Turner said, “Stay tuned, stay tuned, stay tuned. Wow. Did we punch right back? The PC Hunter ads, the PC Rookie ads clearly have been winners in the marketplace.”
MacDailyNews Take: Please see:
• Apple’s Mac sales surge due in part to Microsoft’s ill-conceived ‘Laptop Hunters’ ads? – July 02, 2009
• Apple’s Mac sales surge – July 01, 2009
Turner said, “And you know why I know they’re working? Because two weeks ago we got a call from the Apple legal department saying, hey — this is a true story — saying, ‘Hey, you need to stop running those ads, we lowered our prices.’ They took like $100 off or something. It was the greatest single phone call in the history that I’ve ever taken in business. (Applause.) I did cartwheels down the hallway.”
MacDailyNews Take: Moron. Microsoft, along with virtually every media outlet attempting to report this story, apparently have never heard of false advertising. Here’s a shot from the Microsoft commercial in question, “Lauren and Mom” — you know, one of the ones that are working so wonderfully that Apple’s Mac sales are surging — that clearly shows an old price that is not $100 more than Apple’s price, not $200 more, but $300 more. Turner likely knows all of this, of course, but he’s a Microsoft flunky and lying is in their DNA:
The MacBook Pro that Microsoft falsely advertises as retailing for US$1,999.99 in their ad actually costs $1,699 (see it via YouTube here). It’s been that way since June 8th, but Microsoft kept running their false advertising anyway. Microsoft’s ad also subliminally throws in the $2,499.99 price because Microsoft has nothing but an upside-down and backwards poorly-faked Mac OS running on junky, thick, heavy, cheap hardware, so in order to move their inferior crap, they have to resort to all kinds of tricks. Just like the ones that Mr. Turner performed in his little act yesterday. $1,999.99 vs. $1,699 is a very significant price difference that Microsoft apparently didn’t want to bother fixing until they were compelled to by Apple’s legal department. That resulted in the greatest single phone call that Microsoft COO Turner has ever taken in his business history, which says quite a bit all by itself.
In addition to falsely advertising the wrong price for the 15-inch MacBook Pro, the ad has always been misleading in that the shot of the Apple product shown before the price tag is of a now-discontinued aluminum 13-inch MacBook, which at the time retailed for $1,299 and has since been replaced by the new 13-inch MacBook Pro starting at $1,199 or $800 less than the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro price card that Microsoft shows in their misleading ad. Not only do they lie in the visuals, but Microsoft lies in the audio, too: In the ad, while showing the 13-inch MacBook, Microsoft’s actress states, “This Mac costs $2000” (see it via YouTube here).
Turner continued, “I did cartwheels down the hallway. At first I said, ‘Is this a joke? Who are you?’ Not understanding what an opportunity. And so we’re just going to keep running them and running them and running them.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, please do, Cartwheel Boy. They’re working “wonderfully.” For Apple.
(Note: We have seen the Microsoft ad in question, “Lauren and Mom,” run multiple times on multiple days on U.S. television after Apple’s prices changed, but have not seen this particular ad in the last week or so. We are assuming it has been pulled due to its gross inaccuracies. Let us know if you see it run in its original form (see it via YouTube here) and please note the network, date and time.)
People don’t want to identify with uninformed, sticker-price obsessed hipster wannabes, rico suaves, soccer moms, kids, and self-described “filmmakers” who seem unable to grasp even the basics of buying a personal computer. Most people don’t want to think of themselves as cheap, shortsighted ignoramuses who’ll settle for a poor man’s Mac when the real thing is right around the corner or even in the next aisle. Life is short. Get a Mac.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader Nicholas for pointing out Microsoft’s 13-inch MacBook vs. 15.4-inch price card deception attempt. Thanks to Grigori for the Turner photo.]
