I’m a PC, and I Write Blog Entries

For what it's worth, I worked in television while in college, running the tape machines, and various behind the scenes stuff. From the perspective of TV stations, a new spot can definitely go online within 24 hours (usually less). The actual time is generally already bought and paid for months in advance...but there's always time available for the right price. Anytime you see an ad for a show or movie or event for the station itself (e.g. "Watch Friends every day at 6 and 8 PM"), that is a spot that is for sale, for the right price, until the day the spot runs.

Here's how it worked from a technical perspective ten, or so, years ago, when I worked in the industry:

Ads come in automatically via satellite twice per day, in big batches of 20-40 spots. They are automatically recorded onto a single tape (a computer was put online for this a few weeks before I left the station--it was a different ad distribution company, I believe, and so only a few ads were running off of this system, so I'm not deeply familiar with it, but it was fully automated, with no human intervention required to go from ad network to air). The single tape was then processed by a tape operator (me) onto individual tapes, and labeled with a barcode, for use in the master control automated tape loader. Turnaround time was usually an hour or two from the usual spot feed, and the spots were usually airing by the next day.

When an ad had a mistake, a special feed would be scheduled...sometimes within hours of the mistake being found and the ad producer being notified. A new version of the ad could definitely be online the same day. With the automated computer system, I suspect it could be replaced in minutes.

However, spot production is a somewhat different story. Depending on the size of the production, it could take weeks to schedule all of the pieces to fall into place. That said, with enough money and enough muscle (which Microsoft has in spades), a large scale production could be done in days or even hours.

To put things further into perspective, the station I worked for (WB 39 in Houston) also had a production division, and would occasionally make spots practically in real-time for local advertisers to tie into ongoing events like Rockets games. Adding running commentary of the game to spots, by the usual spokesperson for the company (like Mattress Mac), was a reasonably common practice. If Microsoft really wanted to change directions fast, they could do it. It'd cost them two or three times as much (if they were a normal customer...though their agency may have eaten some of the cost just to keep MS happy through these trying times and the perceived disaster that is the spots they'd already produced), and the agency would have to re-schedule other customers productions (or pay lots of overtime), but it could definitely be done.

The ad progress was freakin' brilliant. Bizarre ads got EVERYONE talking about Microsoft again, whether you liked them or not. The followup ads ("I'm a PC") were less remarkable, but people paid attention a lot more because of the initial grabber-ads with Seinfeld.

And, as Arrington said in a post today-- the "I'm a PC" ads made the Mac ads seem less funny and more arrogant. It had a great, "Fuck you, I'm not lame just because I don't use a Mac" quality and I think will nudge people to be proud of using a PC.

FWIW, I use a PC and I generally feel pretty content about it. I paid $400 for a great box on Craigslist. I can play games from time to time. I don't get viruses. My computer doesn't crash/freeze. I've watched my Mac buddies recently have a LOT more frequent hardware issues than I do (tho Apple is admittedly great at dealing with it when it happens).

My computer has no white plastic, no rounded corners, aliased fonts and I love it. :-)

You used "fanboy" like a negative term when you referred to Gruber. The name has negative connotations. Here you dismiss him again by calling him a "fanboy leader" and generalizing against Apple users and Gruber readers. People read his stuff not because he constantly supports Mac, but because he's a good writer, he finds good links, and he tends to be pretty honest about how he feels. I read him before I was a Mac user, and it was the things that he pointed out that made me certain that I wanted a Mac. I don't think that's fanboyish of him, though: he honestly pointed out interesting stuff, and he never acts with a bias towards Apple, beyond the bias of them working well for him. If Apple does a bad job, he points it out.

I'm not digging your style, I must say. Comparing my point to Bill O'Reilly's style is pretty distorted. My point - that if a lot of smart people are also big Apple people, that Apple may actually be making the best products - is hardly irrational. I don't know why you've got a problem against Apple, or why you like tinting every lens in favor of Microsoft, but it's not pleasant and most of your posts have things in them that seem sneering towards things I genuinely like. Apparently your big web site is also a blog that got famous for being offensive, so that's no big surprise, but at the same time you'll forgive me from finding it a bit immature of you.

You think Microsoft only had three ads planned? You think they dropped only a single ad? Citation? And if they DID overadvertise Seinfeld for only a few ads, I'd say that was a bad move on Microsoft's part.

I think that there's a difference between a bias and outright fanboyism. I've met Apple fanboys: they're not fun. They take the thing that I love about Apple users (the generally rational mindset) and make it look dumb. Gruber's not one of those people. Does he like Mac? Of course. But I think he likes it because they genuinely please him, not because he's getting paid to like them.

You're allowed to call bullshit on Apple fans who act like hypocrites. Apple fans who attack DRM without calling attention to iTunes are being stupid. At the same time, ignoring the fact that Apple's got more DRM-free music than any other store, last I checked, is ignoring the fact that Apple is TRYING to allow for open systems insofar as it doesn't ruin a business deal. But DRM isn't the issue here, and I don't see why that's being brought up.

Your initial stance against Gruber's reaction was a sneering one, though. I mean, those Seinfeld ads really didn't push much for Vista. They were well-made shots, but you've been saying repeatedly that they're possibly going to revolutionize advertising and make history. I think that's illogical just as you seem to think disliking those ads were illogical.

When I read blogs, I take their arguments at face value. If I'm reading an argument from Apple itself, if that argument makes sense then I'll agree with it until other proof comes up. Similarly, if somebody who's usually big on Apple turns around and starts praising Linux or Windows, I don't think they're more credible because it's such a big change. Unless their reasoning is good, I'll still call BS.

I didn't see the part in their statement where they said they had only dropped a single ad. I don't recall seeing that anywhere. If you've got a link to that, or even the site you found it on, then tell me and I'll give it a look. But I still hold that their having only two ads seems pretty lackluster and looks like they're panicking, even though I acknowledge the fact that there might be more reasoning behind them. I think that the terrible phase two that we're seeing continues that trend.

What would you like me to cite? Anything you think I said that isn't rationally thought-out I'll try to clarify. I will point out, though, that your responding to my accusations by using yet more weasel words really doesn't make you seem particularly more believable.

I like Seth Godin's take on the ads:

"[...] Vista and PowerPoint and Microsoft's other core non-game products are largely devoid of personality and are optimized to be sold to organizations that prefer it that way. Microsoft can change this if they want to, but until they do, running ads pretending to be something other than that is a waste of money."

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/09/what-adverti...