Why Is Microsoft Trying so Hard to Portray its Customers as Impetuous Fools?

Microsoft's latest ad campaign, the "Laptop Hunters" continues to show PC buyers as ignorant, impulsive and, just as surprising, continue to promote Macs as a real alternative

Hanging your "heroes" out to dry

Have you ever seen a current affairs program with "the setup"? Some poor stooge who agrees to be interviewed in the hope of his/her side of a story being shown gets totally stooged, totally misrepresented. Their comments are edited down to portray them as a total schmuck

Well, it seems Microsoft is doing the same to its customers through its latest ad series, the "Laptop Hunters", and especially the latest one. Although, you'd hope not deliberately

The intent was good, make an ad that shows up a lack of choice and higher price when Mac shopping by comparison to PCs (albeit, ones running Windows, not Linux). But the execution has failed to undermine Apple, and worse, portrayed PC buyers as ignorant and impetuous, basing their purchasing more on emotion than rational evaluation.

Of course, it is just as likely many Mac shoppers could be just as ignorant and emotionally driven (some would say, especially the latter). But at least Apple doesn't actively advertise it.

Are these ads a a true reflection on the ignorance of people buying computers? Looking at the continued success of Windows, despite everything, you would be forgiven to thinking yes. But that's because you're most likely a Mac fan

As many other writers across the internet have pointed out, many holes can be picked in the choices made by each of Microsoft's heroes - and not just in comparison to Macs. Each of them could have found better value with other PCs. However, it does seem in all cases that they had to make a quick decision. Whether that was their own decision or the urging of the director, we don't know. But it is clear that all four of them would have been better off with more research and evaluation

For example, all four chose screen size without any consideration of resolution, and in some cases to their detriment

Lauren 

She of the "all that matters is a 17" screen for under a grand" would certainly have been better off spending the whole grand and getting the HP's big brother. She might not be cool enough to own a Mac, but Microsoft didn't have to prove she wasn't smart enough either. Her closing line is "I'm a PC and I got just what I wanted".  Um... she wanted speed and large screen. She got the large screen, albeit with a lower resolution, but skimped on the speed by undercutting her budget

Giampaolo

He says he's tech savvy and sounds reasonably informed, but he undoes all his good work with his closing line,  "I'm a PC because I'm really picky". Well, many would argue the opposite, that they are a Mac (or Linux)  because they are picky. You could devote a whole other article to the advantages of Macs or Linux compared to Windows PCs, and how picky people would consider those advantages. Of course, these adds aren't about the OS, just the hardware.

And, as a picky person myself, I can say I would never buy a computer based on one afternoon of looking. I usually spend a month or more looking. By the time I got to handing over that much hard-earned, I'd be going in there to buy, not to shop.

Jackson

Jackson and his mum are clearly trusting the sales person. Jackson knows what he wants in a superficial way, but if you asked him the specs required for his gaming needs, I doubt he would. And his poor old mum is portrayed stereotypically, the technologically ignorant older woman gushing over pink computers

Sheila

And then we come to Sheila, the latest Microsoft bunny. It's like Microsoft have said to its ad agency the first three didn't look stupid enough. My apologies to Sheila, I'm sure she's not as foolish as this ad portrays her

The highlight of this ad, and that made me laugh out loud, is when she asks the salesman "is this graphics card going to be powerful?" and his answer is a less than reassuring "huh hmm"

Sheila says she's a film maker, yet she seems extraordinarily uninformed. I suspect she's stretching the truth a little, and she might be a hobbyist or a wannabe. Someone who is a professional film maker would have very clear idea of the specs required and wouldn't buy something after half an hour or so of shopping in one store

And as this supposed film maker, what software is she using already? That should have dictated her choice. As  a designer, I look for a computer that can run Adobe Creative Suite. I've checked the Adobe site and know the system requirements.

Yet she doesn't mention any software. So she buys a computer without knowing the specs of the software she'll be using, she's just assuming it will adequately run the software she buys, and that she can trust the salesman's "huh-hmm" is an authoritative understanding of said unknown software

And then she tells us she bought it because it's "superfast" (I guess "huh-hmm" answers that), despite it having DDR2 memory and a 5400RPM hard drive

The staggering thing is the only reason she gave against the Mac was it had only 2GB RAM. When you look up the HP she bought (a HP HDX 16t)on the HP website, it comes standard with 2GB RAM. I can only assume that the model she bought had already been upgraded to 4GB.

As a film maker that's fair enough to need more, but how is it she's informed when it comes to RAM, but trusts the salesman's "huh-hmm" on other questions. And again, what is the specs of her software

And as a film maker, did she ask for an upgrade to a faster 7200RPM HDD? (Which is available on both the HP and the Mac)

Nope, all these ads do is portray PC buyers as ignorant and impetuous.

The key here is in the editing. (There is something I'd like to say, but I'd imagine we' get sued from here to infinity if I did. So you're just going to have to figure that one out for yourself.

I can't imagine that any of these four really were as uninformed as they are portrayed. And I'll give the benefit of the doubt to the editors that chopping an hour or two of shopping down to 60 seconds makes it impossible to not show them any other way

Don't forget the to check out the Mac

Then we come to the other problem of the ads for Microsoft. After it's finished making fools its own customers, it then makes a point of reminding viewers about the alternative, that is, the Mac

Sure it brushes them off as too cool, too expensive, wrong specs, etc, but for the larger percentage of PC buyers, those who aren't ignoramuses, they get the message to check out a Mac, and with their bigger brains, work out that the Macs are a lot more viable than those ads would have you believe. Smarter people will take the time to compare them properly, and work out why there's a price gap, and whether it's legitimate or not

Women aren't stupid

You and I know it's a gross generalization to suggest that women are emotional shoppers and are largely ignorant when it comes to technology shopping.

Maybe someone should tell Microsoft, because that's exactly how it's portraying women in these ads. So far, we've seen two 20-something women, one 30-something mother and young son, and a 20-something guy. Notice the imbalance there? Two groups are copping a caning from Microsoft: women and 20-somethings

You could read something else between the lines: those are the people who are buying Macs and so Microsoft is targetting them

It is a concern though that three of the four ads so far have used women and portrayed them poorly. Why is Microsoft re-inforcing the false stereo type of women being ignorant when shopping for technology, and easily led by sales people?

Rumor has it Microsoft has two more ads to run in this series, but I think it's too late to save the stereotypes. The previous "I'm a PC and proud of if it" ads were brilliant, portraying every person of every age, sex and race as intelligent. Unfortunately, these new ads are pretty much the opposite, falling back on traditional stereotypes

Set up and shot down

You notice on watching these ads that Microsoft has removed the key things any reasonably intelligent shopper spending $1000 to $2000 will do: thorough research, evaluation and shopping around. That alone makes Microsoft's four heroes look like dills. But add to that some of their reasoning, and you'd think Microsoft is deliberately making them out to be fools

Microsoft says none of the participants knew beforehand they would get their purchase refunded, nor that they were being filmed for an ad, merely for market research. So why did all four make such hasty decisions based on one short period of shopping in one store only

Consider also, one of the subtle messages of these adds is meant to be that in difficult financial times, PCs supposedly make good financial sense, but all four are shown as making impulse buys of expensive items, which totally flies in the face of good financial management. That kills both the credibility of our four shoppers, and that of the message. Would you by a computer based on the financial advice of any of these four impetuous shoppers? Like, "PCs are good value and I know coz I spent a whole hour looking.

These ads are an insult to computer buyers, and especially PC buyers, and do little to undermine Apple. Keep up the good work, Microsoft!