Microsoft, The Uninvited Guest
We’ll admit that Microsoft’s launch of Windows 95 was a brilliant buzz blitzkrieg.
But in microchip years, that’s been an eternity ago. And aside from that winner, Microsoft just hasn’t cut it in advertising cleverness.
Rival Apple has gathered all the advert accolades with signature marketing messages supporting Macs, iPhones, iPods and iPads.
Microsoft’s Cupertino rivals have promoted innovative products within the subtle connecting theme of clinically white backgrounds, simple gentle piano soundtracks and compelling narratives about their latest must-have glitzy gadget.
The Uninvited
Well, Microsoft commercials have somewhat of an underlying theme too and it’s disturbing. The star Microsoft has hitched their marketing wagon to is the idea of the “uninvited guest.”
It seems that in the wake of an Apple-led shift away from CPUs to tablets, TV ads for the tablet-free Windows operating system have embraced a trespass theme.
A current campaign does an excellent job of insulting our collective consumer intelligence while creeping us out at the same time.
In these commercials, Windows reps break into the home of some Luddite, dump precious possessions and beloved belongings and turn the house into an ersatz Best Buy store fully stocked with the latest Windows wonders!
Yeah, who wouldn’t want to come home to that!
Then there was the ad about the family that comes home to their ransacked house to find the burglars have ripped off all their valuables except for their antiquated computer. Solution? Run to Staples to get a state of the art Windows computer!
Yeah, that sounds like a plan.
Maybe it started with those Ill-fated and cringe-worthy Gates/Seinfeld collaborations. You may remember the one where the uber-comic and the uber-nerd were, for some odd reason, the strangely uninvited overnight guests of a quirky middle-class family.
What was up with that?!
Forget buying a new Windows computer. Instead, use that money to get a security system good enough to keep out the Windows crowd.
