TECH BEEF 2008: Apple/Microsoft marketing war continues – Microsoft attempts to enlist the world

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Ages ago, Apple released the “I’m a PC, I’m a Mac” ads, which were hugely successful. Much more recently, Microsoft moved to reclaim “I’m a PC” from Apple’s negative stereotyping. Apple responded with some rather nasty ads criticising Microsoft for spending loads of money on marketing that didn’t mention the V-word (Vista).

Microsoft aren’t taking that lying down, though, and they’re attempting to enlist THE ENTIRE WORLD in their defence. They’re taking signups for people who are happy to say “I’m a PC” in an attempt to show the broad range and diversity of PC users, and also to contrast with Apple’s rather more limited demographic of users. People who sign up might feature in Microsoft’s internet, poster, and television ads…

Opinion: freesat confusion and secrecy is hurting the brand and stifling competition

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freesat, the free-to-air satellite service due to launch in a matter of weeks, is a great idea and one that many people are looking forward to, but the organisation is behaving as if the pre-launch phase is a covert military operation, and that’s hurting the brand.

Last week we wrote about the launch of Hauppauge’s USB2 tuner that should be able to receive the freesat signal via a compatible satellite connection. That’s not how freesat sees it

PADDED LAMPPOST UPDATE: It was just a shameless PR stunt cooked up by the "hilarious" 118 118 crew

We knew it. We just KNEW IT. Something seemed wrong. Something about this update regarding padded lampposts for the protection of distracted texters seemed too strange. It seemed a little bit too much like the sort of thing the ad agency employed by 118 118 would come up with.

And it was. Bollocks. There’s nothing more sickening than the realisation that you’ve just fallen for a bloody bit of PR. Worst feeling in the world. I haven’t been this upset since Flopsy got run over in 1983.

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The 118 118-branded post pads were…