So I feel like it has been forever since I have last blogged and that is because it has been! Our computer went down at the beginning of August, and since buying a new computer wasn’t quite in the budget, we just got our new one up and running now. This little story does relate to advertising (although I may have a horribly round-about way of proving it). During the time our computer was down we were obviously looking everywhere for a new one. I paid closer attention to the deals in the weeklies, and even watched some of the ads that came on to see if there was anything special about buying one computer over another (as I am completely computer illiterate). What I found from watching these ads is that they tell you ZERO information about the computers they are selling!
Now I don’t want to get into a big debate over who makes the better computer (Mac or PC), but that seems to be all that the computer ads talk about! The two ads that are repeatedly shown are the ad that starts with “I’m a Mac” “I’m a PC” and the ad that gives someone $1000 for a new computer if they can find what they want in the store.
The first ad (created by Apple) about the Mac versus the PC is quite clever. It’s always got a cute punch line and it is funny to see what the PC is doing now to try and keep up with the Mac, but there is almost no information about the computer in the commercial. Apple focuses on one small part of its computer (maybe the fact that it can only “catch” 3 viruses), and makes it a tiny part of the spot. I have to admit that I do enjoy this ad, but as a person who knows little about computers looking to buy a new one, it gave me zero reasons as to why I should shell out $1000 more for the Mac. (I know all of you Mac lovers are probably going to message me with millions of reasons why I should have gotten one.)
The second spot (which I am assuming was created by HP) is not nearly as comical as its counterpart. This ad actually kind of irks me too, because I want to know why those “random” people got the $1000 to buy a new computer when I would have loved to have been the one! The information these people “give” is all useless to me (the PC screen is much larger than the Macs, the price is less, etc.), and again, it does little to tell me anything about the benefits of their own computer.
These two ads have one major flaw as far as I am concerned; they do not attempt to help the consumer through their advertising. If they would have told me how many pictures or songs or documents their computer can hold, I would have listened. If they would have told me how fast the computer goes, and how it will outlast other similar ones, I would have listened. If they would have told me how quiet, small or easy to use it was, I would have listened, but they didn’t, and my final computer choice had absolutely nothing to do with a spot that I had seen on TV, because the ads on TV didn’t tell me a darn thing! These companies are spending millions of dollars on advertising that isn’t selling their product. My final choice came from a brother-in-law who actually knows what he is talking about, and got us the best bang for the buck…how many others do you think have done the same?
