It is clear that the advert wizards behind Intel’s new “Go PC” marketing campaign thought they have been intelligent in hiring “Get a Mac” actor Justin Lengthy to extol the virtues of Intel-based Home windows PCs. If solely they’d considered additionally giving him one thing intelligent to say.
The brand new “Go PC” campaign options commercials, web site banners, and a brand new Intel web page entitled “Apple M1 vs Intel — Which Processor Is Proper for You.” Spoiler alert: Intel’s concept of what is “best for you” has no actual foundation in actuality.
There’s loads to choose other than this marketing campaign: battery life claims which might be fully disconnected from numerous impartial real-world exams and comparisons; boasting about Home windows-compatible video games when customers want an Nvidia or AMD graphics card (definitely not Intel built-in graphics) in an effort to play them; exhibiting outcomes with apps that require Rosetta 2, relatively than native Apple Silicon apps, to skew the leads to favor of Home windows PCs.
However probably the most egregious, hilarious and/or unhappy (decide your adjective) try at a zinger is in Intel’s failed try at a dunk on USB-C dongles. In a tweet sent out this week, Intel posted an image of Lengthy holding up plenty of USB-C dongles tethered collectively, with the rhetorical query “Anybody know who these belong to?”
Why, sure, Intel, we do know who these USB-C equipment belong to: They’re licensed by the USB Implementation Discussion board, of which Intel is a board member.
In actual fact, Intel is such an enormous fan and supporter of USB-C that the corporate makes use of the very same connector for its proprietary Thunderbolt cable. And the Thunderbolt 3 spec, which Intel created, is included within the USB 4 customary, which, would not it, additionally makes use of the USB-C connector.
Even higher, an advert spotlighting the marketing campaign on the entrance web page of Intel’s web site reveals Lengthy holding what seems to be a Dell XPS 13 laptop computer — an Intel-based Home windows PC that has two USB-C Thunderbolt ports, and no legacy USB-A ports.
Higher not ditch these dongles simply but, Justin.
To be clear, there are some legitimate issues with Apple’s at the moment restricted M1 lineup of Macs spotlighted by Intel, together with the truth that they solely assist a single exterior show. However that fully ignores the truth that M1 is Apple’s entry-level processor, and extra highly effective Apple Silicon is predicted to debut this yr. To not point out those that do want a number of exterior displays can nonetheless purchase a wonderfully succesful Mac with (you guessed it) an Intel processor.
No offense to Lengthy — he is a advantageous actor, and hey, a gig is a gig — however Intel’s “Go PC” marketing campaign is little greater than a casting stunt. I might say it is all type and no substance, however suggesting there may be any “type” to Intel’s disjointed, aimless effort can be beneficiant, to say the least.
The entire “utilizing a competitor’s spokesperson to flip the script” trope is nothing new in promoting — in 2019, Dash did it with the Verizon “Can You Hear Me Now?” man. Dash merged with T-Cell lower than a yr later, and the Dash model title was retired. So how’d that marketing campaign work out?
Intel’s marketing campaign, after all, is in response to the truth that Apple is shifting its Mac platform away from Intel processors. At launch, the “Go PC” effort seems to be on a path to create the identical stage of “magic” that reserving the Verizon man conjured up for Dash, earlier than turning magenta from embarrassment.
The tagline for Intel’s “Go PC” marketing campaign is “Get Actual.” Maybe these adverts are extra “actual” than anybody realizes, revealing Intel as an outdated model, caught previously, and never almost as intelligent because the individuals behind it suppose it’s.
Leave a Reply