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Microsoft Causes Internal Family Strife
techmuse writes "Fresh from its ad featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld eating churros and discussing shoes, Microsoft has introduced a new advertisement in which the aging former CEO and comedian take up residence with a family, causing infighting and malicious plots by the family members. Although the ad does not mention Microsoft's operating system directly, it does mirror the real world experience of the company's products — appearing where not wanted, hard to remove, causing administration headaches, and finally being forced out in hopes of getting one's living space back."
holy flamebait summary, batman!
the united states is a nation of laws; badly written and randomly enforced -- frank zappa
Microsoft's operating system - appearing where not wanted, hard to remove, causing administration headaches, and finally being forced out in hopes of getting one's living space back.
Well you know you could just avoid giving Microsoft all this publicity if you feel so strongly about the quality of their products.
As for the advert, I thought it was quite funny. It didn't mention any specific products, but that's not really the point: the very personification of Microsoft (good ol' Bill) is given a soft, friendly image that will inevitably reflect onto the company and its products. It's got a kind of quirkiness that works really well - this will no doubt help improve sales of more personal product line (such as the Zune) that aren't really compatible with the hygienic, corporate image of Windows and Office.
Amnesty International
Disaster? I had people who know next to nothing about computers or Microsoft talk to me about the ad. That seems like a pretty good ad to me. I can't remember the last time someone asked me if I had seen an ad.
I'd like to see them visit a family with a nerdy kid who uses a MythTV box.
"Yeah, I used to use Windows, but it wouldn't record all the shows I told it to -- something about a "broadcast flag content protection error". Ever since I replaced it with Myth, I've had no more problems.".
...or does anyone get a "Napoleon Dynamite" vibe from these ads? If that is what they are shooting for, no wonder they are so boring.
The underlying message is that Microsoft (via Bill Gates -- as the symbolic head of Microsoft) is spending time understanding its customers. It's an astonishing mea culpa -- an admittance of past sins and guilt. Few other corporate entities would be as prepared to admit their past failings.
This campaign may well run until 2010, when the next Windows is due -- that's only just over a year away, depending on launch month. It might be very advanced publicity for that version, rather than Vista.
Anyone else confused about the 4 1/2 minute length?! For a single ad? They must have to buy complete commercial blocks to run this thing in.
No room for anyone but MS with that length. But I guess that's been their philosophy since the 80's.
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
It's good to know that I can come to slashdot anytime for fair and balanced news.
Oh wait, there's nothing fair or balanced about this. It's not even news.
What I got from the first commercial was:
Jerry represents a brainless Microsoft customer who is destined to take first place in the Darwin Awards. His head is so full of idiotic ideas that when Bill Gates wants to sell him a "sweet and chewy" PC, he's first in line to break his teeth.
The second commercial seemed well summed up by this article. A cost/benefit analysis of a Seinfeld/Gates stay is like my experience installing XP: You can explicitly tell them twice to stay off the internet and use an assigned address, but they have no respect for social mores. They will fill your resources with their aging disfunctional bloat.
I find that the biggest problem with Vista is its image.
I recently went from XP to Vista and couldn't be happier with a desktop OS. I use Ubuntu and Mandriva on the desktop on a regular basis, and build and maintain desktop machines with all four OSes on them, as well as run Ubuntu and Debian (and Solaris) on servers.
But Vista is a solid, fast, smart desktop OS. It's by far the best PC desktop OS out there. I was surprised when I tried it out and found out that it's quick, clever, and stable.
So, that said, I think it's enough to create an ad campaign that goes directly to Microsoft's/Vista's image. Cause the OS itself is pretty good.
That's a pretty misleading headline, kid.
They did not create TCP/IP, SMTP, the Web, or much of anything else.
No, they just put them on cheap commodity hardware.
I'm afraid PG&E have illuminated more homes than Edison too.
with these ads, it seems it's more a case of laughing at you instead of laughing with you. Maybe there's such a thing as a negative buzz, too, you think?
As far as it's relevance and depth are concerned, I'll leave that to you.
Me? I'm willing to see where they take it. I'm getting the subtle (and blatant) security, complexity, and usability references. Bring on more. I'm mildly entertained.
If the campaign were to end with a shocking release of a new OS and a "We Finally Get It" slogan, I'd also be pleased. Mildly entertained will have to do.
Microsoft increasingly has the problem with advertising that their is no actual reason to choose their products over the competition, therefore they have difficulty promoting their products in advertising by making any rational appeal.
If the purpose of advertising is to increase brand awareness, what is the purpose of advertising if you are Microsoft, you own the market, and everyone is already aware of your brand?
Maybe that Microsoft is a monopoly explains the new strategy of not mentioning their product in advertisements. Some sharp advertising executive realized that Microsoft did not need to mention their own products in commercials because everyone has already heard of them. Then he sold that idea to Balmer.
Though while Microsoft is in the enviable position having already achieved near 100% global product awareness, they face a new challenge that in addition to the public being aware of their products it is increasingly aware that those products suck.
Exhibit A is the the idiotic Mojave Experiment campaign which confronted that problem directly. Mistake 1: It was a public acknowledgment by Microsoft of widespread public discontentment with Vista and Mistake 2: It was an unconvincing attempt at persuasion using the pseudoscience of pop psychology. The argument goes like "you all think Vista sucks and we are going prove scientifically in a laboratory that you do not really think that Vista sucks as much as you think it sucks.
The Mojave campaign had the problem that it was about how people thought that Vista sucks and that is not a fact that you want to be advertising to your customers. By being about nothing, the Seinfeld+Gates campaign does not make the same mistake. But it still fails to overcome the problem which is that Vista is a bad product and their is growing public perception of that. Their are subtle and indirect forms of promotion. Consumers are irrational. Based on the advertisements which I see, I am pretty sure that male brains actually work in way which makes "Wow, the woman in that photo holding that bottle has great tits, therefore I will drink Budweiser." An argument to purchase a product can be both convincing and irrational, but Microsoft's new ads are not in any way convincing.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Yeah, because TCP/IP, SMTP, and the Web are so valuable without an OS. Love 'em or hate 'em, Microsoft did connect billions by putting an OS on the desktop that made those technologies worth something to Joe Average.
Facts speak volumes.
As you seem to live in another planet, and one where facts do speak volumes nonetheless, I friendly request that you take me to your leader -- after asserting that your homeworld environment is livable for my pitiful lifeform.
Because, in this planet:
But facts were never and will never be on the list. Not even close.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
holy flamebait summary, batman!
Seriously... Slashdot never has made claims at being unbiased, and I have no excess fondness for MS products (I'm currently writing this from my ubuntu desktop) but still... Frontpaging needlessly harsh opinions best left to tongue-in-cheek office humor don't serve the slashdot community.
If I want vitriolic bias, I'll head to Fox News.
Just because an ad is being talked about does not make it effective...
The "Where's the beef?" commercial years ago was a great commercial... an old lady asking where the beef is.
The only problem was that, although people were talking about it, no one could remember what product the commercial was for and did not generate the needed sales.
After a while, it was pulled and Wendy's did other things... (yes, being a business student who had been studying marketing, i remember the product).
soylentnews.org Go there to enjoy the people!
However I am finding that Software freedom comes at a cost of other freedoms.
What exactly is harmed by having more transparency and lower communication costs resulting in more efficient infrastructure?
And those guys who choose windows over Linux aren't as stupid as I once believed, and actually had informed reasons to do so
In every case I've seen it, it's because the C-level people find the name Microsoft socially acceptable explanation for everything technological. Sprinkle ANY useless explanation with Microsoftisms like "microsoft's documentation", "active directory", ".Net", "Exchange server" and they just accept the answer as is. Obligatory star wars reference, "These are not the droids you are looking for." Try it sometime!
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Sweet jumping Jesus on a pogo stick but I get sick of listening to partisan crap.
"They did it first."
"They do it worse than we do it."
"It's different when we do it."
Enough already.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
You left out one category.
Vista is perceived as being a bad product by a whole lot of people who had to use it, and not nearly all of them went in prejudiced. I was actually impressed by Vista when I first started to use it, but that feeling wore off real fast. (This was Vista SP1. We all knew that the initial version of a Microsoft product was iffy, but it should be solid after a service pack.)
YMMV, but that's my experience. The executive summary of my report on using our software on Vista is "Vista sucks, but it's mostly usable." (This may not be a good executive summary in all corporate cultures. Add weasel words as needed.)
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes