Microsoft has started their $300 million ad campaign that, as previously mentioned, features the talent of Jerry Seinfeld. I saw the ad last night, and there has been a lot of talk about the quality of it this morning. Personally I was expecting it to, at the very least, inadvertently show off some things Vista is capable of doing. If you haven’t seen the ad yet take a look and let us know what you think:
TechCrunch managed to get their hands on an internal email that implies this is just the first phase of the campaign, and that some of the future ads will better highlight Vista’s features:
The first phase of this campaign is designed to engage consumers and spark a new conversation about Windows – a conversation that will evolve as the campaign progresses, but will always be marked by humor and humanity. The first in this series of television ads airs initially in the U.S., and it aims to re-ignite consumer excitement about the broader value of Windows.
[...]
Think of these ads as an icebreaker to reintroduce Microsoft to viewers in a consumer context. Later this month, as the campaign moves into its next phase, we’ll go much deeper in telling the Windows story and celebrating what it can do for consumers at work, at play and on-the-go.
I’ll reserve my final judgement about the video until I see what else they come out with, but I don’t think it will become the viral campaign they are hoping for if it continues down this path. Hopefully I’m not the only one who didn’t understand the point that the ad was trying to get across.
The point of this campaign is to start getting people talking, and then eventually listening to what they have to say. Judging from the fact that this ad has been listed on every single tech news site, I think it’s effective so far =)
A lot of build up for that small hint at more to come in the end. Also, made it sound like excited about another new version to come. I was expecting them to defend Vista here. I guess we’ll see.
If Windows Vista is such a good product, then why would Microsoft has to spend a $300 million ad campaign to attract users to its bandwagon? Something is just not right at Redmond.
I haven’t used Vista, so I can’t express an honest opinion about it. I use XP and would not like to switch to Vista unless I’m forced to.
The ad is simply unfunny. Am I not getting the American humour? Seinfeld was a fantastic show, but this…? What the?
Hey Omar, you basically answered your own question. It’s because people make judgments about it without giving it a shot first-hand.
Wow, that was possible the worst ad I have ever seen. Bad script, acting, and no plot. I thought it was a commercial for the shoe store.
“A computer that is chewy and moist so we can eat it while we work”??? Not only is that not funny it’s lame.
I saw this video the other night. I am very confused as to what the heck they were trying to accomplish.
Totally agree with Michael, CoryC and El Guru. I do have to say I find this fitting with everything else Microsoft is doing to try and beat their competitors: they try too hard to match competitors (often almost literally), which I think is part of the reason why they fail. Imho they should “be different”, which doesn’t mean “same different” as their competitors.
If they don’t know what they are selling, how on earth are we to figure it out? It may not be the worst, but is is certainly one of the most confused ads I’ve ever seen. Between the shower and the cake, I was actually experiencing a gag reaction. But, maybe there is someone on this earth that managed to decode the gibberish, and is now trashing their Mac and running out to buy a PC. More likely they are looking for a recipe for Vista ala mode!
I am not impressed at all. Overall I thought the message was way to subtle and not direct enough. Even if they are trying to sneak a message in the back door with subtly, I think most people will not be pulled in by this ad campaign. Either you like Vista or you don’t; unfortunately I think many judge Vista too harshly in some ways. However there really are some things I don’t like about Vista like computability with apps and installers in particular. I was shocked when I setup a program for a friend on Vista Business and had to use the control panel to setup a special shortcut to run in Windows XP compatibility mode. Worse yet I could not get the updater to work. Making things like this work better should be job one for Microsoft, not this ad campaign.
well it’s a casual ad. No direct message, but getting the Windows logo out there is a big step!
MS need to sort out their products. Right now they are unreliable and untruthful. Having an ad where they are ‘human’ is nonsense. It just makes me think same old MS.
As a longtime windows user and now a Vista 64 user its been a nightmare. Lack of support and reliability are huge issues.
Not to mention Vista accidently deactivated itself afew times which led to many phone calls. In one case the person just put the phone down on me. I am guessing he assumed i was a pirate. Felt like i should have been one.
Its really hard to be positive about Vista when its best features are old Mac features(but not integrated as well). There is hardly any incentive to recommend it. On first impressions its fine but on long term use its very grating.
Lets not get started on other products. Xbox is unreliable(and has tons of expensive add on costs). Office is their strong point but useability wise still needs more than just the ribbon. MSN/Live are a joke.
They should spend that money on sorting out their quality control. I am steering away from giving any money to MS again.
Next time i get a Mac.
I think the point of the add is to have no point. That is exactly what Microsoft wants, to get people to talk about windows. This is simply the best way to do that.
A new concept is born : interactive advertisement. Interesting.
I loved the fact they used Bill’s mugshot for his ID.
It was a lame ad IMO, as it didn’t have anything to do with Vista, we shall just have to wait and see what happens, since they are going to have more ads.
Install Linux. Its free. Steve Jobs is the devil. Where do you think he got the idea’s for his operating system? Linux.
Very true, and seeing the second ad now it’s becoming a little more obvious where they are going with the campaign.
Because everyone is giving it a bad rap without even trying it themselves. That makes the general consumer want to distance themselves from Vista because they’ve heard via word of mouth that it’s terrible. Microsoft is trying to reverse the damage that has already been done to the reputation of the operating system, but it may be too late at this point.
That was definitely pretty funny.