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By Ashton Mills
Nov 11, 2008 | 12 Comments

Well, that’s one way to spend $US300 million.
You know the ads – Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Gates, what could possibly go wrong?

Oh, not too much – except perhaps the message. Aside from the anti-humour and the absence of a point, the ads go so far as to alienate the common populace: Jerry and Bill living with ‘normal’ people complaining about how obscenely rich they are? Like its OS, the ad campaigns show just how disconnected Microsoft is from its users. In many ways they are typical of Microsoft products – bloated, missing the mark, and failing to live up to expectations.

It’s no surprise then that the response to the campaign is an almost universal WTF?

The point of the advertising, of course, like any advertising, is to generate or perpetuate a conversation, a message. After all, it’s not like Windows is sexy, cool, or the shiz. The brand, for the most part, is basically vapid, vacant, and devoid of volume. Which is precisely what Microsoft was hoping to change – to generate a connection where there is none.

Mac users are rabidly devoted – they have a passionate and strong emotional connection that could only be stronger if they built shrines to Steve Jobs in their homes, some sort of suspended Macbook Air surrounded by iPod angels hovering above an image of the Great Black T-Shirted One. Given that one follower had a FireWire logo tattooed to her arm at the opening of the Sydney Apple store, I wouldn’t put it past some of them. There’s value in being seen to be aligned with Apple’s brand because it’s (even if obnoxiously so) hip and cool. And for some reason, lots of people want to be hip and cool.

And Linux, well, speaking as one of the congregation, Linux users can be just as fanatical as Mac users, only they have a sort of quirky realism about them. They tend to focus on the merits of the OS than what it means to be someone who uses it, but their hearts are in the right place at least. And there’s value in being aligned with the Linux brand as well because it’s the fighting underdog, and the better operating system to boot. And, of course, Tux as a logo generates a connection all on its own.

But Windows... well, if anything it illicits an all-encompassing emotion: meh. And ultimately, people don’t choose meh. For most of us, meh was just there when we got our PCs. For Microsoft, there’s no intrinsic value to which a positive spin can be applied. And this means, most importantly, there’s no connection, no emotional attachment. If there’s no attachment, there’s no loyalty, and as Mac and Linux continue to evolve Windows will slowly die.

The irony about the ad campaign is that in an effort to change the message about Windows the company invariably confirms the one that’s already there: Vista sucks.

If it didn’t, the campaign wouldn’t be necessary.

The ads did get people talking, just not the conversation Microsoft wanted them to have. Let’s hope that while Microsoft is trying to spread a new message with its ads, that it also learns to take one from their response.

Could be me, but I can think of far better things to do with $US300 million – it’s a crazy idea I know, but how about this: make a good operating system, from the ground up. AM

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12 Comments

Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.

Shikimaru Nov 11, 2008 11:58 AM	Well said :) +1
zebra Nov 11, 2008 12:02 PM	...it all went wrong when they threw WinFS out the window. >_> <_<.
majestic975 Nov 11, 2008 12:53 PM	"make a good operating system, from the ground up. AM" We can only hope.
davidian Nov 11, 2008 12:59 PM	Well I can't say I agree - but then I don't care for any form of advertsiements, good or bad! As for Linux, well when I can work in an environment where all its employees from the recpetionist to the CEO can understand and use it and it supports a very broad range of commercial applications then I might take it seriously - until then I'm comfortable existing in a MS world! Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 are shaping up pretty good, I don't think MS are going south just yet. Wishful thinking on your linux-tainted behalf I would suggest...
kikz Nov 11, 2008 3:11 PM	Server 2008 is great. I don't need or want to be fanatical about my operating system. I just need it to be there and run the really cool stuff, like Visual Studio :). Maybe it's just that I have tedenancy toward apathy, but who really cares enough about their OS get fanatical, other than to have an argument with supports of a different platform. Like developing any other good software, you should only hear about it or think about it when it's doing a bad job.
zebra Nov 11, 2008 3:32 PM	I agree with the kikz. 2008 really is a decent OS, imho. I've had nothing but good experiences with it, thus far. All this being said, as "Stable" as it feels on the outset - the technology is _tired_. It is time to stop living 20 years ago. PLEASE let go of NTFS :(.
iamthemaxx Nov 11, 2008 4:54 PM	Bring on ZFS (that's zebra file system for you newbies :p)
SceptreCore Nov 12, 2008 12:58 AM	Well yes that's all well and good, but Windows is pretty much peoples first and last choice of OS's for business. Mac is all very good in it's place, you know, the surfie who jumps on it in the evenings and updates his blog or myspace or WTF ever he uses to let the world know who he is. Linux is a different story... if something goes wrong, or they can't get something to work... or pretty much the inexplicable happens, they throw up a huge "Ummm, where the fuck do I go from here?" then go back to the supplied Sudoku for a while. They browse and browse.. then give up knowing the answer is out there, but they never had a keyboard when they were born, and didn't share a basement with a computer to know how to solve their issues. Others have had years of self teaching plus research with it, trained for it, written some of it. It's not your average 'every ones tried it OS'.. businesses that use it have serious applications for it.. plus big know how people to sustain it. If you look for help on Windows... it's everywhere. And almost all applications that are produced are Windows specific, some or mac, least are linux. Yeah sure, you can run them on WINE... but that has some teething troubles, and doesn't guarantee full compatibility. Windows is easy to use (for me anyway!), tonnes and compatibility and support, and pretty much won't die out because of how much familiarity the world has with it. It does need some serious work overs.. granted. But it's not all bad... and the only thing Im going to use. I disagree entirely Ashton.. Windows has mixed feeling.. more and less then a 'meh'.. mostly good. Vista also by the way.. doesn't suck, it has troubles at the start.. but your precious Linux isn't at all infallible, and requires updates to fix issues.. occasionally major issues. Vista now is quite a good OS, I invite you to take your copy, re-install.. and now put SP1 on, tehn update.. see how you go. /end rant
Mr Faunce Nov 12, 2008 1:43 AM	lol you know your in, when the rolling stones are on your side with start me up.
.:Cyb3rGlitch:. Nov 12, 2008 7:39 AM	Pretty much +1 to SceptreCore.
icomefromthenet.net Nov 14, 2008 10:01 AM	I liked the MS ads like it or not Mac has insulted the PC platform and responses are needed from PC industry heavy weights, Maybe we need leading open source advocates and MS figureheads to combine to hunt down Mac users and re-educate them.
NiNJAHAX Nov 16, 2008 9:12 AM	lol yeah wtf, I don't know what they are advertising, and why they are advertising it :S like the old saying more money than sense.

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