Microsoft: We're Cheap!

Continuing the theme of my previous post, it’s interesting to me that Microsoft has recently released a series of ads touting how much more you get for your money with Windows PCs. In these ads, the common man (or woman and child in the case shown here), show interest in a Mac but then balk at the exorbitant price. They end up settling for a bargain PC and shriek with the delight at the money they get back.

I can almost see an ad agency pitching this idea to a bunch of Microsoft execs:

Sure Apple has a lot of momentum. Sure the kids these days think they’re cool. But the economy is bad, everyone is scaling back, looking for bargains. Let’s paint Apple as a bunch of greedy fatcats who are charging a premium for coolness. In today’s economy, budget-consciousness is a virtue and wasteful spending is a vice. Microsoft will be hailed as the sensible choice!

It will be interesting to see whether this ad campaign actually increases sales of Windows computers. Personally, I think it will backfire. It looks like an admission of defeat. “Yes,” Microsoft is saying, “Apple is cooler. But hey, at least Windows computers are cheap!”

I will say this. No one is likely to accuse Microsoft of false advertising!