VISTA

Microsoft isn’t trying to win back the people who changed over with these ads, they’re trying to “solidify” the base by making apple seem snooty, while bill gates and microsoft are making stuff for the people. While Apple is trying to make the celebrity phone.

I don’t know that it will work, because I think people WANT to be elitsist and want to be yuppies, even if they’re not.

An interesting tidbit is that the ad agency doing the Mr. Softie campaign is the same group doing the current Volksvagon ads. They’re offbeat, kind of funny but also don’t connect product to the consumer. Where it may work for VW I can’t see it happening for Microsoft. Why? Because you don’t actually buy the Microsoft product. You’re buying HP, Dell or Brand X and happen to get Microsoft. It’s like buying the VW and getting tires made by Michelin – is changing to Pirelli’s going to really close the sale or is it about price? IMHO, Balmer should save the money on the ad campaign and put it into engineering and innovation. The sooner they can point to Vista successes the sooner they can regain credibility.

quoting myself:The ad is designed from top to bottom to make us feel like we’re ‘in’ on the joke. The churro, the old picture of Bill on the membership card, etc. Plus — the 90s were the last time a lot of people got really excited about Windows — win95.

The only thing I can’t quite figure out is the Shoe Circus thing. Yes, it humanizes Bill, but it also is an association with a chinsy marketing thing…. Are they taking the implication that Windows is often filled with cheap crap head on, saying that yes, there’s a “shoe circus” element to windows but fundamentally the main product is really good (the conquistador shoe)? I mean, I imagine that “Let’s put it in a low-end shoe store” had to be part of the core idea for the commercial, so there’s clearly some sort of intention there.