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Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

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Microsoft “Laptop Hunter” Ads Made on A Mac?

bogus

Microsoft’s controversial Laptop Hunter ads were probably conceived, pitched and perhaps created on  Macs, if these office snaps of the ad agency behind them are anything to go by. They show the desk of Alex Bogusky (with two Macs) at Crispin Porter + Bogusky plus the surrounding office space, also full of Macs.

I wouldn’t mind getting paid to sell PCs, as long as I didn’t have to work on them, too.

Via rixstep

About the author

nicole_martinelli

Nicole Martinelli was born in San Francisco and has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. Cultish tendencies and love for DIY increased while living on the Old Continent, where tech came late and cost more in Big Mac index terms. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek, and since 1999 on her site, Zoomata. If you're so inclined, friend her on Facebook or connect on Linked in.

Email the author | Read more posts by Nicole Martinelli.

24 comments

    I love my Mac, but I can’t believe this photo is making rounds as some proof of CP+B “wrongdoing.” It’s BS.

    IT WAS TAKEN IN 2005 IN MIAMI, long before CP+B won the Microsoft business. Nowadays, Bogusky’s emails are signed: Sent from luxurious Windows Vista Ultimate. Which could still be on a Mac, since Windows also runs on Macs.

    Of course they’re made on a Mac, Crispin Porter + Bogusky is a Mac-based ad agency.

    Can Alex Bogusky Help Microsoft Beat Apple? By Danielle Sacks – May 9, 2008

    http://www.fastcompany.com/node/849664/print

    In April 2007, long before the Microsoft account came Crispin’s way, Bogusky had told me that “Crispin sort of exists because of the revolution in desktop publishing that the Mac brought about. You could be a small shop and compete against Madison Avenue for the first time because all the tools were in your computer.”

    What’s controversial about the Laptop Hunter campaign?

    I don’t know any ad agency in New York that uses Windows PCs for production work.
    I would be surprised if they were indeed created on Windows.

    > Nowadays, Bogusky’s emails are signed: Sent from luxurious Windows Vista
    > Ultimate. Which could still be on a Mac, since Windows also runs on Macs.

    They might be forced to use Windows machine during MS campaign.

    > luxurious Windows Vista Ultimate

    Funny!

    I love this article so much it hurts.

    Of course, knowing M$FT, it may well be a condition of doing work for them that they have to use PCs, no matter how much longer it takes.

    I work in advertising…90% of the agency creative’s use macs. I wouldn’t be surprised if microsoft requires their agency to “use” windows machines. I also know a few agencies with cell phone clients who are required to “use” their phones. Most of those creatives have two phones. One they use (almost all iphones) and one they “use” when they go to client meetings. It’s pretty funny, actually.

    Carson — There’s been some debate over how honest the ads are, they’re supposed to show average consumers, and, in at least one case, the average person was an actor… And whether the eternal price debate/features is valid the way it plays out in the ads…

    http://www.techflash.com/How_real_is_real_life_Windows_ad_Apple_sidewalk_scene_is_fishy_42033192.html

    http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/03/26/pc-to-mac-im-cheaper/

    http://cultofmac.com/new-mac-bashing-microsoft-ad-has-real-people-get-excited-about-blu-ray/10042

    Since they sold out to the devil I think Microsoft should insist that they to use crappy PC’s running Vista to run their ad agency. :)

    Actors? … in a commercial … the horror.

    Well, they do say that advertising is legalised lying.

    So what?

    I’m also sure that at some point in apple’s production/retail chain PC’s are used in the equation.

    Should the next headline be “Shipping containers filled with Macbook Pros loaded onto ship with a PC controlled crane! How embarrassing for Apple!” Or “Fedex scans iPod shipment with a PC”

    Jay,

    You miss the point. Microsoft is trying to convince consumers that Apple laptops are so overpriced and a bad choice, yet their own ad agency is using Macs. If Mac weren’t worth the investment, then they ad agency would have PCs on their desks.

    Apple isn’t trying to convince people that Macs are the ideal platform for controlling cranes, scanning packages for FedEx, or other embedded systems work.

    omg i know! The other day, my BFF Jackie saw an ad for an HP home printer in a magazine that was printed on a commercial printer!

    what a bunch of hypocrites. Products aimed at average Joe should be created by professionals on those very same consumer level products.

    …………..or maybe you’re hyping a controversy that is not in fact a controversy.

    Fred_M

    designers are not the same as the average consumer. While buying an Apple might make sense for someone who is splicing HD video in real time, most of us are checking our email updating an XL spread sheet, and watching youtube clips.

    This is like saying TV ads for those $100 flip HD camcorders need to be filmed on those same crappy cameras, instead of the 50,000 dollar cameras used by most ad agencies.

    I work with video and had done quite a few works for Microsoft, always on macs. Funny as hell, but no big deal, after all.

    Although, honestly, a Flip HD campaign shot on a Flip HD would be the best marketing possible for the device.

    See the simple life episode, the interns episode 9 the ad agency.

    This was made BEFORE the Microsoft deal.

    They are not only using Windows but you can actually see the icon.

    Apple is so humilated. The most creative ad agency uses windows.And Mac users keep pretending that using an Apple makes you somehow creative.

    95 percent of the time a Mac user is a salesman.

    Ha ha ha….

    Ha ha ha ha…..

    lies lies lies lies lies lies. i am a Mac. I love to lie lie lie.

    Oh yeah Mac an craps are cheaper then PCs. They also do not look like jail cells.

    They run more software then Windows.

    The best games are made for Mac.

    I love to lie lie lie lie lie. I am a Mac….

    [...] Wahrscheinlich wurden auch die “Laptop Hunter” Spots auf einem Mac erstellt. Das wäre dann die zweite Reihe Spots von Microsoft in kürzester Zeit, die auf Macs erstellt wurde. Photos aus der Werbeagentur lassen den Gedanken auf jeden Fall sehr glaubwürdig erscheinen. (via CultOfMac) [...]

    [...] Microsoft “Laptop Hunter” Ads Made on A Mac? [...]

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