'This film is rated PC: No Macs were used in the making of this video'

Yesterday, Microsoft posted video "PC & Mac take flight -- Avatar & Windows 7." It's not the most clever title, but the story is subtle and driving, like good marketing should be. Microsoft mad men once again cleverly market Windows 7 PC benefits, but, more importantly, they quite effectively highlight the differences between a Windows PC and Mac.

The video features a Windows laptop and Mac notebook in adjacent seats on a plane flight. The animated short is long on subtle marketing cues -- like the airplane made out of Campbell soup-like "Windows Seven" cans; plane taking off over a Hollywood-like "Microsoft" sign; Windows logo on fasten-seat-belt-sign; and rating: "This film is rated PC. No Macs were used in the making of this video."

The video also is the best swipe ever against Apple's now retired "Get a Mac" marketing campaign. The commercials featured John Hodgman as a Windows PC and Justin Long as Macintosh. Hodgman played a doofus, while Long's Mac was cool and, arguably, smug. Here, the two laptops are friendly -- they're buddies, not adversaries at all.

It's a long flight, and the Windows laptop is ready to watch a movie, "Avatar," and he invites the Mac notebook to join in. Blu-ray logo flashes across the screen. It's another dig and differentiation -- no Macs currently ship with Blu-ray players. "This is so cool," says the Mac -- and later: "It feels like we're really in it."

If these two characters aren't part of a broader Microsoft marketing campaign, they should be. Microsoft has finally hit the right response to the "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" commercials. I strongly encourage Microsoft to air commercials with these characters in other settings. Keep the computers buddies -- it's more endearing, and it's a kick-in-Apple's-crotch that others are sure to write or talk about. All the while, future commercials can make those subtle digs and demonstrate the benefits of a Windows PC over Macintosh.

In that spirit, I've got another poll for you this week, as I seek to get a better understanding of Betanews readers. I want to know how many of you identify yourselves primarily as Windows, Mac or even Linux users. The question isn't meant to identify which kind of computer(s) you use, in part because many people run more than one operating system. I want the emotional response, which is how you identify yourself. Primarily for that reason, you can only choose one answer. The survey above requires JavaScript. If you have disabled JavaScript or you can't see the embedded survey, please use this link.