Hello again, I’m Vista

Aug 7th 2008 | SAN FRANCISCO
From The Economist print edition


Microsoft hires a hot ad agency in an effort to improve its image


WERE advertisements rather than sales the yardstick, Apple would have dominated the computer
industry for decades. First there was the legendary spot “1984”, in that same year, which is often
considered the best ad in history. Directed by Ridley Scott, then basking in “Blade Runner” fame,
and produced by Chiat/Day, Apple’s advertising agency to this day, it depicted Apple as the
individualist and cool brand, in contrast to oppressive conformity, then understood to mean IBM.


Ever since then, the same man, Lee Clow, at what is now TBWA\Chiat\Day, part of Omnicom, a giant
marketing group, has been socking it to Apple’s bigger rival, Microsoft. His deadliest work yet is
the current “Get a Mac” campaign—better known by its opening lines: “Hello, I’m a Mac—and I’m a
PC.” In the American version of the ad, a suave Mac, played by Justin Long, an actor, contrasts
with a lovable but decidedly uncool PC, played by John Hodgman, a comedian who has been catapulted
to celebrity as a result. The upshot, as ever: Apple’s Mac types are elegantly effective;
Microsoft’s PC folks are bumbling plodders.


All this puts Microsoft in the awkward position of having its brand image defined by a
rival—despite its own vast advertising budget, which towers above Apple’s. But Microsoft has also
made Apple’s task a lot easier. It has made software that, by comparison with Apple’s, is buggy and
clunky. Most notoriously, Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows Vista, was first delayed for
years, then launched to dreadful reviews and is now selling more slowly than expected, even after
big price cuts.


So Microsoft is fighting back. A preliminary salvo, fired last month, was the so-called “Mojave
Experiment”—a focus group in San Francisco of 140 volunteers who had not actually tried Vista but
professed that they had heard awful things about it. They were then treated to ten-minute demos by
a trained expert of a “new” operating system, allegedly called Mojave. They liked what they saw,
and when told that this product was in fact Vista, they gasped in shock and delight. The climactic
moments, naturally, are available for viewing at www.mojaveexperiment.com.


You could be forgiven for wondering whether Apple had commissioned the advertisement. It was
Microsoft at its worst. The “experiment” addressed none of the problems with Vista—the trouble
starts when ordinary consumers, not experts, try to use it with their existing hardware—and it felt
as authentic as “reality” television.


But Microsoft is also preparing a much bigger attack. Earlier this year the firm caused a stir when
it passed over its previous advertising agencies and chose Crispin Porter + Bogusky, arguably the
hottest agency today, to put together a campaign rumoured to be costing $300m. Crispin’s brief is
to come up with an answer to Apple’s campaign that does not feel reactive, and somehow makes
Microsoft look cool.


By reputation, Crispin, based in Miami and Boulder, Colorado, might be the one agency that could
pull off such a miracle. Its creative star is Alex Bogusky, though he has now risen to management
level. In recent years, Crispin has revived, among other brands, Burger King, while coming up with
admired campaigns for the Mini and Volkswagen. That said, there have also been flops, such as the
baffling “Algorithm” campaign for Ask.com, which seemed to promote its larger rival Google.


Making Microsoft sexy is certain to be Crispin’s biggest challenge yet, as its creative types are
surely aware—since they, in line with the rest of their industry, overwhelmingly own and use Macs.
But it may be possible. Apple’s campaign has left itself vulnerable in at least one unforeseen way.
Although everyone watching its spots agrees that Macs are cooler, most people also adore Mr
Hodgman’s PC. By contrast, Mr Long’s Mac comes across as mildly but increasingly smug and
irritating.

(668 words, summary 223 words)