“I’m a PC” and I’m made on a Mac?

September 19, 2008 | MG Siegler | Comments | |

So last night upon watching Microsoft’s new “I’m a PC” ads, I half-jokingly asked how long it would be until one of the celebrities in the clips was spotted using a Mac? As quite a few commenters noted, many of the celebs had been seen with Macs previously, but today brings something far more humorous. Apparently, the commercials themselves were made using Apple computers!

A Flickr user, LuisDS, was able to dig into one of the videos’ metadata and found that evidence of Apple’s OS X operating system all over it, according to AppleInsider. To add insult to injury, apparently Microsoft also didn’t use its own Expressions Studio for the work, and instead opted to use software by rival Adobe.

Ouch.

It’s possible the Flickr user who found this data could have faked it, or that it could have come from somewhere else. But if this is true, this just does not look good at all for Microsoft as it perfectly plays into Apple’s “I’m a Mac versus I’m a PC” ads, which underscore ease-of-use and functionality of the Mac platform. Microsoft (or at least their ad agency), it seems, may agree.

Update: The official word from Microsoft (via Digital Daily):

As is common in almost all campaign workflow, agencies and production houses use a wide variety of software and hardware to create, edit and distribute content, including both Macs and PCs.

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About the Author, MG Siegler

MG Siegler writes about technology trends and new media for VentureBeat, with a focus on mobile topics, social elements and key news stories. Before that, MG wrote about technology on his blog, ParisLemon. Originally from Ohio, MG attended the University of Michigan where he studied film. He's previously lived in Los Angeles where he worked in Hollywood and in San Diego where he did web development. He now lives in San Francisco.

  • dm
    Obviously MS didnt make these themselves so its no real shock that the studio who did do them didnt use MS software. Hell i would be pretty shocked if Pharrell used windows over OSX.

    Also, John Mayer was used in a MS ad recently but appeared on stage with Jobs to launch Garageband a few years ago. Just sayin...

    And finally, i think this is a decent ad. The apple ones are getting stale.
  • please just be independent
    While interesting, the point is sorely overdone. MSFT hired an ad agency who made the content which appears to be compiled using Mac. The conclusion of post also smacks of the pro-Mac poorly defined syllogism.
  • Read the huge article in last month's Fast Company on the ad agency Microsoft hired. It mentions in the article that the entire company operates almost exclusively on Macs.
  • Yep recall reading that now. Thanks Bradley.
  • Jake Swearingen
    Without having any stats to back it up, my understanding is that nearly every ad shop uses Macs. There was a minor kerfluffle a month or so back when Enfatico, an ad agency created primarily to service Dell's marketing needs, had to hustle to replace all their Apple hardware with Dell stuff in preparation for a visit from Michael Dell. I'm sure that CB+P, Microsoft's agency, is a Mac-run shop as well.
  • Yeah, as Bradley points out above, the Fast Company article noted CB+P's use of Macs.
  • Ric.Le.wis
    I'm a PC, and I check my own facts before I publish them:

    http://i38.tinypic.com/2vukeiv.jpg
  • See the update for the official word from Microsoft. It appears the videos were, in fact, at least partially made on Macs.
  • Humphrey Bogus
    Want to bet that the accounting department for the ad agency that cashed Microsoft's check uses PCs? Or that the scheduling software for the TV stations that run the ads is based on Windows?

    The creative director of Toyota's ad agency probably drives a BMW. And? This matters not.
  • Valerie
    Your concern is that this PC commercial was constructed using Macs? haha... The people who made this commercial aren't the PC companies, its the advertising agencies that they hire. So you can't say that PCs are fooling themselves by using Macs to advertise, because they don't do their own advertising.
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