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Mainstream Press "Cringes" At Win7 Launch Parties
lurking_giant writes "Well, Microsoft has done it again with the YouTube Windows 7 launch party video that is turning the stomachs of even the mainstream press with its clueless and campy marketing style. A Washington Post reader was quoted as saying 'If Microsoft had been put in charge of marketing sex, the human race would have ended long ago, because no one would be caught dead doing something that uncool.'" Even the Guardian's resident die-hard Apple hater calls it "the most nauseating advert in history."
Have Leo Laporte and the TWiT's had their Windows 7 party yet?
He said that they were signing up (2 weeks ago?) and would receive among other things: Windows 7 themed balloons, napkins and cups.
Wow, Microsoft.... Just, wow...
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This thing is so vomit-inducing that everyone is talking about it and many who would not have watched the video actually did. As a case of viral marketing, I'd say it is brilliant. Few viruses can make you puke just by looking at them.
Wow...it took them over 3hrs to film that short 6 minute PSA. Not only was it horrible, but the actors involved didn't even believe what they were pitching.
Anyone have a link to that heinz video?
I tried hard to find it as I got a kick out of it but came up empty handed. I do have a link to our discussion on this as well as from there you can see that the videos were deleted on YouTube and have broken links on the NY Times. If only the NY Times was ballsy enough to cache them locally in the name of journalism :) Unfortunately there's not much left in the name of journalism these days ...
Also, if anyone has Don Hertzfeldt's e-mail address I'd chuck $20 at a paypal fund to commission him to make a video for a Win7 launch party. I mean his video for Johnson's Bean Lard (now with 50% more sodium!) made me want to purchase it.
My work here is dung.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
Who are they marketing to?
No, if Apple had done this, it would still have sucked. It would take more than "genius" to make this pitch work, it would take "omnipotence." In fact, if the marketers at Apple really are geniuses, I would expect them never ever to try a campaign as hokey as this.
If anything, Apple sells only the style and solidity of the hardware and the utility of the software, and downplays the operating system because it exists only as a facilitator to the other things you want to do with the computer. It really is a case where you want to sell the sizzle instead of the steak, because the steak is boring.
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
The Windows 1.0 video was intentionally a joke video made for the annual company meeting shown to employees.
I'm actually hosting one of these, but we're also going to be doing comparison demos of Ubuntu and Snow Leopard. In addition to the Windows 7 junk that comes in the party kit (including a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate), I will be giving out LiveCDs and and discs of free software.
I think Windows 7 is a marked improvement over XP (I have been using it fulltime since the beta), but friends help friends find what's best for their situation. I have die hard Windows/Mac/Linux friends, so doing it this way is a chance for everyone to explore something new--even if I have to make an excuse like a Windows 7 party to do it.
We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
"but we're also going to be doing comparison demos of Ubuntu and Snow Leopard"
Hey, Dude, that's uber cool! And, I don't even talk like that, LMAO! Can you film it? Or at least post about how it goes? Maybe some pics? Come on - ya gotta do it!!
Is it all geeks, or are you gonna have less abnormal "users" there? Can I come?
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
wait until you try the OS.
I've been using it for several months, it's definitely not as bad as their marketing.
I remember hearing this about Vista, pre-launch as well.
The only real difference here is that Windows 7 has Vista to compare against, which can only make it look good. Additionally, new PCs will really require Windows Vista/7 to take full advantage of the hardware (or, perhaps XP64, which is too problematic to be mainstream). I'd wager, though, that hardware consideration aside, average consumers would rather run XP than Windows 7.
...and yet, there's something like a 90% chance that you will buy their product
Far fewer than 90% of people actually ever buy a Windows product. They may buy a PC (still, nowhere near 90%, but I'm not going to quibble here), but they generally *aren't* particularly set on Windows specifically.
Does it matter that it's a horrible marketing attempt if the goal of the company is still accomplished?
MS's goal isn't met, hence the ads. They want everyone to run out and buy Windows 7. This won't happen. They want PC makers to not sell Linux. This won't happen. They want Apple to fail. This won't happen. Calling 90% (or whatever) to be MS's goal is like running with football, then drawing an end zone around the spot where you were tackled.
Is it just me or is it incredably ironic that the video is streamed from YouTube which is owned by Google. Shouldn't they have their Bing or equivalent knock-off by now?
what about 528?
In reality, there was a lot of fanfare with Windows 95 and 98. ME broke a bubble but Windows 2000, where DOS was finally dealt a death as an underpinning, was a comparatively big deal. There was fanboyism that in turn, gave Microsoft a lift into data centers where they'd never been allowed before. The rest of history is as we know it.
So yeah-- they had and even may have fanboys. Linux once really sucked, despite its philosophical underpinnings. Apple's MacOS wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, either. Things change.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Am I the only one who read all these parent posts in the voice of the middle woman in the video?
And is it just me or are they written conversation-style mimicking the pacing of the video?
As to why people are hosting these parties, free software is the answer. Party hosts get a free copy of Windows 7 and some promotional crap to distribute to their "guests". All you have to do is organise some form of party and claim its a release party. Plenty of these parties will just be a host and some fictitious guests. Microsoft PR will happily take the raw numbers and use them in future advertising (ie x thousand parties worldwide and y million guests). I can see why the PR clowns thought this was a good idea, since they don't live in the real world and have no idea how most people perceive Microsoft and its products.
Not even. Essentially what they are doing is kickstarting a quality viral campaign. Snigger all you want at the ad, that's what they want you do do. They produce ads that are so embarrassing that the message is really clear: "oh, did you see the lame ad, these guys should stick to doing what they do best, which is programming. Win 7 is actually quite good you know."
The implied contrast is: "Apple is all about good marketing."
Let's face it: we geeks all do the same thing. When you show up with your dirty beard, beer gut, suspenders, blackened coffee mug, you are telling the world "everyone values my competence so much that I don't need to sell myself via superficial means."
Same with Zunes and squirting and all that.
Both, now that I think of it.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
I think you're right about what they're attempting, but not that they're failing.
They're not trying to make themselves look cool, because as you say, they sell a ubiquitous product. What they are doing is setting their customers up to feel hip. The advert makes it very easy to sneer and feel superior to the awkward geeks portrayed by the actors on screen. People like to feel superior, they even feel more graciously disposed to their 'inferiors'. They might even hold ironic or deliberately grungy versions of the Win 7 parties themselves.
So, as alert consumers, you have to ask yourself one question:
"Which is more likely, that an advertising agency with a virtually unlimited budget would make such a truly amateurish video, or that you are being subtly manipulated?"
Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
I think Windows 7 is a marked improvement over XP
How?
(I have been using it fulltime since the beta),
Why?
How we know is more important than what we know.
I think the two caucasian women are a missed opportunity. Surely one of them could have been asian or hispanic, no?
People who aren't cool enough for a Mac. Haven't you seen laptop hunters?
In fact, they're marketing to people who have enormous chips on their shoulders about being so entirely uncool (or poor) for Macs.
I jest. They're talking to themselves. Microsoft's insecurities have been laid utterly bare in all their marketing attempts for a decade.
There was a joint interview with Jobs and Gates not too long ago that I'm too lazy to dig up, and a question was asked "what do you envy about the other" -- Gates' answer came off as snide, yet honest: "I wish I had your taste"
They've been at this since the Zune came out and they started marketing to the Wal-Mart demographic. Because Wal-Mart folks like brown things that work almost sorta as well as an iPod at the same price. Because you're not cool enough for an iPod, and you've got a chip on your shoulder about it.
The weird part is... that demographic's pretty much stuck with MS out of ignorance, and MS is tilting at windmills whenever they go against apple. They inevitably end up looking as insane (and sad) as Don Quixote himself.
They're trying so hard to astroturf these days, build a viral movement. I'm not sure they understand that apart from a handful of lunatics/idiots/middle managers out there, there is nobody on earth who actually likes Microsoft. Maybe they do understand, and they're trying to overcompensate?
Their messaging isn't helping any.
So, as a career advertising guy (15 years & counting) I don't get it either.
Round about Vista/Zune, MS and their various agencies of record starting shooting themselves in the foot. I'm here to tell you Crispin/Porter is a great, kooky agency... but they just can't speak to the Wal-Mart moms that MS thinks they're in danger of losing.
Microsoft's achilles heels are Office (in the near term) and Mobile (in the long term). If they lose control over file formats and Exchange lock-in, Microsoft as we know it gets pushed over their tipping point. Over the long term, so many of our common tasks will be moving to mobiles or embedded devices instead of PCs -- and MS let Mobile languish as a steaming pile for the better part of a decade.
But now they're just shitting out me-too copies of consumer electronics.
Maybe the whole thing is misdirection? I don't think so, but there has to be a few smart folks at that company who can see the forest for the trees.
I'm actually hosting one of these, but we're also going to be doing comparison demos of Ubuntu and Snow Leopard. In addition to the Windows 7 junk that comes in the party kit (including a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate), I will be giving out LiveCDs and and discs of free software.
Wait wait wait wait WAIT a minute. You can't just slip that past us so easily. There's a party kit? You're not joking about that?
#DeleteChrome
You should do a slashdot article on it.
Money is the root of all evil?
OMG no. You get balloons, a deck of cards, napkins (napkins?!) and free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate. You're suppose to install it on your computer and become familiar with and demo it, but since I've had a copy since the RTM was released last month, I'm just going to raffle it off.
Most of this crap isn't even going up, but here's the full list of junk:
-One limited Signature Edition Windows® 7 Ultimate
-One Deck of Playing Cards with Windows® 7 Desktop Design
-One Puzzle with Windows® 7 Desktop Design
-One Poster with Windows® 7 Desktop Design
-Ten Tote Bags with Windows® 7 Desktop Design for hosts and guests
-One table top centerpiece for decoration
-One package of Windows® 7 napkins
Also included in USA party packs:
-One package of streamers for decoration
-One package of balloons for decoration
Looks like the rest of the world gets the shaft, what with no balloons or streamers...
We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
In the video (yes, I watched everything) they said you should install it 2 days before your party starts.
That cracked me up. I guess it takes 2 days to install :-)
The party will not go smoothly if guests are arriving and the host is
still trying to get Windows 7 installed.
My thoughts exactly. It's the same thing as those ads with deliberatly crappy lighting, camera angles and sound.
There really is no such thing as bad publicity.
Be wary of any facts that confirm your opinion.
I installed the one direct from nVidia's website because I was getting jaggies and screen flickering in some video games.... Out of the box, it had a perfectly adequate 2D driver and was able to use the display at the native 1680x1050 resolution, but 3D performance was non-existant.
I also prefer not to install drivers from Windows Update. I like knowing exactly which version of a driver I have installed, and I don't like replacing drivers unless I'm having an issue that needs to be addressed. If it ain't broke, don't fix it and all. :)
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb