What Microsoft's Clever New 'I'm A PC, I'm An iPad' Spot Says About The Company Microsoft ‘s largely unsuccessful 8-month campaign to market Windows 8 and its new Surface tablets got a reboot at last with a new spot that takes direct aim at Apple ‘s category-leading iPad. The commercial is somewhat ironically titled “Less Talking, More Doing”. (It’s embedded below). Why the irony? Because to date the Surface campaign has included exactly zero spoken words in either “The Vibe” or “ Movement” so to call this one “ Less Talking…” well, yeah. I’ve been highly critical of the convoluted marketing behind Surface as you can read about in the included links to the left. Aside from the confusion generated by the two different models (RT and Pro) with ostensibly very different buyers yet much in common, the most confounding decision has been the message in all the advertising. Sure, the ads are everywhere and the tablet has perhaps the broadest television productplacement in history. But given that tablets are about touchscreens, it has long been mystifying that the video spots nearly exclusively highlight the fact that Surface can be used with keyboards. “Less Talking” actually has no keyboard in it at all, except a piano keyboard Microsoft borrowed from Apple’s own launch spot for the iPad Mini. (It actually doesn’t have a Surface in it either; it has something called an Asus VivoTab Smart). And the companion web page also is keyboard free. But what’s remarkable is how much the ad evokes the old “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” spots Apple once used to get people to take a new look at its computers when Apple was desperately trying to make a comeback. Now, I should be clear. This is a good ad. Using the voice of the iPhone’s Siri, it highlights multiple capabilities of Windows 8 tablets in 30 seconds, including the visually fantastic Windows 8 interface with its “live tiles” that make iPad’s simple rows of icons look as dated as its 6-year-old appearance truly is. That doesn’t stop tens of millions of people from buying iPhones and iPads, of course, but it does make the Windows product feel newer. After that, Microsoft shows off the fact that Window 8 tablets can run two apps at once, which some people might find appealing. But then it goes a bit off the rails by highlighting that one of them can be Powerpoint. Aside from the fact that Keynote on iOS is an excellent alternative than costs $10, the idea that people are thinking, “Wow I was going