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by _delirium 4589 days ago
It didn't use a silly name for their competitor, but Apple's "I'm a PC" ads are one recent example of pointed negative advertising targeting a specific competitor (and using kind of silly stereotyping of "PC users" to do so): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfv6Ah_MVJU
3 comments
bunderbunder 4589 days ago
There's a huge difference, though, which is that Apple pulled it off. The "I'm a PC" ads might have been barbed, but they were also funny, and managed to keep it upbeat. Whereas this "Scroogled" campaign just comes across as sullen and petulant.

Scalzi's Law: The failure mode of "clever" is "asshole".

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_delirium 4589 days ago
That I definitely agree with.

Another of Apple's very-negative ads, the famous "1984" anti-IBM ad, is a good example of that. Analogizing your competitor to a dystopian totalitarian regime risks coming across as shrill and over-the-top, but Apple managed to pull it off.

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bunderbunder 4589 days ago
That one's an interesting case, too, though. It didn't really come out and say any of that; it just let the viewer fill in the blanks. Case in point: In 1984 everyone interpreted it as obviously being about IBM. When it was re-issued in 2004, everyone interpreted it as obviously being about Microsoft.

Compare again with "Scroogled", which quite literally consists of little more than a pile of long-winded lecturing. Seriously, sitting through one of those ads transports me back to my sophomore history class. The one where the teacher had no shortage of. . . opinions.

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cjensen 4589 days ago
The "PC" in those adds was not a user. It was the computer. Those ads don't make fun of or otherwise characterize PC users in any way shape or form.
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_delirium 4589 days ago
I know that's what they were officially personifying, but I interpreted them as having a PC vs. Mac user undertone. TV ads generally aim for that kind of implication, trying to make people identify with the kinds of people who own X versus the kinds of people who own Y (see also: beer ads).
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bookwormAT 4588 days ago
As far as I remember, that ad campaign backfired pretty hard when Microsoft released it's own "I'm a PC" ad.

IMHO that was the best ad Microsoft ever made. It was an obvious counter to the stereotype, but it made Apple users look like snobs, and Apple shut down its own campaign shortly after that ad.

As for the "scroogled", I think it mostly makes the impression that Microsoft is scared. I'm not sure if this campaign actually keeps more people from buying chromebooks than it does inform people that Google makes laptops.

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