It looks like Microsoft won't be taking its foot off the gas any time soon so far as the Scroogled campaign is concerned. On the other hand, the software giant has stepped on the gas by releasing a new ad that aims to throw the Google Chromebook right into the trash can. What is the ad all about? Well, the message is short, simple and clear: Chromebook is useless.
The latest Scroogled campaign aimed at discrediting Google with consumers was shot in Venice Beach in California. Microsoft sent out Ben Rudolph, known in the tech world as "Ben the PC Guy" and a Microsoft evangelist (but obviously). Rudolph talks to computer users on the streets to find out about their impressions of the Chromebook and ends up trashing the Google netbook.
"This is a Chromebook. Google says that it's everything that you need in one laptop.We're going to show it to some real people and see if that's really the case," Rudolph opens the Scroogled ad.
Google describes the Chromebook line of products as the "new type of computer with everything built-in." It also has a low tag price starting at $199 to attract customers looking for a low-cost computing solution.
"I use Excel. I use Powerpoint. Word," said one user to which Rudolph responded, "Word, Excel, Powerpoint? You can't install it on this one."
The brand evangelist even turned on Wi-Fi at one point and tried to connect to Google Docs. The framing zooms to the Chromebook screen showing, "This app is not available offline."
The ad goes on to show one person after another saying that Chromebook is useless to them unless it has productive tools such as Word, Photoshop, Powerpoint, etc.
At around 1:10 into the ad, Rudolph shows another Chromebook user the real purpose of the ad, a Windows 8 machine (a laptop-tablet hybrid) that can do everything that the Chromebook cannot do.
The latest Scroogled ad is a follow-up to the marketing trash-talking that tapped the services of History Channel's "Pawn Stars" where a lady was trying to sell her Chromebook to use the money to go to Hollywood but the shop turned it down saying that what she had was not a real laptop.
Microsoft has also opened a Scroogled Store that sells a range of products from coffee mugs, T-shirts, among others that are designed to bash Google for its privacy violations.
