All Things Digital

A PC is not a stereotype. And neither are you. If you’re a PC, you belong to a community of more than a billion individuals, working, playing, and connecting. Doing their own thing. If you’re a PC, we want to celebrate you. So stand up.”

– Microsoft, “A PC is Not a Steroetype”

The irony is enough to make your head explode. The latest evolution of Microsoft’s (MSFT) new ad campaign–the one designed to seize back control of the Windows PC image that Apple has so mercilessly tarred and feathered–wasn’t even made on a PC.

It was made on a Mac. Metadata in the images of the stereotyped PC user featured on Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” site reveal that they were produced using Macs running Adobe Creative Suite 3, not PCs running Microsoft Expression Studio software.

My God. This is how Microsoft and its ad agency hope to turn Apple’s disparagement to their advantage?

I would have assumed that an advertising campaign touting Windows PCs over Macs would, you know, not be created on Macs. But then I don’t work for Microsoft. (To be fair, the Symbol devices Apple uses for roaming transactions in its retail stores do run Windows CE.

UPDATE: Microsoft issued the following statement on the matter:

As is common in almost all campaign workflow, agencies and production houses use a wide variety of software and hardware to create, edit and distribute content, including both Macs and PCs.”

UPDATE: More commentary from Daniel Eran Dilger over at Roughly Drafted, who notes that Microsoft has scrubbed the offending metadata from the images.

Previously:

• Seriously, Windows Is Just Another Way of Saying We Have Each Other?
• Which Do You Like Better, Steve: “No Mac for You!” or “Vista–Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That”?
• The Simple Life: Gates and Seinfeld, the Hilton and Richie of Tech

[Image credit: LuisDS/Flickr]

Not quite sure what to make of Microsoft’s (MSFT) new ad campaign? Here’s how Bill Veghte, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Online Services & Windows Business Group, explained it to the company’s employees Thursday evening in an all-hands memo: It’s an “icebreaker.”

From: Bill Veghte
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 5:37 PM
To: Microsoft - All Employees
Subject: Telling the story of Windows

This first set of ads features Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Think of these ads as an icebreaker to reintroduce Microsoft to viewers in a consumer context. Later this month, as the campaign moves into its next phase, we’ll go much deeper in telling the Windows story and celebrating what it can do for consumers at work, at play and on-the-go. At that time, I’ll be back to share more information about our plans to further strengthen the bond between consumers and Windows–one of the most amazing products, businesses and brands of all time, and, with the right tenacity, passion and agility from all of us, a story that has many great chapters to come.

QOTD

Oh, no, no, no, no… My frustrated users don’t need to hear about that. See, fear of switching is the foundation of customer loyalty for PCs.”

– PC shows Jerry Seinfeld what he’s up against in Apple’s latest “Get a Mac” spot

The stress of Microsoft’s failed bid for Yahoo has apparently been so great, the company’s been put off its food. Microsoft (MSFT) says it has no intention of seeking the search-advertising market heft it might have gained in an acquisition of Yahoo (YHOO) with a spate of other Internet purchases.

“People don’t understand what they’re talking about,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told the Financial Times, referring to speculation about a post-Yahoo buying spree. “At the end of the day, this is about the ad platform.”

And don’t forget Google (GOOG) …