Sean Siler would never be mistaken for a movie star. A former U.S. Navy officer who wears glasses and is a tad on the heavy side, Mr. Siler works at Microsoft, where he oversees the Windows division’s adoption of new Internet connectivity software called IPv6.
But there were audible gasps last summer when Mr. Siler, 39, auditioned for Microsoft’s new ad campaign for Windows, created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky, the Miami agency best known for its cheeky work for Mini Cooper and Burger King.
“I was like, ‘Are you kidding?”‘ recalls Rob Reilly, one of the agency’s executive creative directors. “It couldn’t have been more perfect.”
Everybody agreed that Mr. Siler looked exactly like PC, the character played by the comedian John Hodgman in Apple’s popular “Get a Mac” ads that lampoon Windows-based computers and those who love them. Two weeks later, Mr. Siler reported to a nearby television studio. The agency dressed him in PC’s dorky uniform — white shirt, baggy khakis, brown sport coat and matching brown tie — – and handed him a script with the lines: “I’m a PC. And I’ve been made into a stereotype.”
Mr. Siler joined a parade of environmentalists, budget-conscious laptop shoppers, mixed-martial-arts fighters, mash-up disc jockeys and remarkably tech-savvy preschoolers who appear in Microsoft’s new campaign, which is intended to show that real Windows users aren’t all clueless drones.
For Mr. Siler, the experience was almost like being a geeky incarnation of Brad Pitt. His e-mail address was on the screen, and he received 4,000 messages from viewers — some from grateful parents whose children had wanted expensive Macs over PCs and now had second thoughts.
Crispin Porter & Bogusky put up a video on YouTube in which Mr. Siler discussed his role in the campaign; it was viewed more than 702,000 times. At work, he…