Wednesday, March 20, 2013

You Can Use Windows 8 To Read This Post!

Microsoft has a pretty spotty record when it comes to advertising.  There was the infamous ad with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld:



Yep, I just watched it again, and it doesn't make any more sense than I remembered. 

There were all those "To the cloud" ads, none of which actually used cloud computing, and this one was bragging about a feature everyone had already seen from Photoshop at least ten years earlier:



And that seems to be their problem now.  Microsoft has lost site of the idea that people want technology to do new things.  Like this ad that has thankfully finally stopped running:



The message being that a Windows PC can search the internet, play videos, and run Angry Birds. You know what else can do that? A three-year-old iPhone. 

That's the format for most Microsoft ads: a big song and dance about really mundane things.  We've got a tablet with a keyboard, isn't that amazing?  Not really, it's just a funny-looking laptop.  Microsoft has become that out-of-touch relative that finally notices new inventions years after everyone else.  Great, I have to show Aunt Sarah how to check her e-mail.  Then I have to explain Twitter to Uncle Microsoft.

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