Microsoft Corrects Laptop Hunters Ads. Sort of.

By  |  Friday, July 24, 2009 at 8:03 am

Lauren and SueLast week, Microsoft COO Kevin Turner said he was turning cartwheels in the hall over Apple’s apparent request that Microsoft stop running “Laptop Hunters” ads that quoted out-of-date pricing for Macs. This week, Microsoft is rejiggering at least one of the ads to…stop quoting out-of-date pricing for Macs.

As Ad Adge reports, Microsoft has tweaked the “Lauren and Sue” commercial to remove a reference to a the price of $2000 MacBook Pro that no longer costs that much. Good. But the company doesn’t seem to have done a sweep for all info in the ads that’s no longer true: The ad with a shopper named Sheila that Microsoft posted on YouTube still has her saying the best MacBook Pro under $2,000 has only 2GB of RAM and shrugging in disbelief and/or contempt. But after Apple’s last round of price cuts, you can get a MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM for $1499.

I dunno why there’s any controversy here: Of course Microsoft should update its commercials to reflect the facts of the current PC-vs.-Mac situation. It’s not about the Microsoft-Apple war, it’s about accuracy. Anybody want to argue otherwise?

 
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7 Comments For This Post

  1. John Baxter Says:
    July 24th, 2009 at 8:39 am

    Accuracy in advertising? That runs counter to 65 years of personal experience. (I’m not including my first 5 years.)

  2. Christian Says:
    July 24th, 2009 at 9:01 am

    Outdated ads are everywhere. It might be a shady move on Redmond’s part but that’s what advertising is about. Getting the consumer to love their product and hate the competitor. It’s up to the consumer to choose the right.

  3. Sean Says:
    July 24th, 2009 at 9:03 am

    Facts never seemed to stop Apple in their ads.

  4. Chip Says:
    July 24th, 2009 at 9:14 am

    The truth is that the ads have failed and should be pulled.
    Microsoft has been running the ads for five months, and PC sales have dropped, while Apple’s have risen.
    They need to come with some other approach, as these ads are not working.

  5. Steven Fisher Says:
    July 24th, 2009 at 9:28 am

    Forget correcting them for accuracy, the problem is the ads are having the opposite effect. It’s time for Microsoft to kill them.

  6. L1A Says:
    July 24th, 2009 at 9:59 am

    Meh who cares the adds do not work outside of “tech” community talking about them.

  7. JDoors Says:
    July 24th, 2009 at 10:09 am

    They did the right thing. If they had known beforehand that Apple would — surprise — LOWER prices (a response to the ads, maybe?), they might have “fixed” this from the beginning.