Man, these new MS ads are really bad

What do you think?

When I heard MS was going to spend a lot on advertising this time around (as Paul Thurrot put it: "Windows Phone, This Time with Marketing"), I was hopeful that things will improve.

However, after watching those two ads, I'm afraid it is only going to get worse.

For example, look at the ratio of positive/negative responses on that pro-MS WinRumors site. It says a lot.

As some commenters on the WinRumors site pointed out, the ad agency they chose are proably very pro-Apple, so it's almost like they intentially made the ads bad. Yes probably not true, but I can't think of another reasonable explanation.

Microsoft is the definite king of using horrifyingly fake 'families' that are just too easy to hate in their promotional material. Nintendo is a close second, but they don't quite reach that level of nail-on-a-chackboard annoyingness.

But, I don't know. These aren't about Windows Phone, which is what they were going to spend a lot of advertising money on. And the "it's a conspiracy by the ad company" theory is too ridiculous to be true. I guess the Microsoft Marketing team just asked for another designed-by-committee, reach-every-single-demographic-at-once ads, and the ad company delivered.

And the "it's a conspiracy by the ad company" theory is too ridiculous to be true. I guess the Microsoft Marketing team just asked for another designed-by-committee, reach-every-single-demographic-at-once ads, and the ad company delivered.

Maybe, but ad companies are often the ones that develop the marketing strategy for the advertiser in the first place.

The ad would be better if Gates and Seinfeld were the ones dancing. Am I the only one who thought those ads were hilarious?

Sure, but the advertiser issues their wishes and has final say. And whichever ad company Microsoft uses, they always produce the same artificial family nonsense, so something tells me that's something Microsoft insists on for some misguided reason.

These ads didn't leave me with any impression, unfortunately. They just weren't exciting at all.

Those are really terrible, even when using the always-bad previous Microsoft commercials as a point of reference.  Once again, they fail to provide any clear message what the point is or why their product provides something of value.  The viewer is left thinking, "What the heck was that about? -- oh nevermind, I don't care anyway."  Just a waste of marketing money.

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@BitFlipper:

In the first video I saw Samsung more than any windows branding...who is paying for the ad?

In the second one I though the advert had "gone to the dogs", literally

I will never get my the time wasted in my life back watching those adverts

Looks like a circus act, which Balmer tends to enjoy. Not sure this is what consumers what to feel though.

They are boring ads, but not "horrible". They are about on par with 80% of the ads on TV. In fact, the first one reminded me a LOT of the Android 3D phone ad where the father drills a ping pong ball at the daughter to get "exciting 3D video". Anyone think the family in that ad is anything but "horrifyingly fake"?

http://www.commercialpedia.com/2011/09/silly-sprint-and-htc-evo-3d-ping-pong.html

My wife saw the powerpoint one on TV last night, and recognized that it was selling Windows. That's all you can ask for.

I would like to see more iPhone-like ads for Windows Phone. "Here's this feature/app, look how neat it is."

@spivonious:I saw one for the HTC Razor earlier, which makes a big deal of the People hub (an artist using all the people photos to make one big picture), which is more on the right lines I think.

@AndyC: That does sound better. I hope more of the OEMs start putting out ads for their phones.

Yes, if I remember correctly, it was only after the Droid ads started that Android really started taking off.

There is still some hope...

There were a lot of ads for the WP7 when it first came out... at least there were in the US. They were even fairly decent ads. At the time it seemed like every other ad I saw was for WP7.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwmTqfSol7U

58 minutes ago, spivonious wrote

@AndyC: That does sound better. I hope more of the OEMs start putting out ads for their phones.

And OEM and carrier adverts are any better?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fz6Z6S3Q5M

35 minutes ago, W3bbo wrote

*snip*

And OEM and carrier adverts are any better?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fz6Z6S3Q5M

That's not a great example. I was thinking of the Droid ads. Before that, no one knew what Android was. That's how I see the WP7 market now. The geeks know about it, but the common consumer thinks the choice is between iPhone and Android.