So, yeah ... those Microsoft Seinfeld-Gates ads were quite odd and awkward to watch. Microsoft pulled them (which they said they planned to do all along. riiiiight) and came out with a new series of ads.
Catch them here.
What I think they did in this new set that is brilliant is to take a stereotype or preconception about the company ("I'm a PC") and flip it as something to expand and reflect on and just plain be proud of.
No one in our office went for this a few years ago, but I wanted to do a local campaign about our University using the negative monikers (Bancroft High) and taunts (it's just like another high school) and flip those on their heads:
- A Bancroft High — climbing the rock wall at the Rec, cheering up in the stands at the Rockets football game, studying the sky at the planetarium.
- It's just another high school? Sure, if your high school had 150 majors, world-renowned teachers, a 17-to-1 student to faculty ratio, internships, Division 1-A athletics, and one of the most beautiful campuses in the nation.
So consider Microsoft's strategy and see if there are any opportunities for you to make lemonade out of lemons for your school. Take something negative and make it positive!
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2 comments:
Gotta agree with you. I was so happy to see the "I'm a PC" ads after those Seinfeld-Gates pieces klunked. Maybe the new ads just look good by comparison, but I like them and they make me feel a bit more proud to be a PC user and owner -- at home and at work.
My husband pointed out the news to me from over the weekend that the ads were created on a Mac. Talk about a D'oh! moment for the ad agency involved.
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