Apple Attacks Microsoft's Attack Ads!

Well, here we go again - Apple has now responded to Microsoft's attack ads with it's own attack ad as seen above in this YouTube Video clip. I must say that I rather like most of the recent ads, both from Microsoft and Apple, and I must admit that it's kind of fun watching the two titans battled it out with each other in the media.

Of course, when it comes to the truth in advertising, I tend to take it all with a pinch of salt. Ads can be fun, educational and interesting, but they can also tend to stretch the truth somewhat as we all know. Personally, I not only prefer Apple's products to Microsoft's, but also their ads. I find them funnier, and to me funny is just as important as the truth in advertising. However, as far as the truth in advertising goes, when it comes to Microsoft's ads, well, don't to find much of it in Microsoft's offerings according to some people like John Molloy who writes for ZDNet.uk,

In fact, Mr. Molloy calls Microsoft's ads, particularly the new ad pitting the cost of the Zune's subscription service with that of the cost of the iPod's, basically all lies and nothing but. In a recent article of his titled, "Microsoft's Perfect Storm", he writes:

"The marketing team think they have hit a perfect storm attack on Apple where as in fact what they have done is just drawn attention to the fact that they lie. They lie with stats, they lie with numbers but when you strip everything away they just downright lie. They have not won this war and yet they keep throwing money at it."

I have to agree with John, because for one thing, as ChannelWeb reported, if you were to actually fill up your Zune with an equal amount of songs via Microsoft's subscription service, well not only would you have to continually fork over $15.00 per month (or else you'll lose all of your songs, minus ten free selections per month), it would actually end up costing you not $30,000 versus the iPod, but it would, in fact, actually cost you a whopping $45,000 to fill the Zune - that's one-and-a-half times as much!

As questionable as someone actually buying $30,000 worth of songs is, what is really interesting is the simple fact, that at ten free selections per month, it would not only cost you one-and-a-half times as much to fill up the Zune as compared to the iPod, but it would also require some - 240 years - in order to do so! Sheesh, like give me a break, will yah Microsoft?

So there you go, you can't just take any old ad at face value, and that goes especially for Microsoft's recent anti Apple, anti Mac and anti iPod attack ads, which, if not quite factual, are at least entertaining.

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm expecting to see a lot more fireworks to ensue as Apple and Microsoft continue to battle it out in the media, so my suggestion is that we all just sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Wednesday, May 13, 2009