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Is it even legal to directly refer to companies other than yours in an advert? I've never seen ads that do this, at least not on TV!

It's completely legal, but you normally don't because a lot of people buy products based on name recognition alone, and so companies don't mention eachother's by name lest they inadvertently canabalize their own sells.

Everyone already knows what an iPhone is, and a lot of people already know about Samsung, so Microsoft can't hurt themselves by acknowledging the existence of competitive products.
 
Problem is that the "isheep' is such a weak argument.

Calling people sheep because they use the best, highest rated, most reliable and so on product is pretty stupid all around.

They're not really calling Apple fans iSheep, you know. They're playing off the whole overly defensive brand war fans moreso than making fun of people for using a specific product.

And if you think it's ridiculous, just look at your post.
 
Wow Do We All Agree On Something Here?!?!

We really all agree that this was a funny commercial? I'm shocked! :)

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It's completely legal, but you normally don't because a lot of people buy products based on name recognition alone, and so companies don't mention eachother's by name lest they inadvertently canabalize their own sells.

Everyone already knows what an iPhone is, and a lot of people already know about Samsung, so Microsoft can't hurt themselves by acknowledging the existence of competitive products.

It is illegal to say something that isn't true about a brand other than your own.
 
If you are intelligent enough to decipher the ad message, you will realize there are a ton of iPhone and a ton of samsung users (not even mentioning google, just samsung). What the ad fails is that only those two waiters have windows phones. LOL. That about sums up the entire microsoft mobile phone market.
 
"Spectating"

Dear Microsoft

"Spectating" - So that's the human centric approach you about to follow? But I think your ad actually highlighted best features of both iPhone and Galaxy.

Come on Microsoft! Grow Up!!

Sincerely,
A not so fool Consumer :cool:
 
Is it even legal to directly refer to companies other than yours in an advert? I've never seen ads that do this, at least not on TV!

It's definitely legal to refer to other companies directly. However, most companies don't, because just mentioning the other company's name is free advertisement of sorts for them. Usually only if you're last place do you mention other companies.

Notice that Geico never mentions other companies by name directly. But Progressive and All-state do.

The only thing you're NOT allowed to do is lie about the competition. You can say something like 'The Microsoft phone is better than the Samsung phone', because 'better' is subjective. You can't, however say 'The Samsung phone doesn't have a camera, but ours does', because that is clearly a lie.
 
The ad is somewhat funny, but using the "switch" theme is such an obvious ripoff of Apple's decade old campaign. Typical MS.
 
Didn't even make me smile.

I'm a Android fanboi and that was the best mobile ad I've seen. Better than any Apple commercial and better than the Samsung iSheep commercials.
If you can't smile at this than you're no better than the people in this ad.
 
I'm a Android fanboi and that was the best mobile ad I've seen. Better than any Apple commercial and better than the Samsung iSheep commercials.
If you can't smile at this than you're no better than the people in this ad.

Agreed. I use a PC, a mac, iPhone and android products. People get to wrapped up in the brand they forget to even explore the best technology as it evolves.

This was one of the best ad's I've seen from M$ in a very long time. :)
 
Not gonna lie, that was a pretty awesome commercial. Still a terrible platform though, haha.
 
bizzare? oh yes because a grid of gazillion static icons is sooo much better...

At least I know where they are and what they do. But if you think looking at tiles, all the same color, and different sizes, is good, then have fun.
 
Must of read through the comment section on Engadget for inspiration in this commercial ;)

Seriously. Don't these companies realize that most people have absolutely no idea of the kind of idiotic OS-fighting that is commonplace on tech blogs?

In fact, it's interesting that Samsung, too, draws their marketing inspiration from this same vocal minority of 14 year-old high school kids whom define themselves by their choice of cell phone operating system. It's not only Samsung commercials, but they also seem to design their products for this tiny group, as well.
 
bizzare? oh yes because a grid of gazillion static icons is sooo much better...

The static grid of gazillion icons isn't much better but it is what it is: apps you push to open. While having live tiles is all the rave, who spends their time looking at their dashboard? When I use my device, I jump straight into an app, focusing 100% of my time in it. I don't care for all the widgets and distractions; only if they are notifications for me to check on such as email, text, news, etc.

While the layout is stale and bland, it does get the job done. Go ahead and ask yourself how much time you spend OUT OF AN APP? 99% of the time, you are in an app. The other 1% of the time, you spend scrolling and flicking your dashboard.
 
The only reason I'm not on Windows Phone yet is because 2 of my vital must have apps aren't on the platform yet, but its been announced that one of them is coming, so once they both hit Windows Phone I'm switching for sure.
 
Better than any ad Apple has put out in the last few years.

yeah, if you don't care about what your phone can offers. While it's a (very) funny app, what other choice Microsoft got ? Nothing. Their phones provides what competitors are giving since many years.
 
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