Microsoft Ad Campaign Gets Under Apple's Skin

Apple demanded Microsoft ditch TV ads featuring shoppers mulling the relative value of PCs and Macs, CNET reports. In the ads, which Microsoft’s chief operating officer calls “completely unscripted,” shoppers get to keep money they save by choosing a PC over a Mac. “We got a call from the Apple legal department,” Kevin Turner told conference attendees this week, “saying, ‘Hey, you need to stop running those ads, we lowered our prices.’”

“They took like $100 off or something. It was the greatest single phone call in the history that I've ever taken in business,” Turner said to applause, according to Microsoft’s transcript. “We're just going to keep running them and running them and running them.” Reports suggest that since the "Laptop Hunters" ads first appeared, Microsoft’s “value perception” has climbed while Apple’s has dropped.
(More Microsoft stories.)