Microsoft's Windows Ads: Finally Good?
Microsoft's Windows advertising gurus made us suffer through Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, and Churros, before providing slightly more interesting food for thought with the company's Laptop Hunters ads.
But the advertisements for Windows 7, like the software itself, finally seem to be hitting the right notes.
These are a few in a series of ads that debuted recently on the Windows YouTube channel. Not only do they identify the product being marketed (something that Gates and Seinfeld inexplicably struggled to accomplish) but they actually demonstrate some features and show what the software can do. For the record, however, SeattlePI.com's Nick Eaton reports that the ads aren't expected to be on television.
Hat tip to Emil Protalinski at Ars Technica for spotting these.
Read more of Todd Bishop's posts at TechFlash.com, and follow him on Twitter @toddbishop
newscaper on September 27, 2009 at 04:20 PM
My wife, a first grade teacher no less, seriously detests the latest Win7 ads with the precocious little asian girl.
...and I thought it was just me .
Lou Minatti on September 27, 2009 at 04:28 PM
If you look closely the college-bound kids are taking photos with disposable film cameras. Not sure what that has to do with Movie Maker. Is there anyone under 20 who still uses film cameras?
hiscross on September 27, 2009 at 05:34 PM
iDVD 2001. Kids do thing on their cell phone these. I would like to see a WinMobile add having the same people doing things. Oh wait, Microsoft doesn't have a phone.
Rich on September 27, 2009 at 06:11 PM
Why would she detest the cute lil girl in the Win 7 ad? heh Can you explain? I'm thinking the cute lil girl reminds her of a FREE THINKER?
Leland on September 27, 2009 at 06:17 PM
Oh wait, Microsoft doesn't have a phone.
Correct. Microsoft doesn't have a phone that they completely control, including allowing an exclusivity agreement that restricts owners from using the phone with a specific vendor in certain ways. After having to upgrade my iPhone for the 3rd time in 4 months to gain new services that my LG phone at Verizon had 3 years ago; I wish we had purchased the smartphones with the Microsoft Mobile OS, primarily because that purchase could have been with someone other than AT&T.
Da Coyote on September 27, 2009 at 07:48 PM
Microsoft has never and will never lead the pack in anything.
They'll get a phone someday - someday. Perhaps it'll only need to reboot every other call.
Weaselca on September 27, 2009 at 08:55 PM
"Microsoft has never and will never lead the pack in anything."
Except that 90% share in the OS market?
Bryan on September 27, 2009 at 09:44 PM
Weaselca hits the softball over the right-field fence!
TomC on September 27, 2009 at 11:00 PM
All the ads need to say is
"FINALLY YOUR VISTA NIGHTMARE IS OVER!"
with a sound track of people cheering.
Peg C. on September 28, 2009 at 04:21 AM
I like some of the ads a lot. I'll be upgrading my 4 month old Vista laptop, but hubby is about to buy a Macbook Pro - first Mac in the family though we own several iPods and iPhones. (We'll ditch the iPhones in Dec. when the contract ends - we detest them.) We need the Macbook for multimedia. Windows has never done that very well and it's hard to believe 7 will change that. I'll be real happy to put Vista behind me, though.
newscaper on September 28, 2009 at 05:27 AM
Rich said "I'm thinking the cute lil girl reminds her of a FREE THINKER?"
ESAD -- our household is libertarian-conservative, not knee-jerk PC liberal like you correctly assume most educators in non-flyover country are.
She detests the ads because they are *annoying*, particularly the most recent with the pink ponies and "Final Countdown" blaring. The first ad showed Win7 getting ordinary tasks getting simple enough a bright kindergartener could learn to do them, but the 'cute kid' angle is cloying and cheap pandering. And the point is that, if my wife -- who LOVES her kids (for 20 years) --, finds it irritating, they're missing the mark. Surely they're not aimed at techies & early adopter?
Andy on September 28, 2009 at 05:59 AM
"Microsoft has never and will never lead the pack in anything."
Ah, the distinctive mating call of someone set in their ways.
REN on September 28, 2009 at 06:42 AM
These ADS were indeed good... it is nice to see Microsoft finally coming around, even if just a little ~> I may actually, finally, give up my XP and go to Windows 7. And yeah, I have friends who *STILL* shoot with vintage film and disposable cameras! <~ Which, you *can* scan and edit into videos... GET WITH IT!! Just because *YOU* or your friends may not do these things does not mean others do not!!! =Þ
Fake Steve on September 28, 2009 at 06:50 AM
Good video about hosting your own Windows 7 party:
http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/09/honestly-ballmer-what-frig-are-you.html
Trouble on September 28, 2009 at 11:07 AM
Peg C.
If I may sound a note of caution: think again before buying the MacBook. In my experience, the supposed suitability of a Mac for multimedia was just that - supposed. A PC with enough RAM and processor speed should handle multimedia just fine.
Macs are good machines, but not good enough to justify the price premium - or all the hype. The Mac faithful still swear by them, though, so YMMV.
Cheers -
T
Sam on September 28, 2009 at 09:20 PM
I'm worried about Win7 a year after all the updates. Let's me explain why: I was an early Vista adopter. I had a relatively weak PC, and Vista worked beautifully. I would tell people that had no idea what they were talking about when they criticized Vista. ~2 years later, I HATE Vista. It's slow, it's dumb (e.g., how it organizes multimedia--who the f is going to tag or rate every freakin' file?), and unreliable.
I've had a Mac. Bought a mini on Craigslist and sold it after I ran out of disk space (80gb wtf?). I wasn't in love with it either, but Windows is really starting to get to me.
At this moment, I'm very torn.
David on September 29, 2009 at 12:01 AM
I've been using Win7 (beta then RC) for about 9 months on a machine that dual boots w/Ubuntu 9.04/9.10. This is the first desktop OS from Microsoft since Win 2K Pro that I've liked. At all. Works well. Multimedia is easy, with a very few bumps in the road. The first Windows Media Center that's really worth using. A lot to like. I can see it as a full time OS on one of my machines. Heck, I've even pre-ordered the upgrade for my wife's three-year-old Toshiba Satellite, and I expect no real problems with the upgrade, given the ease of installs and upgrades using the RC on other, test, machines.
Win 7 is still lacking in out of the box security features and ease of networking with other OSes (especially sharing peripherals, etc.), but it's not the trouble Vista was (yes, was--there's only one Vista computer on our home network now, and IT will also be upgraded to Win7 ASAP).
For potential MAc buyers: If you want a Mac, you can just skin/tweak a PCBSD box to emulate the GUI. That way you get most of the benefits and none of the Apple Straightjacket. ;-)
picard102 on October 03, 2009 at 10:57 PM
Seriously? Go back to Churos. These generic say nothing ads are so much worse.
ipod nano on October 09, 2009 at 09:48 AM
microsoft will not take over anything from now.
Sooster on October 18, 2009 at 09:12 AM
I've been a loyal XP user. In fact, at the moment, I am not entirely sure there is a more reliable operating system given the 10 yrs of bug fixes and security patches. I am considering upgrading to Win 7 after completely skipping over Vista. The more I read and hear about Win 7, the more it seems I want to upgrade. To think, I was reluctant to upgrade at all, since I have my XP machine running so smoothly. Crappy advertising aside, I think given the new security features, the added stability and the removal of that annoying UAC, Win 7 will be the way to go.
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