There has been a growing trend over the last year or two of American brands producing combative advertising that targets their competition. This used to be a frowned upon practise but apparently those frowns have been turned upside down (sorry!) to now be a norm of stateside ad tactics.
This last week has brought it all to a head, primarily due to the Apple ads that have had the same premise for the last few years. Justin Long, the Mac, is pitched against a Bill Gates look-a-like, the PC (basically Microsoft) on a standard Apple white background. Previously these ads had been quite light, closer to Apple gloating rather than being negative towards Microsoft. That all seems to have changed with the latest series, where it appears that Apple have realised Windows have put together a decent OS and don’t quite know how to deal with a product that is a genuine threat (as opposed to the last 3 years of joking about Vista). Check them out below:
Apple may be handing out brand bashing when it comes to OS, but they have also received a bashing in the smartphone market this week with Verizon releasing the iDon’t viral to increase awareness of its upcoming Droid phone (Droid on the basis that it is first phone to offer Android 2.0). Again it’s a little forced, with the features of the phone explained by ripping of the Apple white background ads along with the latest jolly coffee shop song. The video lists the features as things the iPhone doesn’t have/do. Check it out below:
Both campaigns are online only affairs that have generated a fair volume of conversation and questions regarding how appropriate the approach is.
I’m not a fan at all, it’s as if reality TV is coming to advertising. I expect advertising to amuse me in a manner than I find intelligent and witty, these seem to have been written by the bitchiest person in the industry alongside the laziest Planner. The end result feels like it has been written in lipstick on the back of a womans toilet cubicle.
Some older examples of combative advertising in the US can be seen .
