Clearly, the ad wizards behind Intel’s new “Go PC” campaign thought they were clever in hiring “Get a Mac” actor Justin Long to glorify the virtues of Intel-based Windows PCs. If only they had thought of telling him something clever too.
The new “Go PC” campaign features commercials, website banners and a new Intel page titled “Apple M1 vs Intel – Which Processor Is Right For You”. Spoiler alert: Intel’s idea of what’s “good for you” really has no real foundation.
There is a lot to choose from in this campaign: battery life claims that are completely disconnected from numerous independent tests and real-life comparisons; bragging about Windows-compatible games when users need an Nvidia or AMD graphics card (certainly not an integrated Intel graphics card) to play them; show results with apps that need Rosetta 2, rather than native Apple Silicon apps, to skew results in favor of Windows PCs.
But the most egregious, hilarious, and / or sad (pick your adjective) attempt at a zinger is Intel’s failed attempt at getting a dunk on USB-C dongles. In a tweet sent this week, Intel posted a photo of Long holding several USB-C dongles together, rhetorically asking “Does anyone know who these are?”
Yes, Intel, we do know who owns those USB-C accessories: they are certified by the USB Implementation 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 the exact same connector for its own Thunderbolt cable. And the Thunderbolt 3 specification, which Intel created, is included in the USB 4 standard, which, you wouldn’t know, also uses the USB-C connector.
Better yet, an ad that showcases the campaign on the front page of Intel’s website Long shows with what looks like a Dell XPS 13 laptop – an Intel-based Windows PC that has two USB-C Thunderbolt ports and no legacy USB-A ports.
You can’t throw those dongles away yet, Justin.
To be clear, there are some legitimate issues with Apple’s currently limited M1 line of Macs under the spotlight by Intel, including the fact that they only support one external display. But that completely ignores the fact that M1 is Apple’s entry-level processor, and the more powerful Apple Silicon is expected to debut this year. Not to mention those who need multiple external monitors can still buy a perfectly capable Mac with (you guessed it) an Intel processor.
No offense to Long – he’s a great actor, and hey, a performance is a performance – but Intel’s “Go PC” campaign is little more than a casting stunt. I would say it’s all style and not substance, but to suggest that there is a “style” in Intel’s incoherent, aimless effort would be generous to say the least.
The whole “use of a competitor’s spokesperson to flip the script” is nothing new in advertising – in 2019 Sprint did it with the Verizon “Can You Hear Me Now?” dude. Sprint merged with T-Mobile less than a year later and the Sprint brand name was discontinued. So how did that campaign go?
Intel’s campaign is, of course, in response to Apple moving its Mac platform from Intel processors. At launch, the “Go PC” attempt appears to be on a path to create the same level of “magic” that the booking the Verizon guy called for Sprint, before turning magenta with embarrassment.
The slogan for Intel’s “Go PC” campaign is “Get Real.” Perhaps these ads are ‘more real’ than someone realizes, revealing Intel as an outdated brand, bogged down in the past and not nearly as smart as the people behind it think it is.