Ryan, a classmate of mine in my introductory marketing course, recently responded to the slanderous marketing campaign of Microsoft in his blog. Microsoft launched a video that aimed to discount the innovations of Apple. The video, which features two colleges (representing Apple employees) presenting their latest breakthroughs and creative designs to a boss-figure, was quickly taken off the air after widespread negative consumer feedback.

I quite enjoyed reading Ryan’s post as the controversial video had previously never made it past my eyes and his analysis of the video was comprehensive and clear. There was, however, one point where our opinions differed, albeit a minimally important aspect. Many public viewers speculated that superiors in the video were meant to  intentionally resemble Steve Jobs and other Apple execs. Ryan, however, stated that he did not believe this resemblance to be an intentional action on part of Microsoft. Conversely, when I initially viewed the commercial, I made the assumption that they were in fact meant to represent the Apple execs. Regardless of whether or not Ryan’s view is correct, the commercial crossed the line of appropriate and ethical marketing and is simply ineffective.

This negligible variation in our opinions does not take away from Ryan’s overall message. I was pleased to see that he included the Samsung ad in his blog because I truly enjoyed Samsung’s commercial when I saw it on TV. It accomplished what Microsoft intended to. By poking fun at an established competitor in a humourous and coherent fashion, they effectively outline, not only where Apple may be behind but, more importantly, they indicate where their product is in relative terms. There are many reasons why Microsoft’s commercial was unsuccessful, but a key element is that they neglected to indicate that they have been innovating as well.