In the latest Scroogled ad, Microsoft enlists the Pawn Stars crew to help bash the Chromebook. Rather than go after a specific device, Microsoft is bashing the platform as a whole. While we really do enjoy Microsoft trying to make a point, it’s like watching a toddler draw a schematic for a missile; cute, but it just won’t work.


We’ll address the commercial, which you can find below, as best we can. First, we like that people might be getting a better idea of just how scripted “reality” TV is. Second, desktop apps make a Chromebook more than a device which needs to have an internet connection, and that program is growing rapidly. We’d also like to take a minute to point out that we found this video via the Scroogled Truth YouTube channel, so even Microsoft relies on Google services.

We’d also like to point out that Chromebooks are helping to dig the PC industry into a hole it’s not able or willing to get out of. Reports and sales figures suggest the PC is in decline, yet Chromebooks continue to improve year over year. Rather than cute accusations about operating systems, we’d love to hear how Microsoft explains that one.

As for Google taking our information to show us ads, that’s only half true. They use our search history — which we share willingly, and can opt out of — to focus ads which already exist on websites to our liking. Google is a search company first, and ads are a big part of revenue for them… just like licensing Windows is a big part of revenue for Microsoft. Also, nobody needs Office.

Also, you can get a Greyhound bus ticket form Las Vegas (where Pawn Stars is based) to Los Angeles for about $32. If you really need $32 that bad, maybe selling a Chromebook is a bad choice. You can always sit in one of the hundreds of Starbucks locations or other stores that offer free WiFi to find a job with a Chromebook — unless Microsoft has a way to search online job portals without a web connection. In that case, we’re all ears.

5 COMMENTS

  1. Microsoft is scared… but still the scroogled ad campaign is pretty funny. Unfortunately funny doesn’t sell windows 8 and windows phone

  2. Entertaining commercials, yes. But they don’t make Windows 8 or Windows Phone any better. It just tries to mislead consumers into thinking that ONLY Google tracks your online activity. Microsoft, Facebook, and really ANY company that offers a “free” product is using you to make their money in one form or another. The sooner people realize this, the sooner this stupid campaign will end.

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