It is clear that the advertising wizards behind the new Intel “Go PC” campaign thought they were smart in hiring “Get a Mac” actor Justin Long to exalt the virtues of Intel-based Windows computers. If only he had thought of offering her something clever to say.
The new “Go PC” campaign features ads, website banners and a new Intel page called “Apple M1 vs Intel – Which processor is right for you” Spoiler alert: Intel’s idea of what “is right for you” has no real basis in reality.
There are many to choose from in addition to this campaign: battery life claims that are completely disconnected from countless real-world independent tests and comparisons; boasting Windows-compatible games when users need an Nvidia or AMD graphics card (certainly not Intel’s integrated graphics) to play them; displaying results with applications that require Rosetta 2, rather than native Apple Silicon applications, to distort the results in favor of Windows computers.
But the most egregious, hilarious and / or sad (choose your adjective) attempt at a zinger is in Intel’s failed attempt to dunk the USB-C dongle. One tweet sent this week, Intel posted an image of Long supporting a series of interconnected USB-C dongles, with the rhetorical question “Does anyone know who they belong to?”
Why, yes, Intel, we know who those USB-C accessories belong to: they are certified by the USB Deployment Forum, of which Intel is a board member.
In fact, Intel is such a big fan and supporter of USB-C that the company uses exactly the same connector for its own Thunderbolt cable. And the Thunderbolt 3 specification, which Intel created, is included in the USB 4 standard, which, if you don’t know, also uses the USB-C connector.
Even better, an ad that highlights the campaign on the front page of the Intel website Long holding shows what appears to be a Dell XPS 13 laptop – an Intel-based Windows PC that has two Thunderbolt USB-C ports and no old USB-A ports.
You better not give up those dongles yet, Justin.
To be clear, there are some legitimate issues with Apple’s limited range of M1 Macs currently highlighted by Intel, including the fact that they only support one external display. But that completely ignores the fact that the M1 is Apple’s entry-level processor and expects Apple Silicon to debut this year. Not to mention those who need more external monitors, I can still buy a perfectly capable Mac with (you guessed it) an Intel processor.
No upset for Long – he’s a great actor and, hey, a gig is a gig – but the Intel “Go PC” campaign is little more than a stunt casting. I would say that everything is style and without substance, but the suggestion that there is a “style” for Intel’s incomprehensible and pointless effort would be generous, to say the least.
The whole “using a competitor’s spokesperson to turn the script around” is nothing new in advertising – in 2019, Sprint did it with Verizon’s “Can You Hear Me Now?” type. Sprint merged with T-Mobile less than a year later, and the Sprint brand name was withdrawn. So how did that campaign work?
The Intel campaign, of course, responds to the fact that Apple is moving its Mac platform away from Intel processors. At launch, the “Go PC” effort seems to be on track to create the same level of “magic” that the Verizon guy reserved for Sprint, before turning magenta into embarrassment.
The slogan for the Intel “Go PC” campaign is “Realize.” Perhaps these ads are more “real” than anyone realizes, revealing Intel as an outdated brand, stuck in the past and not as smart as the people behind it think.