Sure there were a few tech bloggers like Mathew Ingram, Mike Masnick, myself and Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins (but then he has a really warped sense of humor so I don't know if that would count) who actually found the Bill and Jerry ads humourous. The only one's who seem to have lost their funny bones on the way to the latest Web 2.0 conferences have been the Mac fanbois.
I have seen all three of the new I'm A PC ads and I'm sorry but I'm not seeing any humour here - just a bunch of people saying that they use a PC computer. And the point is? Oh ya these are the ads that has Microsoft taking Apple on by trying to co-opt one of the sad sack characters in the famous Apples ads. The fact is that as obnoxious as the Apple ads may have been they did identify quite nicely with the general attitude of Mac users being better than PC users.
So what does Microsoft do now? Well they regurgitate the old Coca-Cola We Are The World type of ad to give us the impression that while stuck up elitist computer users fondle their Macs the real people of the world use PCs. Real people .. ya .. sure .. if those really people are doctors, new age therapists, rappers, a wrestler with attitude, a lawyer and oh ya BillG.
Granted there's a sprinkling of grannies and foreign aid workers but the fact is that just having a few hundred people standing in front of a camera saying "I'm a PC" isn't not going to make for memorable ads. It will though give the Apple PR machine something to fight back against and you can be sure that the late night oil is burning in Cupertino and the whip is cracking to come up with the classic Apple style ads to counter this massive *Yawn* fest that is the new Microsoft ad campaign.
As it is I have already forgotten all those new ads with the exception of that phrase "I'm a PC" which I wish I could take a drill to my head to get rid of. What I haven't forgotten though is BillG doing the underwear wiggle or the robot in the two ads that tech bloggers; most of whom use Macs, didn't find funny. Now if you were running an ad which would you prefer one that is remembered even weeks later or one that is forgotten almost the same day.