Microsoft has thrown a punch at Apple in its latest advertising campaign featuring Mac Book.
Yep, you read that correctly: an actor called Mackenzie Book, who goes by the nickname of Mac, runs through the biggest selling points of a Surface laptop in the new digital advert.
The ad campaign compares Apple’s MacBook Air line to the Microsoft Surface laptops and runs through some of the apparent deficiencies in the MacBook line, such as a lack of touch screen, something Apple is yet to add on a MacBook despite years of pleas from tech fans.
“Meet Mackenzie “Mac” Book from Sydney, Australia. We asked Mac Book to compare Surface Laptop 2 to MacBook Air. Find out what he has to say,” Microsoft said of the ad on its YouTube channel.
So far, the ad has had almost half a million views on YouTube, and it’s expected to start airing in the United States in the coming weeks to push the Surface Pro.
In back to school season, both Apple and Microsoft are ramping up their efforts to appeal to students, with Apple recently reducing the price of the MacBook Air to $999 and throwing in a pair of Beats headphones for eligible students, encouraging them to choose a Mac.
The Surface Laptop 2 is similarly priced at $999 and bundles such as a free year of Office 365 and a two-year warranty make it a compelling offer for the back to school season, though free headphones aren’t offered as part of the deal, so Apple wins on that front.
The ad is a spiritual successor to Apple’s Mac and PC advertising campaigns that ran from 2006 to 2009, created by TBWA\Media Arts Lab.
Those ads reportedly helped Apple sell more than 200,000 additional Macs in the first month of airing, with a 39% increase in sales by the end of the year.
Whether this new Mac Book campaign will have the same impact on Microsoft, however, remains to be seen, with some calling the ad campaign a cheap knock-off.
What do you think about Microsoft’s new ad? Funny or awkward? Let us know on Twitter using @AppleMagazine and check back soon for more on Apple, every day of the week.
