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Linux Foundation "We're Linux" Competition Results
Presumably to respond to Apple’s Get A Mac ad campaign and Microsoft’s various responses, the Linux Foundation launched a competition a while ago for “We’re Linux” ads. After receiving over 100 entires, they say, the results have been announced. Below is the winning ad:
I think an article at OSNews put it best:
“We are all geeks here, we’ll get the videos. But what about the majority of the world, who have little knowledge on this whole Linux and Free thing?”
This obviously brings up the issue of target audience. As an ad for geeks and the tech-savvy world, it’s great – I really can’t complain. If, however, you tried to show this to your grandmother, I don’t think she’d have a clue what it was about.
This type of ad certainly has a place, but I would also like to see some more consumer-focused ads out. Ubuntu Ad Contest, anyone?
Macs are for snobby, cool people; PCs are for picky people. I guess that’s what we’re supposed to take away from Microsoft’s latest “Laptop Hunters” advertisements. I might be the only one, but I don’t like these ads.
As I watched Microsoft’s latest ad I was getting ready to comment on how much better this one was than the last one. Just then, I head the last line: “I’m a PC, because I’m really picky.” What?
If you took that line out it would really be a fairly normal ad. Likewise, with the previous ad, if you took out the “I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac.” line it would also be quite normal. Of course, if it was too normal of an ad, no one would talk about it. For most companies, having an ad of any sort talked about as much as these have been would be a dream, but Microsoft’s ad agency seems to be good at it. The problem is that instead of being the punch line to a jab at Macs, the memorable line is almost a jab at PCs. That’s not the line you want people repeating.
Microsoft’s ads seem to follow the any publicity is good publicity, but it isn’t necessarily true. I would love to see some good competitors to Apple’s Get A Mac ads, but I just am not convinced these ads will do it.