Law Technology

Ad Math Doesn't Make Sense

By Ben Stevens

So let me be sure that I've got this right...  Microsoft decided to sink $300 million into an ad campaign to try to convince people that Vista isn't really the bloated, buggy debacle that everyone knows it to be.  In fact, they have even resorted to calling it by another name (Mojave) to make it seem more palatable.

As if that weren't bad enough, they decided to drag Jerry Seinfeld down with them in this poorly conceived ad campaign.  I will freely acknowledge that I am not a marketing genius, but after viewing their first commercial, even Wile E. Coyote could tell that it stinks.  I have seen it several times, and the only thing that it tells me is that for some reason, Vista makes you want to shop for shoes -- huh?!? 

Wouldn't that $300 million have been better spent on actually making Vista better?  Apple seems to think so, and they released their own ad (Bean Counter) recently to make that very point.  This ad (like almost all of the "I'm a Mac" ads) is cleverly written and right on point.  I imagine that the anxiety level of the folks in Redmond must continue to rise as they see Macs' market share increase with every passing month, but throwing money away on a pointless ad campaign seems to be the wrong approach.

What do you think?

Full post as published by The Mac Lawyer on October 27, 2008 (boomark / email).