That said, I think Microsoft, being one of the world’s most hated brands, taking on Apple, possibly the world’s most beloved brand, is an exercise in absurdity. They’re going to lose this one, end of story. If they have even the slightest marketing impact they should count themselves lucky.

Throughout the past few years, while the Mac-PC ads have been running continuously, Microsoft has quietly been putting forth an enormous amount of effort toward user experience. I think MS would be much better off taking on their nemesis by developing products that people desire and can use. With their history of gaffs, that may be a tall order at this point. Any effort in this direction can only benefit the market, so I wish them the best.

I totally agree that John Hodgman is the star of the Apple commercials, they wouldn’t be half as good without his absolutely perfect comic timing. However I disagree that people identify with him over the Mac guy. Sure the Mac guy is casual and confident but with with his hair parting and hands-in-pockets stance he portrays just enough geek to be non-threatening. John’s character is just too inept for people to root for.

The endemic problem that Microsoft has to fix is that people just flat out don’t like their brand. After making their customers endure years and years of viruses, blue screens, hardware/driver incompatibilities, preinstalled crapware, unusable smartphones etc. Microsoft have a mountain to climb. When MS has to compete on a level playing field, like websearch, portable media players or smartphones, people will choose the alternative because it is not Microsoft (the Xbox is the sole exception and even that is in bare knuckles fight for second place with the PS3 despite having a huge first to market advantage). Somehow Microsoft has to become an aspirational brand as Apple and Google are. I suspect $300M will be insufficient to achieve that transformation.

I think there’s so much religion in everything because it simplifies the decision making process. I don’t have to evaluate apple or microsoft products, i know what i like and I stick to it. my life is easy. can I borrow your credit card, please? mine seems to be maxed out.

Makes me remind of an ad campaign by two rival airways in India.

Jet Airways but up a billboard saying ‘We have Changed” showing the newly designed interiors and new dress code…

Kingfisher, a rival, put up another one above it…”We made them change!”