Apple Goes McCain On Microsoft With Mocking Attack Ads

The advertising war between Apple and Microsoft continues. Apple’s latest TV spots mock Microsoft’s $300 million ad campaign for Windows Vista, suggesting that some of that money would be better spent fixing Vista. The ad is funny (see above), but it does seem petty and elitist. After all, the new Microsoft ads got much better once they dumped Jerry Seinfeld as a spokesperson and went with the everyman “I’m a PC” rallying cry (which itself was a response to Apple’s long-running campaign mocking PCs).

It is also hypocritical. Apple’s advertising budget is also pretty massive. I mean, I see more Apple commercials on TV than ads for Barack Obama. Apple is on track to spend more than $3.5 billion on SG&A (selling, general, and administrative expenses) for its fiscal year that ended September 30. How much of that was spent on advertising? I don’t know, but 10 percent doesn’t seem unreasonable. Update: Turns out that Apple’s advertising budget for fiscal 2008 was $486 million ($467 million in FY 2007, and $338 million in FY 2006).

The second ad, which makes fun of Microsoft’s new naming conventions for Windows is below. It’s not as funny.