I don't exactly feel sorry for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), but the brewing brouhaha over its latest ad -- and a very good ad, if I do say so -- is so funny that it's sad. AppleInsider reports that Mr. Softy's new "I'm a PC" pitches, which substitute for the goofy and ill-fated Bill Gates-Jerry Seinfeld team-ups, appear to have been created using Macs.
Oh, the irony.
A Flickr user named LuisDS made the discovery. AppleInsider says he found traces of Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) Mac OS X operating system and Adobe's (NASDAQ:ADBE) Creative Suite 3 in the metadata files of the video.
Microsoft, for its part, issued a non-denial denial in response to the story: "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."
Fair enough. And, again, let's give Microsoft's ad agency some credit. The ads, which feature common users to defy the conventional thinking that all PC users are nerdy, suit-wearing Excel geeks, work brilliantly because they're spot-on. Not all creative folks are freaks for Apple gear. A family friend is a photographer whose sophisticated digital equipment is managed with a PC laptop. She's a Windows user and proud of it.
And she's not alone. Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) sold 19% more stuff in its latest quarter. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), whose sales are growing and margins expanding, has been the worldwide leader in PC notebook shipments for eight straight quarters, Mac Observer reports.
Still, this revelation speaks volumes. It says that while Macs are winning favor with hardened Windows users, not enough hardened Mac users are giving Windows a try.
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