Crispin Porter’s Alex Bogusky appeared on the cover of Fast Company a year ago with the title “Can this man make Microsoft cool?”

Since then we’ve all seen the Crispin’s “I’m a PC” branding work for Microsoft with the “Life without Windows” thematic.

 It’s interesting stuff stylistically, but I think it fails to recognize that the social currency of both brands is grounded in an entirely different mythic archetype. 

 Bill Gates’ entire life is the unfolding of the compelling story of “the geek become magnate.”  His product’s look and feel has a blandly solid quality to it which one would expect from Bill Gates and which is also coherent with its main point of justification: the mostly widely used software in the world, the very language of organizations themselves.  Its blandly solid look-and-feel is rooted in the emotion of being in control.  And finally, the geek-become-magnate is a living example of the ruler archetype.  As Mark and Pearson point out, the ruler archetype appeals to us because it offers resources, order and harmony; and it can repulse us by its implied threat of tyrannical or manipulative behavior.

 Steve Jobs’ unfolding life tells the compelling story of “the hacker become visionary.”  His brand’s look and feel is creatively stimulating.  Intuitive, visual and beautiful in a way that eludes Microsoft, Apple stirs us up and lets us do things we never thought possible before.  Conversely, its major point of justification is that it offers better tools for being creative.  Emotionally, Apple is all about freedom.  And Apple taps into the outlaw archetype, appealing to us with the promise of liberation but also potentially repulsing us with the implied threat of capriciousness and unreliability.

 In Apple’s competitive advertising, it correctly addresses what we most fear from the Microsoft archetype: tyranny and manipulation.  But Microsoft’s attempt to look cool with it’s “I’m a PC” campaign neither leverages its strength nor attacks our deepest fear of Apple: that it might be a capricious and unreliable brand.  By chasing after “cool,” Microsoft missed an opportunity.