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Topic: The "What makes me go insane!" thread

Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 11-07-2009 12:47 PM

quote: Mark Ogden
I could care less from cool.

Here's something that drives me insane:
People who don't understand the difference between "could" and "couldn't." [Razz]

Also, it pisses me off when I tear down a movie only to find one of the reels won't go onto the MUT because the core's lone exposed hole was made with a small screwdriver and the remaining normal size holes taken up by the locking mechanism.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 11-07-2009 01:35 PM

Yeah, the Apple commercials can be rather pompous. But you remember the commercials. What is the last MicroSoft commercial that you remember? I'll be damned if I can remember any. Ever. The point of advertising isn't always to make people run out right away and buy tons of product, it is to get the brand into the public consciousness.

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 11-07-2009 01:53 PM

I definitely remember the ones where they taped the people who were purchasing laptops and only found the ones that met their specs and price range being PCs.

Granted, that was the first memorable ad they'd done in recent memory.

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Martin McCaffery
Film God

Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-07-2009 02:15 PM

I have vague recollections of Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld wandering around, or am I imagining things?

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 11-07-2009 03:30 PM

I remember that one too... and man did it suck.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 11-07-2009 03:38 PM

I agree Microsoft has not been very good with advertising and marketing its products. The several flavors of Windows 7 is yet another example of this. IMHO, there should only be one version.

This issue is complicated by the ad campaigns of many different PC vendors, such as Dell, HP/Compaq, Sony, etc. On the Mac side there's only Apple. Pretty simple.

quote: Randy Stankey
What I'd like to see, regardless of the company selling the product, is a campaign that centered on how well you can get work done on a given system.

That would certainly be a much more substantial approach. Unfortunately, the flaw with that approach is computer applications are really the tools helping the computer user get the job done, not the operating system. The Apple versus Microsoft thing only becomes an issue when either company's operating system is running an exclusive "killer application" not available on the other platform.

In terms of speed comparisons between a certain application running on two different computer systems so many variables can affect the outcome that it is very easy for a company like Apple or Dell to manipulate the comparison to their advantage.

Honestly, the biggest determining factor in speed and reliability of any computer system is the customer/computer user himself. His choices of system configuration and how he uses (or abuses) the system afterward will have a far greater positive or negative impact than choice of computer brand or OS.

I think Apple is at its best when the company shows off things you cannot do at all on a PC. You can't run Final Cut Studio on a PC. Or Apple's iLife suite. The same kind of tasks can be performed on a PC, but you must mix and match a variety of applications from different companies, all with varying levels of quality from very good to pretty crappy. You don't get the convenience and simplicity of just getting one suite and being done with it.

quote: Martin McCaffery
Agree with you about using Mac's, I've been a user since 1986. The marketing, however isn't aimed at us. 1) we're already hooked and 2) we have demo'd out of the prime advertising audience.

Actually, I think this is an area where Apple is missing an opportunity.

Apple's youth-oriented marketing works great in terms of selling iPods and iPhones. People under the age of 30 are the biggest demographic for those products. People over 30 buy more computer systems, especially in terms of business use. The highly lucrative business computing sector has its buying decisions largely dominated by middle aged customers. The vast majority of those customers are still choosing Windows-based systems.

I also think this is a very critical reason why Windows-based PCs are targeted by malware-writing crackers. The black hat cracker has a far better chance of making money off infiltrating a business user's PC than he does by hacking into some college kid's MacBook Pro.

Apple has made some previous attempts to market to business users, but with mixed results. The 1985 "Lemmings" Super Bowl ad for Macintosh Office only worked to insult potential customers. I think the current "I'm Mac/I'm a PC" ads are doing the same thing. Only youthful, cool people are worthy of buying a Mac. Older people and "nerds" make up the PC crowd. Apple is reinforcing the idea that Macs have no place in a straight-laced business environment.

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Galen Murphy-Fahlgren
Master Film Handler

Posts: 405
From: Canton, MI, USA
Registered: Oct 2007

posted 11-07-2009 03:39 PM

Microsoft has historically left advertising to the hardware vendors while practicing their dubious brand of "salesmanship" to get their software bundled on that hardware. There was an article in the New York Times a few months ago about it, which says that in 2008, Apple (with its ~8% market share) outspent Microsoft (~90% market share) on advertising by 71%. I wonder why Macintoshes cost so much. Now, in all fairness, Microsoft has since vastly increased its advertising budget.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 11-07-2009 03:58 PM

Unfortunately, Microsoft only seems to be helping Apple with its latest round of advertising. The current "I'm a PC" thing, showing a wide variety of different, not so nerdy computer users is nice in some respects, but it only reminds the viewer of the "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" ads from Apple that inspired the campaign.

Why can't Microsoft allow an ad agency to come up with something cool and original to promote its products?

And just what the hell is up with Microsoft having a Microsoft store? Or more specifically, why are they trying to copy Apple's approach?
[Roll Eyes]

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-07-2009 04:31 PM

Because that's what they always do. They copy other people's work. They bring it to market about 5 years late and it's always done half-assed.

I don't think Microsoft has done anything on their own. Hell, they didn't even invent MS DOS.

Microsoft have never really been big innovators.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 11-07-2009 05:01 PM

The whole who invented/innovated what thing is another can worms (Xerox really deserves the credit for inventing the graphical user interface, not Apple).

Nevertheless, Microsoft's first retail store in Arizona is quite an embarrassment, IMHO. And that's because it reminds people too much of an Apple store. Clearly Microsoft just doesn't know the demographics of its customer base. They could have come up with something better, or jobbed out the process to someone with a clue (like they have done with XBox/XBox360 product design and development).

There are so many other visual possibilities Microsoft could have pursued with a new retail store. Did it ever occur to them it might be good to do some research about design trends in the PC gaming community? There's a lot of wild stuff going on there. Windows PCs have a more utilitarian image. Why not play off that and go for a more mean looking industrial visual theme? Hell, even make it evil and tough looking like Alienware does with their computer systems. Microsoft could actually have some fun playing up the "evil empire" part of their corporate image in doing that. Middle aged business men dig the hell out that shit.

But no. They make their store seem eerily like an Apple store -or at least they've made it feel like walking into a Gap store that happens to sell computers.
[Roll Eyes]

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-07-2009 06:06 PM

I've never used a Mac or any other Apple product except my iPod. Our local newspaper is fully staffed with Mac users, but they can't produce a nice-looking ad to save their lives. So I make 100% of my own ads on various PCs over the years. Not to mention posters, flyers, in-theatre signs, etc. I'm no Bobby Henderson, but I think I do a pretty fair job. So, a product is only as good as its user.

quote: Bobby Henderson
Apple's youth-oriented marketing works great in terms of selling iPods and iPhones.

Well, that's where they make most of their money. If all they did was sell computers, they'd be in a world of hurt these days.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 11-07-2009 06:41 PM

I remember when Lockheed Martin was exclusively a Mac company back in the early 90's. Maybe around 96 or so or a bit later, they switched out to Windows. Not sure why they did.

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Clint Koch
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1435
From: San Luis Obispo, CA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 11-07-2009 07:02 PM

rap

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 11-07-2009 07:08 PM

quote: Mike Blakesley
Our local newspaper is fully staffed with Mac users, but they can't produce a nice-looking ad to save their lives. So I make 100% of my own ads on various PCs over the years. Not to mention posters, flyers, in-theatre signs, etc.

This reminds me of one thing that really makes me go insane:
When someone at the newspaper, magazine or phone book publishing company CHANGES my design. Oh man, that really pisses me off.
[Mad]

A few years ago we ordered a half-page phone book ad. I composed the ad to the company's points/pica sizing specs. The background imagery was an embedded CMYK TIFF with the proper color profile set. All of my type was converted to outlines to avoid any font substitutions. The only thing the phone book people had to do was drop the EPS file into the phone book layout. When we received the new phone book a few weeks later we only found out then the design dept. there had other ideas.

Someone there had to have creative happy camp fun with my layout. Everyone is an artist! We all get a gold star! That "designer" changed all my type to clunky weights of Futura and didn't have it spaced worth a damn. If the images in the background weren't flattened into a single TIFF I'm sure the little bastard would have moved around those elements too!

I blew my stack when I saw that ad. I raised hell with the phone book company's management and made them give us a refund.

There definitely is a syndrome in place where if one uses a Mac and some Adobe graphics software that person just automatically considers himself to be a graphics professional regardless of how much he sucks at graphic design.

Small town newspapers (and even more than a few big city papers) suffer from the same problem -certain hacks who think they're great because of the fleet of Macs in the room. The Macs are only there by default, not because the newspaper company is more professional. Newspaper production is still a very Mac-oriented thing because the infrastructure of industry specific tools has been in place for so long. It would be a logistical nightmare converting a newspaper production from Mac to PC. It's possible, but it would be a giant pain the ass.

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-07-2009 07:34 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
There definitely is a syndrome in place where if one uses a Mac and some Adobe graphics software that person just automatically considers himself to be a graphics professional regardless of how much he sucks at graphic design.

I see that a lot but it's not entirely a Mac thing. It happens a lot with Macs but not exclusively.

I see the same thing with video too.
That's the reason we got the two Power Macs in the office here. To make video.

Once I teach kids the workflow from start to making a finished DVD, they all think they are Cecil B. DeMille! [Wink]

For cripe's sake, they don't even know one aspect ratio from another! And, YES! I teach them! They just don't listen because they are too wrapped up in putting themselves on TV.

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