Well, the new ad blitz from Microsoft has begun. Advertising agency Crispin Porter + Boguksy is back at it with a new web video and click through banners that tell the story of Lauren, a Los Angeles woman (and member of the Screen Actors Guild) who was recruited from Craigslist. She supposedly didn't know she was in a Microsoft ad, but instead thought she was in a laptop marketing test.

She was given a thousand dollars after saying she wanted a 17-inch laptop with a good keyboard. She tried an Apple Store, but couldn't find anything at the price she wanted. She wound up with an HP Pavilion (here are the specs) running Windows Home Premium and a pretty slow AMD processor. She has minimal screen resolution and about 2 1/2 hours of battery life if she's lucky. All in all, not a bad machine, but certainly not a 17" Mac which would have been a lot more money.

Of course the laptops were not comparably equipped, so the cards were stacked in Microsoft's favor. That's what commercials do. Microsoft has been pummeled for more than 3 years by the extremely popular Mac vs. PC guys. Microsoft responded last summer with the Mojave ads, where people were tricked into believing they were seeing a brand new OS from MS, when in fact they were just seeing Vista. They were told about the features, and loved them. What they weren't allowed to do, however, was actually use Vista, or try to install it on their own PCs. Those were telling omissions.

Microsoft followed up with the Jerry Seinfeld-Bill Gates ads. They were fun to watch, but had no discernible message. Interestingly, Vista was never mentioned.

Now we come to the new ads, which doubtless will be followed by more shopping trips. In the first ad, Vista is never mentioned, just like in the Seinfeld commercials. Interesting. MS does not make computer hardware. Instead, their main product is an OS which is currently Vista. Yet in 2 out of 3 'expensive' ads, not a word about the flagship operating system.

Here's a great collection of Apple print ads from the past twenty years.

What I've found interesting is that trademark aspects of today's Apple machines can be found in these old designs, like fan-free heat dissipation, the tendency to shrink things and ads that show disembodied hands holding their hardware.

While you're there, check out this great 39-page advertisement for the Macintosh. Talk about hype.

My favorite campaign is the Think Different series of TV spots and posters. What's yours?

[Via Coudal Partners]

"Hello!" If you weren't watching the Oscars then you might have missed the first Apple iPhone commercial. Featuring famous actors saying "hello", the new ad just ran on ABC during the Academy Awards telecast. After the montage, which includes a shot from Pixar's "The Incredibles", it ends via a shot of the iPhone, the word "Hello", "Coming this June", and the Apple logo. Just a brief feel for things to come. We'll update this post with a link to the actual commercial as soon as we can.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Update 2: You can watch a much higher quality video of the iPhone commercial here.

Update: You can watch a bootleg quality version of the video here.

Mac Zone has a post concerning ABC's insertion of 30 seconds of network-pimping ads in the Lost season 3 premiere (iTS link) purchased from the iTS. While the first 8 second spot is just a harmless network ID badge, the second spot (at the end of the vid) advertises watching Lost on a full-fledged TV - you know, the thing you're directly avoiding by buying shows digitally through the iTS? Going even one step further, however, is this advertisement to 'watch more video at abc.com.' Somehow methinks this doesn't exactly jive with trying to sell videos through the iTS, which, if you remember, only helps Apple make money off all this by selling an iPod or two.

Mac Zone wonders if this is a hint that networks, or at least ABC, prefer broadcast viewers instead of iTS purchases. For right now, due to the relatively small overall market share the iTS has (digital and real world combined), I wouldn't be surprised. Let's face it: even though the iTS has overtaken Tower Records, a brick and mortar store, it still claims a very thin margin of overall music and video sales. The networks are surely making more money right now via their traditional broadcast + advertising revenue model vs. the pay-to-play digital download method. And since we're pretty sure the 3rd parties, not Apple, prepare their own content for the store (meaning: ABC, not Apple, inserted those ads), I think the bigger question is whether networks like ABC are getting cold feet in the kiddie pool during this budding phase of digital distribution and considering any rash decisions, like pulling their content.

In an interview more about his career (rather than Apple nerdery), Justin ("hi I'm a Mac") Long managed to wax ecstatic with Mary McNamara of the LA Times about 'the ads' and what they've done for (or rather: to) his career. He had stories to tell of being harassed on the street by people who might have taken the ads just a little too seriously, and he also admitted that, before the ads, he didn't even own a computer (just guess what he owns now). Also of note in the interview is a tidbit Martha wrote about a whopping 20 more ads in the "hottest campaign on TV" on their way (are these spots really resonating that well with their target demographic?). We've seen a few more ads trickle out since they were first introduced, and I would wager more will hit a Daily Show near you once the semester kicks back in.

There aren't many more Apple-related details in the interview other than what I've summarized, but check it out if you're interested in learning a little more about the actor who might (or might not) be helping the Apple cause with the powers of comedy.

Other than the Intel ads, when was the last time we saw an ad from Apple that wasn't about the iPod or iTunes? It's safe to say that it has been a while.  At this week's Apple shareholder's meeting, Steve said that new ads would debut during May sweeps, though no details were given about just what products (new or otherwise) would be the focus of the new spots. Perhaps the MacBook Pros? We'll have to wait and see.