Windows 7 parade dampened by new Apple ads

Apple releases a triple-shot of "Get a Mac" ads to strike back against the new Windows 7.

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Apple screenshot
"Broken Promises": The latest "Get a Mac" ad takes John Hodgman and Justin Long back to the 80s.

That didn't take long.

October 22  was supposed to be Microsoft's day to shine. It opened its first brick-and-mortar store (in Scottsdale, Ariz.). It launched a new online store, selling computers for the first time. Oh yeah, and it released this new computer software or something – you might have heard about it.

But never one to let Windows have the spotlight to itself, Apple chose Thursday to release a trio of new "Get a Mac" ads, featuring Justin Long and John Hodgman as "Mac" and "PC."

The new entrants to the line – it began way back in 2006 and is now up to 40 spots – feature the familiarly stodgy Hodgman and hipster-smug Long touting Apple's top-ranked customer satisfaction ratings, and taking digs (with their signature comic timing) at Windows 7.

These ads come after Microsoft's success this summer with its "Laptop Hunter" campaign, where real people (they were later revealed to be actors) are given money to buy a computer of their choosing – always a Windows machine. Apple in July issued a complaint about some of the ads, saying they cited out-of-date pricing information, and Microsoft quietly toned them down.

Last year's hugely expensive Microsoft ad campaign, which featured an uncharacteristically unfunny Jerry Seinfeld alongside recently retired Microsoft Grand Poobah Bill Gates, was dubbed a failure by many and saw the company transition to a series of Apple-mimicking "I'm a PC" spots.

We've embedded the latest three Apple ads below, but head over to Apple's video gallery for the full catalog.

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Mac? PC? Twitter works on both. Find us @CSMHorizonsBlog.

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