About a month ago, Microsoft unleashed a new wave of marketing offensives touting mobile phones featuring their newest version of Windows 7 specifically (one hopes) engineered for smart phones. (I’ll pause here so you can write your own joke about any phone running a Windows OS qualifying as smart.) The TV spots are actually quite nice, right up to the point where the product and intent of the ads are revealed. Somehow, using a phone with Windows Phone 7 is supposed to free all of us presumably iPhone-obsessed ne’er-do-wells from the tyranny of Words with Friends and get us back doing the truly important things in life. Like urinating.
Now, I’ll admit I’m a bit biased toward Macs and Apple products. I work in advertising and, as such, have used Macs my entire career. I even occasionally bang out a Mac-centric blog called, you guessed it, The MacHole. But even if I were, say, an Android phone user, I would have no idea what Microsoft is talking about. If a Windows Phone 7-sporting handset is so supercool to own, won’t I spend more time using it? Or does it get me back to real life faster because it can’t go 45 seconds without flashing the BSoD? Oh, I see. The phone saves your life by sacrificing its own. How noble. How very Gates Foundation-esque.
Again, nicely done spots from a production standpoint. They just make no strategic sense. But don’t take my word for it, judge for yourself:
Later,
Fox
Tip o’ the hole to Steffan Postaer over at Gods of Advertising for reminding me about this campaign.
Now, I’ll admit I’m a bit biased toward Macs and Apple products. I work in advertising and, as such, have used Macs my entire career. I even occasionally bang out a Mac-centric blog called, you guessed it, The MacHole. But even if I were, say, an Android phone user, I would have no idea what Microsoft is talking about. If a Windows Phone 7-sporting handset is so supercool to own, won’t I spend more time using it? Or does it get me back to real life faster because it can’t go 45 seconds without flashing the BSoD? Oh, I see. The phone saves your life by sacrificing its own. How noble. How very Gates Foundation-esque.
Again, nicely done spots from a production standpoint. They just make no strategic sense. But don’t take my word for it, judge for yourself:
Later,
Fox
Tip o’ the hole to Steffan Postaer over at Gods of Advertising for reminding me about this campaign.
[…] Within minutes of posting, I got a tweet from blogger, Marc Sherman about a piece he wrote saying the same damn thing as me! And another from Jason Fox. Holy Crap! […]