It's a funny ad, but what about a gigantic hourglass flying from the Windows user's screen, or the frisbee like thing in Vista? I sure get those in Windows a lot more often than beachballs in OS X.
that's as far as i'd go.Not sure if it's clever or anything but very unexpected.
Regular everyday people are not going to understand the ad at all.
So... are you saying people who use OS X are not regular everyday people?
I don't think that ad was from Microsoft.
I smiled, but thats it.
I find it a tad funny, but most won't understand it and it is extremely random.
It's not a bad ad, but you'll only get the significance of the beachball if you're already familiar with OS X (i.e. already use a Mac).
The average windows user is probably left scratching their head.
Btw isn't the girl at the second desk also using a new iMac?
Not extremely random- haven't you ever encountered the spinning beach ball of death- also sometimes known as spinning marble of doom?
Note it here:
http://logo.cafepress.com/nocache/7/7219326.2310757.jpg
Causing force quits worldwide!