Use Bing, and get chomped on by a vampire
As I've noted in regard to infomercial spoofs, you can always leave it to advertisers to seize on a cultural trend, typically six months late, and beat it to death. Or in the case of vampires, suck all the blood out. No less than Microsoft, which has been called worse things than a bloodsucker by its rivals, is playing into this with the new Bing spot above. It shows the typical vampire type guy—greasy, long hair, severely manicured goatee—about to feast on an unsuspecting fawn after she uses Bing to find a place to eat that's suitably dark for his tastes. I'm actually surprised more advertisers haven't gone vampire for the Halloween season. —Posted by Brian Morrissey Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 28, 2009 | Permalink
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BK unveils septa-patty Windows 7 Whopper
Burger King in Japan is so thrilled about Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system that it's cooked up a giant seven-patty Whopper in honor of it. According to Engadget, it will be available for seven days only, and the first 30 customers can buy it for 777 yen (that's about $8.50). For latecomers, it will cost 1,450 yen (about $17). It's not clear whether the sandwich will make it to the U.S., where rogue BK employees now seem lame for making four-patty "Quoppers" for their friends. |
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Published on October 22, 2009 | Permalink
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Live-action 'Halo' trailer delivers ass-kicking
Last year, when Blizzard came out with its Lich King expansion, I pointed out that video games now need two trailers—one to capture the essence of the experience, and one to show the actual gameplay. Bungie Software and Microsoft have been releasing gameplay trailers for the Halo 3: Orbital Drop Ship Troopers prequel at the conventions (here's E3's) throughout the year, but now that ODST is dropping on Sept. 22, they've released the cinematic live-action trailer above, which truly brings the fiction of ODST into reality. The trailer, courtesy of T.A.G. in San Francisco, comes complete with a timeless musical selection, multinational story line (it gets a little tiresome when only Americans kick ass) and impressive attention to detail, like authentic Halo assault rifles in the 21-gun salute (yes, I noticed). Once you've watched it through, you'll feel like you just mainlined gamer crack, and you'll understand why fans have already started calling for a Halo movie (there'll supposedly be one in 2012). —Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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Published on September 9, 2009 | Permalink
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Microsoft ads not quite as diverse in Poland
Don't really want that black guy in the overseas version of your ad? Just Photoshop him out! Compare the English-language version of the company's business productivity infrastructure site with the Polish-language version. The Asian guy miraculously survived, but only a small portion of the black guy remains. They forgot to Photoshop out his hand. Via Engadget. UPDATE: In a Twitter post, Microsoft has apologized for its "mistake" and says it's going to take the photo off the Polish site. UPDATE 2: The same photo, with the black guy, now appears on both sites.
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Published on August 25, 2009 | Permalink
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Microsoft takes off with giant-water-slide ad
The category of obviously-fake-but-funny-anyway stunt videos has another proud member in this Microsoft clip from Germany, showing a dude catching major air while launching himself down a water slide and off a big ramp. The people pouring the water down the slide at the beginning are a nice touch. In the more specific category of fake-ramp humor, it joins this BMW video, also from Germany, in which some guys build a giant ramp to literally launch a new vehicle over to the U.S. Via Adrants. |
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Published on August 7, 2009 | Permalink
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Bing's lame jingle starts nice little squabble
Is it possible to have a three-way online flame war in which everyone wins? Apparently so. The battle in question began brewing Wednesday, when Microsoft announced the winner of its first Bing Jingle Contest. The winning entry, above, was created by Jonathan "Rock Cookie Bottom" Mann as part of his mission to write and post a new song each day. TechCrunch blogger MG Siegler took issue with the track in a post headlined "Bing Has Succeeded ... In Finding The Worst Jingle Ever." Mann fired back with another song, below, that supposedly mocked Siegler but in fact made the blogger's writing sound downright lyrical. Then, Michael Arrington weighed in, because he just can't help himself, and Siegler claimed victory on a technicality. None of which really matters. What matters is Microsoft got tons of free publicity for Bing, Mann got a record number of views for one of his songs, and Siegler discovered his accidental songwriting skills. Now come on, everybody. Group hug! See also: |
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Published on August 7, 2009 | Permalink
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This year's desktop-computing blockbuster
I've been excited for this since the teaser came out, and hoping Jerry Seinfeld wasn't going to star in it. Now, Traffik and Microsoft have finally released the full trailer for the spy-themed Office 2010: The Movie. The plot? Our agent's partner, Clippy, is dead. The people responsible have released a new rogue font! It's up to our hero to find it. They've clearly been influenced by some sources, like CollegeHumor's font conference and the original spy-themed Windows 386 ad that had everyone singing, "I'm using Windows, Windows, Windows 386!" (at 2:19, Bond music at 6:16). But basically, I think it's awesome. Unfortunately, the Web site doesn't live up to the hype. If you ask me, Microsoft needs to fully commit to this concept if it's going to work. Do all the tutorials in action-movie style—it will actually make people want to watch them. Turning boring office work into the action movie we wish we were living is a big idea for those of us using Windows for eight hours at a stretch, disconnected from the effects of the data we crunch. So, go ahead and make that moronic video on how to run Text to Columns more entertaining. It's really the least you could do. —Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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Published on July 17, 2009 | Permalink
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Bing keeps you from being a blithering idiot
Microsoft and JWT wasted no time in following up their introductory Bing commercial that we wrote about last week. In these three ads, the new "decision engine" is posed as the cure to a new disease called "Search Overload Syndrome," also known as S.O.S. Ha, clever! (Microsoft is all about curing people these days. Its new Internet Explorer spots treat the freaky disorders F.O.M.S. and S.H.Y.N.E.S.S.) Symptoms of S.O.S. include getting distracted by unrelated links and reciting meta tag descriptions in response to loved ones' queries. I like the spots—they're right on Microsoft's brand promises of productivity, efficiency, etc. But I always thought getting lost with other links was part of the fun of Google. (These ads are almost anti-curiosity, actually.) When I think about it, though, I do waste an impressive amount of time exploring unrelated links. If Microsoft could invent Bing-epedia, my productivity could truly soar.
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Published on June 11, 2009 | Permalink
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Microsoft's Bing prepares to save the world
Here we have a breaking campaign from a giant global company that's struggling to compete in a brutal market. It talks about making "decisions that help us get to the right place at the right time." Out with the old, in with the new. Reinvention. Revving a shiny new engine. But this isn't one of GM's "We're not dead yet!" spots by Deutsch (though there is car footage). No, it's introductory spot by JWT for Microsoft's Bing search engine (sorry, decision engine). Oh, I know the campaigns have vastly different purposes and can't be fairly compared, yadda yadda. It's just the similarity of the images and approach ... big-time drama by way of (mostly) stock footage. The Bing ad uses a snippet of Clockwork Orange-style wide-eyed thought-control footage—you know, where the subject is forced to keep his eyes open as images whip past on screen. That represents the chaotic state of digital information overload. A new search engine (sorry, decision engine) and a bunch of new commercials won't add to that, surely. |
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Published on June 3, 2009 | Permalink
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Has Microsoft paid for your new laptop yet?
Here's yet another new "Laptop Hunters" ad by Crispin Porter + Bogusky for Microsoft. It shows soon-to-be law student Lauren (a different Lauren than the one in the first ad) and her mom Sue, who want something fast and portable, with a good battery, for less than $1,700. Given that they're looking for the most basic possible elements of a laptop computer, finding one shouldn't have been hard. But again, they were turned off by the Mac's steep price. After somehow passing up on a pink computer, Lauren ends up with a Dell, which is quite portable, as she'll find out when the hard drive and memory cards give out and she needs to send it back for repairs. |
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Published on May 15, 2009 | Permalink
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More Microsoft laptop hunters on the prowl
In its ongoing effort to rehabilitate the nerdy, bureaucratic image cemented in consumer minds via the Apple ads, Microsoft has released a couple more "Laptop Hunters" commercials from Crispin Porter + Boguksy. (The first one starred "Lauren" and took place mostly on a grassy knoll.) The spot above achieves its everyperson vibe by featuring an 11-year-old boy whose mom calls him "dude." Well, at least he's a wholesome-looking kid with a healthy aversion to "cute" laptops that have software compatibility issues. Normally, anyone under 17 who's seen asking about a good gaming computer does so in between calling people "fags" over his Xbox Live headset. I can't see little Jackson behaving that way. I still feel bad for him, though, because middle school can't be easy when your mom's that hot. |
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Published on April 13, 2009 | Permalink
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Microsoft vanquishes hoops-playing beasts
This Microsoft Visual Studio Team System ad, in which a group of developers challenge the Dread Cthulhu Youth League to a game of basketball, certainly didn't endear itself to Copyranter. Or us, really. Saying that "Fast teams score often and deploy early" is all well and good, but it doesn't really apply to what we're seeing, or make much sense on its own. They should develop this into an Xbox 360 game, though. I'd play it. |
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Published on April 1, 2009 | Permalink
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HP gets caught in crossfire of PC-Mac battle
This new Microsoft ad by Crispin Porter + Bogusky makes a pretty compelling case for the affordability of PC laptops versus Macs. But it has also riled Apple lovers, and they're taking out their vengeance on the HP Pavilion Notebook that "Lauren" ends up buying in lieu of a costlier Mac. "It is the epitome of what people dislike about PCs," writes Computerworld's Seth Weintraub. Specifically, he takes issue with the $699 laptop's processor speed, screen quality, wireless networking, battery life and nearly eight-pound weight. TechFlash's Todd Bishop wants to interview Lauren to see what she thought of the laptop in the weeks after making "one of the most high-profile purchases in the history of the PC industry," but he says Microsoft is turning down requests to talk to the office manager/aspiring actress. This spot is the first installment of a campaign featuring real people who didn't know they were involved in a Microsoft ad. For their sake, I hope Crispin's listing on Craigslist said: "Volunteers wanted for free computer and lifetime of second-guessing by every Apple fanboy on the planet." UPDATE: Oh, but wait. Did Lauren even really go into the Apple Store? —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on March 30, 2009 | Permalink
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If a 4½-year-old can work Vista, so can you
Here's the latest Microsoft commercial, which premiered last night during the Grammy Awards on CBS. It's the first spot in what might be a new series of ads from Crispin Porter + Bogusky focusing on "rookies" who are new to computing but who master the programs with Mac-like ease. This ad stars Kylie, a kid who makes mincemeat of Windows Live Photo Gallery. "I'm a PC, and I'm 4½," she says with a grin at the end. (This little girl might just be pirating Disney movies by the time she turns 5.) As The New York Times reported last week, the "I'm a PC" campaign seems to finally be helping Microsoft to lift PC users' perception of the brand as technologically and environmentally advanced. |
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Published on February 9, 2009 | Permalink
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Microsoft Songsmith as awful as advertised
Considering how bad that Microsoft Songsmith ad was (we almost thought it was a fake), we didn't have high hopes for the product itself. And as usual, our low expectations were met, because the product is terrible. It's meant to generate musical accompaniment to match one's voice; these YouTube videos show the results of classic songs being fed into the program, with less than impressive results. (The machine must pass the sounds through its intestinal tract to produce what we hear.) That version of "Roxanne" sounds like something Buster Poindexter would have tried. The New York Times sort of tries to defend the program as something deliberate camp that went too far. But honestly, Kompressor met our "gimmicky synthesizer music" needs long ago, and at least that stuff was fun to listen to. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on January 26, 2009 | Permalink
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Microsoft Songsmith spot shockingly horrid
The ads with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld got a good spanking in the media, but they were pinnacles of human achievement compared to this apparent Microsoft creation: a long-form ad touting Songsmith, a Microsoft program that generates musical accompaniment to match a singer's voice. Hard to believe it's for real, but so far there's no evidence to the contrary. |
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Published on January 13, 2009 | Permalink
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Unofficial Zune spot redefines 'spray paint'When Microsoft hopped into bed with Crispin Porter + Bogusky, many of us hoped the lovechild would be some kind of freakish sideshow abomination that would polarize the ad world. Instead, people ended up split between "eh" and "meh." So, it was with a strange sense of fulfillment that I watched this disturbing unofficial viral ad for Zune, created by directing duo Sibling Rivalry. Now that CP+B has been handed Microsoft's also-ran MP3 device, maybe they'll be able to pull something equally innovative out of their ass. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on November 21, 2008 | Permalink
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Microsoft tries anything, to see what sticksWatching Microsoft's recent marketing unfold is like taking a class in Advertising 101, without the cute co-eds listening to their Zunes. (See, I keep up with trends!) Since September, Microsoft has deployed every conceivable creative strategy known to humankind. We've seen the celebrity endorsement (Seinfeld); the client in the ads (Gates); the attack/parody of the competition (the Hodgman clone in the initial "I'm a PC" spot); and now, the user-generated content. Microsoft is inviting everyone to upload videos to Windows.com—even Mac users, thus inoculating itself against potential embarrassment over UGC stuff created on Apple systems. "A Mac can be a PC too," the Vista gang proclaim. But can a PC be a Mac? When the answer's yes, I might consider switching. But not until then. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on October 30, 2008 | Permalink
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Macs vs. PCs becomes a musical bloodbath
With Apple striking back at Microsoft for striking back at Apple, you know it's just a matter of time before there's blood in the streets. Now, Canada's Accident Factory brings the Armageddon to life with "Macs vs. PCs." Blending the dancing of West Side Story, the bloody zeal of Evil Dead, and the primal screaming of 300, this gleefully gory video imagines a brawl so epic it could engulf the modern world in an ocean of carnage. Luckily, it's not real. I can tell, because the iPhone camera doesn't really have a flash. Via Cinematical. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on October 22, 2008 | Permalink
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Apple pokes fun at Microsoft over Vista ads
In what surely ranks as the adland in-joke of the year, Apple's Mac and PC return to comment on Microsoft's marketing efforts in the spot above from TBWA Media Arts Lab. Apple avoids skewering the content of Vista commercials (Seinfeld-Gates, "I'm a PC," etc.) in favor of the context, as Mac chides PC for earmarking wads of cash for Vista advertising but only a small stack of bills to fix the operating system itself. PC promptly sees the error of his ways in the spot's humorous payoff. It's a quietly amusing 30 seconds that speaks volumes compared to Microsoft's reported $300 million barrage. Though I still liked Seinfeld and Gates as a team. |
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Published on October 20, 2008 | Permalink
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Bill Gates unwittingly stars in condom ad
As his co-starring role in the Microsoft videos showed, Bill Gates doesn't mind being in the occasional ad. But he might be surprised to see his likeness—or more accurately, a penis dressed up to look like him—in this graphic, bizarre, NSFW condom campaign from Belgium. "I finally discovered an efficient antivirus!!" says copy on the Gates ad. Another penis is dressed up like John Lennon, who isn't around to complain. A third is perhaps supposed to be Arnold Schwarzenegger. There are also two generic characters called "Hot Shot" and "Icedick." Advertolog credits the ads to an agency called Troy. —Posted by Tim Nudd |
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Published on October 8, 2008 | Permalink
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What about those 'I'm a PC' ads, anyway?
—Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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Published on October 6, 2008 | Permalink
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Microsoft anti-Mac work was made on Mac
Just as Microsoft and Crispin Porter + Bogusky tried to play
down the
wreck of the HMS Conquistador by quickly launching their new “I’m a PC” spots, another
PR snafu has swept the blogosphere. Looking at data embedded in Microsoft’s
online photos from the campaign, a savvy Flickr user found that the images were
created using Adobe software on
a Macintosh (versus, say, Microsoft Expression Studio on a PC). The incriminating data
was removed the next day, but the damage was done. Maybe there’s a new adage to
be learned here: You can take the Mac out of the ad, but you can’t take the ad
out of the Mac. Via Blake
Helms on Twitter. |
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Published on September 20, 2008 | Permalink
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Seinfeld, Gates make way for regular folks
When Valleywag reported late Wednesday that Microsoft was canceling its Jerry Seinfeld-Bill Gates campaign (or "moving on to phase two," however they wanna spin it), my immediate reaction was: Those guys in Redmond, Wash., are a bunch of wussies. Sure, I was one of the few commentators who liked the spots. But I stand by that opinion, just like I continue to stand by Betamax! Those Microsoft teasers roused intense interest in the brand and—for two weeks, at least—humanized Gates, a man who previously seemed unlikable even when he gave away billions of dollars to charity. Now, instead of a feel-good, brand-friendly Abbott and Costello routine, Microsoft will apparently attempt to redefine Apple's "I'm a PC" line in ads, also by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, that will feature regular people (and a few celebs) who use Vista. Never mind that most people can't even load Vista! UPDATE: As for the news that a John Hodgman clone will appear in Microsoft's latest salvo, I'm hurt and dismayed that I didn't get the part. I gained 20 pounds for the audition! OK, 10 pounds. Five? You win: I actually slimmed down for the role. Happy now? —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on September 18, 2008 | Permalink
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Gates and Seinfeld want to be regular guys
Those who keep panning Microsoft's Jerry Seinfeld-Bill Gates campaign will soon be eating crow. (A subject I know something about, thank you A-Rod for a half-assed effort all year.) Sure, there's much one could dislike about the initiative: Seinfeld, Gates, Microsoft, Crispin Porter + Bogusky. And yet these elements, deadly on their own, somehow fuse into a pleasingly goofy whole. It's tough to turn away, and the buzz keeps building. This latest (nearly five-minute!) installment, posted above, finds the guys slumming in suburbia to learn how it feels to be average Joes. Jerry cracks wise ("I've got so many cars, I get stuck in my own traffic") and Bill does the robot dance. It plays like Seinfeld crossed with The Brady Bunch and an unintentionally bad PBS documentary. Seinfeld's show, one of the most enduring hits in the history of electronic media, was famously about nothing. And these spots are about nothing much. So at least they can't do any real harm. Which is more than you can say for Windows Vista. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on September 15, 2008 | Permalink
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