Microsoft Ads

I don't typically comment on inane TV advertisements, but I have recently realized something revealing about Microsoft's latest ads.

These are the ads in which a "shopper" goes out and considers purchasing a Mac, but ends up buying a Windows powered machine. They typically complain about the lower priced Mac having 2 GB of RAM or not being cheap enough. They don't tell you that a Vista powered laptop needs 4GB of RAM to operate as efficiently as a Mac with 2 GB. They don't tell you the Mac is clearly more powerful with a faster CPU, graphics and DDR3 memory. They don't tell you the Windows machine has a low resolution screen even though it is 17 inches diagonally, and it weighs 8 pounds and is twice as thick as Mac laptop.

But, I have always been irked by the line these shoppers utter at the end, "I'm a PC." This seems to be in response to Apple's ads in which actors portray a PC and a Mac. This line is spoken by human beings not portraying computers, but seemingly human beings hoping to be identified as a computer?

I could go on about people as computers illustrated by the millions of Windows users who struggle to use their computers rather than get work done, so they identify themselves with the computer they are supposed to be using as a tool.

However, the bottom line is Microsoft is belittling people. Microsoft believes these people identify themselves closely with a Windows powered computer. Mac users do not do this, in spite of Windows apologists' claims that Mac users are part of a cult. No, Mac users identify themselves with other Mac users.

Microsoft has been diminishing people for years by producing poor products, insisting bugs are actually features, providing poor service, and frightening users who do not know what will happen when they push a button in a poorly worded dialog box.

Go ahead Microsoft. People lacking poor self images will continue to switch to the Mac You can keep the masochists who will pay anything to be beaten more and more.