, like the other mac’ards around here.

  • cultfinder

    omg! i’ve found another cult of fanboys. your love of high priced, inferior hardware(mac) has finally been brought to light.

    i can hear the chant in the background….

    i love mac <-fanatical fanboy
    i love mac <-fanatical fanboy
    i love mac <-fanatical fanboy

    you guys sound just like the fanatics screaming about how great the hugely overpriced PS3 is. the system least liked by anybody because of poor support and obscene costs that nobody wants to pay.

    i think you’re all brainwashed! you’re just like cult members who give away all their possessions and money because the cult leader(steve balmer the palmer) tells them they will be cool for doing it.
    fact is, they aren’t cool and are only being laughed at behind their backs by people with common sense.

    mac osx is no more secure then windows these days. yes you need anti-virus and firewalls for macs because there are regular exploits being introduced weekly for mac.

    if you’re afraid of exploits then use linux if you don’t like windows, but for the sake of sanity. stop screaming mac rocks(i love paying WAY TOO much for inferior hardware) and buy a pc and install a completely free OS like one of the MAN
    Y forms of completely free linux based OS’s. they are about as compatible as osx and come with giant repositories of free software that is tested and completely free of any malware.

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