‘I’m A PC’ ads cross the Atlantic
By John Lister
British viewers have been spared the antics of Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, but will be getting the “I’m a PC” commercials on their screens. The campaign, which kicks off this weekend, will feature British computer users but keep the original US celebrity involvement.
The first clip will air tomorrow during The X Factor, a network show similar to Pop Idol. It’s a premium-ad slot as tomorrow is the first live edition of the series.
According to the advertising group behind the UK commercials, the campaign will demonstrate “how the PC connects a vastly diverse collection of people through a multitude of devices and one common emotion: pride.”
However, it’s said there likely won’t be many British A-listers involved; the marketers say “many of the people [in the commercials] are famous within their spheres as opposed to just major celebrities.”
As well as repeating the call for PC lovers to upload clips of their own take on the ads (this time to windows.co.uk), Microsoft will be taking a ‘video pod’ to major cities, so that passers-by can film their own clips. Unlike in the US, where such clips will mainly air online or on a Times Square billboard, British participants may actually find themselves on national television.
The UK campaign won’t be limited to advertising; there’s talk of working with retailers to simplify computer buying (though no word yet on whether we’ll see British Microsoft Gurus), and a promise that windows.co.uk will get an overhaul.
It’s likely many UK viewers will catch the digs at Apple’s own advertising campaign. The “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” campaign had its own regionalized edition in the UK, starring comedy performers David Mitchell and Robert Webb (pictured), who are not only arguably better known in their country than their US counterparts, but had already established TV characters which fit the campaign’s stereotypes.
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October 10th, 2008
So the campaign will demonstrate “how the PC connects a vastly diverse collection of people through a multitude of devices and one common emotion: pride.” That’s funny, because I’ve read a lot of comments on the web about Vista, and most do betray a lot of emotion, but the emotion usually isn’t “pride” …
And this takes the cake: “there’s talk of working with retailers to simplify computer buying”. I would have thought that buying a computer is simple enough - what needs to be made easier is getting a computer without Vista on it. Better yet, Microsoft could get rid of all the bloat in Vista (in particular the noxious DRM), sort out the mess with UAC (if this is actually possible), and undo all the changes they have made simply to give the impression that Vista is a “new” operating system. This would actually simplify computer *use*, and would be far more beneficial.
Of course, Microsoft are apparently quite happy to continue pissing into the breeze whilst their market share is eroded by Apple and Linux (who knows, maybe people such as Steve Ballmer actually enjoy the sensation). Perhaps Microsoft need an advertisement that goes like this: “Hello, I’m a PC. I come from a long line of PCs, and I suffer from the hereditary disease MMS (”Microsoft Monopoly Syndrome”). This disease has made me fat, lazy, arrogant and complacent. It is killing me, and there is no known cure. My friends look on me with pity, but they are all abandoning me just the same. I used to rule the world, bending others to my will, but now I am lonely and afraid. I don’t want to die - please help me!”