Katarzyna Petru
Apple is back with another installment of the iconic advertising series "The Underdogs" – and this time it is showing no mercy. The new spot "The Underdogs: BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)" has set the tech industry ablaze, as it hits directly at the heart of Microsoft's biggest blunder – the catastrophic incident from July 2024, when millions of computers worldwide experienced a simultaneous "blue screen".
“Blue Screen of Death” as the backdrop of chaos
The action of the advertisement takes place at industry fairs. The Apple Underdogs team – well-known from previous spots – observes how the competition's booths are literally drowning in the blue glow of BSODs. The famous error message appears on Windows computers, while a crowd of technicians helplessly tries to bring the equipment back to life.
This is an obvious reference to the CrowdStrike update disaster of 19 July 2024, which paralysed 8.5 million devices worldwide and caused losses estimated at $5.4 billion. Apple uses this situation with surgical precision — showing that Mac computers avoided the issues thanks to a completely different approach to system security.
Apple's Technical Response
The advertisement is not limited to jokes. In the second part of the spot, the narrator explains why macOS is resistant to similar failures — from isolating critical processes to the lack of direct access for external drivers to the system's kernel.
Apple argues that it is the security architecture that differentiates their platform from Windows, where errors in external software can paralyse global operations of companies.
Divided Industry
Reactions to the ad are polarised. Some experts in the marketing industry describe it as one of Apple's boldest and most brilliant moves since the "Get a Mac" campaign, while others accuse the company of attacking Microsoft for something that was the fault of an independent software provider.
Microsoft, in turn, in an official comment, reminds us that it has already implemented new protective mechanisms to prevent similar situations in the future.
The fight for business trust
One thing is certain – Apple took advantage of Microsoft's crisis as the perfect moment to remind everyone of the stability of Macs in the corporate environment. More and more corporations started testing MacBooks as an alternative to Windows laptops following the chaos in July.
The spot “The Underdogs: BSOD” is not just an advertisement — it is a strategic move in the battle for the enterprise sector, which has been dominated by Microsoft for years.
