In an 8-minute-long ad titled "The Underdogs: BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) | Apple at Work", Apple attempts to assert its dominance in the operating system landscape, promoting macOS as a superior alternative to Microsoft's Windows, particularly in terms of security.
It places two startups, The Underdogs and Seaweed Packaging Solutions, against each other in a trade show called Container Con. The goal is simple — "find Trev Smith," the buyer of all Daily Organic Grocery, and make a compelling pitch that could potentially secure a 2 million bag sale (via Windows Latest).
Apple consistently and strategically markets its entire ecosystem across the entire ad film, showcasing how they neatly complement each other. However, the film takes a different turn during the trade show.
Despite using Macs for their workflow, The Underdogs seem to have a decided competitive disadvantage over Seaweed Packaging solution. Unfortunately, they encounter a PC outage and the Blue Screen of Death, which threatens their chances of securing the 2 million eco-friendly bags sale.
Consequently, this flips things back in The Underdogs' favor, as their Macs aren't affected by the massive outage. At this point, the ad film takes a different approach and seemingly turns into an anti-PC campaign, touting Macs as more secure and dependable, since they aren't susceptible to outages and critical issues like BSODs.
What you're witnessing is a classic PC failure, as tragic as it is predictable. Lucky for you, your Macs handled the endpoint detection and response tool, which monitors malicious activity. The endpoint security API handles kernel-level functionality by default, doesn't grant kernel-level access. The deepest parts of an operating system are being protected from modification by third-party software or malware, which is obviously what happened to those PCs. It's a PC problem, your Macs are secure.
Apple.
The Underdogs get a winning streak and their sales are off the roof, while Seaweed Packaging solution bump heads trying to circumvent the BSoD issue. "Did you try unplugging it? Maybe try yelling at it," the startup suggested.
Ultimately, The Underdogs end up winning the competition and securing the 2 million bag sale with Trev Smith. Funny enough, Smith says that his decision is solely based on the fact that they helped Seaweed Packaging solution out of a tough spot by advising them to "upgrade" to Macs, which are less susceptible to such kind of issues.
According to Trev Smith:
"I saw what you did. You had this competition on the ropes, and instead of going for the slam dunk, you helped them. Now, some of you might call that altruistic, supportive, even confident, but I wouldn't. I would call it foolish, weak, and naive, which makes you exactly the kind of people I want to be in business with."
The Crowdstrike saga continues to haunt Microsoft
Earlier this year, Microsoft changed the iconic blue error screen to a simplified black. The goal behind this move is to ensure third-party security software follows the new rules designed to stop bad updates and drivers from taking down the OS.
Last year, a buggy CrowdStrike software update left over 8.5 million Windows devices with Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors for hours. Businesses and users pointed fingers at Microsoft, but this wasn't the cause.
This consequently prompted the tech giant to implement new measures to prevent the issue, including restricting security software like CrowdStrike's Falcon from accessing Windows 11 at a kernel level.
Still, the tech giant continued to face harsh criticism, with Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian referring to it as "the most fragile platform" and potentially hinting that the company could be taking its business elsewhere. "When was the last time you heard of a big outage at Apple?" Bastian concluded.
While it's clear that Microsoft wasn't responsible for the buggy CrowdStrike update, Apple is still capitalizing on the situation to persuade Windows users to switch over to its ecosystem.
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