It's not the flashiest, cleverest ad, and it's interruptive and not at all entertaining, but I really like what Crispin Porter + Bogusky is doing with what everyone is calling Phase II of the $300-million Microsoft campaign. No more Jerry Seinfeld. Just a healthy dose of Foucaudian reverse discourse. Roll tape:
Apple, up until this point, owned the words "I'm a PC." They always come after the words "I'm a Mac" in Apple's iconic Mac v. PC ads that have resulted in dramatic increases in sales and market share for Apple desktops and laptops. With these current ads, CP+B and MS are trying to take back the "I'm a PC" language, to take those words out of the mouth of the dorky (yet sympathetic) PC character in the Apple spots.
While these ads might take some of the thunder out of the Mac v. PC spots, they still don't solve MS's fundamental marketing problem: sub-par/infuriating products.
P.S. For your next spot, CP+B, pick me: I have a PC at home and a Mac at work. How's that for defying stereotypes?