Apple has yet another new iPhone commercial out touting the smartphone's features by showing it as a personal device and a part of people's daily lives. In contrast, Microsoft's latest ads take a more negative spin by trying to show Apple's products are inferior.
Apple's ads target emotion, not tech specs
Apple's latest commercial shows people using their iPhones to listen to the music they love at home, at work, with friends and when traveling. Like the Photos ad before it, and the other ads in Apple's iPhone and iPad campaigns, the message is about making these devices personal and showing how they are a part of our daily lives.
Microsoft, in contrast, is going for a more aggressive anti-Apple message -- much like Samsung -- instead of a pro-our-products style. While Microsoft's most recent commercials are at least entertaining, they go for a comparison to Apple.
For Apple, it's about emotion and making the message personal. There isn't any talk of product specifications, what the iPhone does that other smartphones can't, or any mention of competition at all.
That lack of competition in Apple's ads makes the iPhone and iPad the star, and by focusing on feature comparisons, Microsoft is making the iPhone and iPad the star, as well.
Apple isn't guilt-free when it comes to targeting the competition in its commercials. One of the company's most successful ad campaigns was the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" series where the computers were anthropomorphized as personalities played by Justin Long and John Hodgman. Even still, Apple managed to keep the focus on its products while keeping the message light hearted enough so that the ads never felt negative or mean.
In the end, it's about deciding what message you want to send to your potential customers and while Microsoft is saying "Look at us," Apple is saying "Look at you."