Were images in Microsoft's 'I'm a PC' campaign made with Macs?

At some point after the publication of still images from the second phase of Microsoft's ad campaign on its Web site -- as first reported in Computerworld -- observers noted they'd been prepared on a Mac.

The still images -- frames from a TV ad which then aired Thursday night -- were posted to Microsoft's PressPass site last week.

But a later check by BetaNews this afternoon of the high-res photo gallery for those same images revealed all four of those photos to have been tagged under this Program name: "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows."

So were the tags altered, or were people just looking in the wrong location for their photo information?

BetaNews asked Microsoft directly. A spokesperson responded this afternoon: "As is common in almost all campaign workflow, agencies and production houses use a wide variety of software and hardware to create, edit, and distribute content, including both Macs and PCs."

The new TV ad -- the first in Microsoft's "image campaign" not to feature comedian Jerry Seinfeld -- satirizes Apple's own "I'm a Mac / I'm a PC" ad campaign, which painted the Windows PC as a dorky drudge, doomed to lose to the ultra hip Mac.

On the same day as Microsoft's own "I'm a PC" ad hit the airwaves, Microsoft also announced that it was moving to the second phase of its new marketing campaign, identifying "Life without Walls" as the underlying theme of the whole ad shooting match -- and also implying that life with Macs is a closed world, with a lot of walls indeed.

"And tonight, the Bill-and-Jerry 'teaser' ads give way to a new series of television ads that celebrate the diversity and passion of consumers around the world who use Windows to stay in touch with the people, information and ideas that they care about," Microsoft said in a statement on Thursday. "The new ads are just a part of this major Windows marketing initiative, all designed around connecting with consumers in meaningful ways throughout their Windows experience" -- whether buying a PC, using a Windows Mobile device, or living life on the Web."

Speculation has been rampant as to whether Microsoft pulled the Seinfeld ads because they were backfiring or whether -- as Microsoft officials have claimed -- the move to the second phase in the campaign was planned for last week all along.