John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

Apple to Microsoft: You Can't Put Frosting on Manure


In the end, Apple just couldn’t help itself. Microsoft’s new “I’m a PC … and I’ve been made into a stereotype” ad campaign was just too wide and deserving a target. Apple could no more ignore it than Steve Jobs could hold back his pitching arm upon finding Steve Ballmer sitting above the dunk tank at the Santa Clara County Fair. So it was inevitable, really, that we’d see Apple take a few potshots at Microsoft’s “transformative” new “made on a Mac” marketing campaign in two new “Mac vs. PC” ads that debuted over the weekend. The first ad, “The V Word,” pokes fun at Redmond for trying to promote Vista without mentioning it by name. The second, “Bean Counter,” mocks Microsoft for spending $300 million to advertise Vista instead of using that money to fix it.

Ironic, isn’t it, that Apple (AAPL) would slag Microsoft’s (MSFT) use of its ad budget by producing a new ad of its own expressly for that purpose? Still, Apple does have a point. As I noted here back in July, proposing to fix technology problems with advertising is rarely a wise idea.

Previously:

[Image Credit: Worth1000]

Twitter’s Tanking

December 30, 2013 at 6:49 am PT

2013 Was a Good Year for Chromebooks

December 29, 2013 at 2:12 pm PT

BlackBerry Pulls Latest Twitter for BB10 Update

December 29, 2013 at 5:58 am PT

Apple CEO Tim Cook Made $4.25 Million This Year

December 28, 2013 at 12:05 pm PT

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Just as the atom bomb was the weapon that was supposed to render war obsolete, the Internet seems like capitalism’s ultimate feat of self-destructive genius, an economic doomsday device rendering it impossible for anyone to ever make a profit off anything again. It’s especially hopeless for those whose work is easily digitized and accessed free of charge.

— Author Tim Kreider on not getting paid for one’s work