OrangeCoat

I'm sure the ads aren't helping, but the "PC" identity doesn't represent Microsoft. He represents a huge bucket of products used by the corporate masses.

Funny how the Apple commercial that started it all (you know the one: The Olympian-like Apple heroine throwing Thor's hammer at the 1984-ish "Big Brother" screen, thereby liberating the masses from a tyranical, brain-washing PC despot) have now toned down their imagery to show a friendly and somewhat pathetic nerd in a bland Kmart suit that you're supposed to kind of feel sorry for.

At least, Apple commercials today don't show the world of PCs as being evil and controling - just kind of bland, complicated and uncool, which is more a statement about corporate stereotypes (the tools of the trade being guilty by association) than a statement about PCs themselves, or Microsoft.

What I see in these ads is simple: Creatives using the brand of their computers of choice to scoff at their nerdy clients. Nothing more.

The reality is this: What type of computer you use has about as much impact on the quality of your work, your creativity, your coolness or your worth as a human being as the brand of jeans you wear or the brand of coffee you drink: As much as I dig Apple, every time I see some douchebag typing away on his Macbook at Starbucks, all I see is another dumbass trying hard to be something he isn't: Original or cool. Or rather, what I see is a douchebag silently screaming "LOOK AT ME!!!! I HAVE A MACBOOK AND I DRINK STARBUCKS!!!! I AM SO COOL!!!!"

Could the same ads work with VW vs. Chevrolet or Starbucks vs. Folgers?