Filed under: OS Updates, Video, Windows, Microsoft, Commercial
Microsoft's boring first Vista ad - VIDEO
by Jordan Running Dec 5th 2006 at 3:00PM
With the official launch of Windows Vista last Thursday Microsoft has kicked its marketing machine into high gear. Or maybe more like medium gear. The very first advertisement for Vista is making the online rounds, and it's decidedly unthrilling. Okay, I realize I might not exactly in Microsoft's target market--after all, Vista is only available to business customers right now, so the eyeballs this commercial are aimed at are those in the skulls of CEOs and committees who will buy into the hype and demand their underlings deploy it throughout the corporation--but seriously, take a little polish off the swoopy graphics and a little fidelity out of the soundtrack and what you've got, basically, is a glorified PowerPoint presentation.
Anyway, I guess it's a bit to late for me to say "judge for yourselves," but you can check out the full ad after the jump.
I don't know if this is a labor of love or merely the brainchild of four very gifted games designers, but Level Up is a really weird mash-up of gaming elements that you have probably never seen in a Flash game before.
Let's start with the premise itself: Groundhog Day meets Memento. The game experience revolves around 'days': you explore the world and the clock slowly ticks towards the evening. You bounce around picking up gems and talking to the denizens of 'Level Upland'. Eventually you feel tired and head back to ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Mark said 3:24PM on 12-05-2006
Yeah, that WAS boring.
I didn't believe you at first, but 10 seconds into it I wanted to shoot myself in the head.
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artist-illustrator said 5:18PM on 12-05-2006
didn't make it all the way through
all hail the pause/stop button!!!!
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Pepe Gonzalez said 7:27PM on 12-05-2006
I don't know if I should confess, but I'll do it anyway: I watched the whole video. Did I miss something? When did it say anything about Vista other than the logo in the beginning and in the end?
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Din said 8:46PM on 12-05-2006
I have always hated Microsoft's broadly generic tag lines, and I hate them even more flashing randomly through an entire ad.
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Zwinky said 8:49PM on 12-05-2006
Microsoft could make the earth spin the other way around, and you linux hippies will still criticize them. There is nothing with the ad. Now of course if this was an apple ad for iShit, you'd make a long line at your nearest apple store. Face it - you are biased.
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hazard said 10:13PM on 12-05-2006
it bites.
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Mark said 10:09PM on 12-05-2006
You don't have to be a "linux hippie" to find that ad absolutely pathetic.
If you liked that ad, then you should face the fact that you are biased.
I'm MS-Biased by the way. I dont like linux or osx.
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Dan said 3:47AM on 12-06-2006
After watching the ad (and yes I did foolishly watch the whole thing) I thought: "that was the most pointless waste of time in my entire life." Honestly.....It doesn't tell you anything! Unless the something is that when I upgrade to vista, when it eventually comes out, I'll have a bunch of metrosexuals frolicking around on my screensaver/desktop.........joy.
And for the MS freaks out there - im not biast. I own a pc and use a mac at work, and isn't linux only good for servers? =P
Let's just hope vista is a heck of a lot better than this ad portrays.....
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kc said 4:20AM on 12-06-2006
Well, that was the most boring video ever. And what was with the xbox controller? hmm.
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Ken said 11:41PM on 12-05-2006
It reminds me of the installation procedure of Windows XP (or 98, or 95...). "More secure", "Faster", "More stable", etc.
The first few seconds with the 3D animation looked way more promising than what followed next.
This could very easily be a commercial for a PDA, a modem, JAVA or whatever.
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Imran said 3:02AM on 12-06-2006
Doesnt mention one thing abt the OS... oh yeah i forgot it does mention "More secure", "Faster", "More stable", etc(just as ken mentioned). just like XP, 2000, ME wait even 98 :)...
I think its a 7th grade students presentation (dont know why he choose Windows Vista for his topic though lol)
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Neil T. said 7:23AM on 12-06-2006
That wasn't the best advert ever..... but you're right, we're not really the people it is aimed at.
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Michael Pate said 7:25AM on 12-06-2006
Essentially it was a Powerpoint presentation with a lot of flashy stuff going on? I would be inclined to buy Office 2007 if the latest version could produce stuff like this; otherwise, I think I'll pass.
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MG said 8:02AM on 12-06-2006
So all the tags seem to be about business but all these cats are jumping around listening to music and even playing with a game controller at the end. I want to work there!
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Hamman Samuel said 8:12AM on 12-06-2006
I'm a Microsoft fan, and I was about to agree Zwinky...that was before the ad was fully loaded in my browser. Microsoft seriously need help with their creativity. That ad was, ahem, to put it mildly, very unattractive.
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Peter Kirn said 12:20PM on 12-06-2006
I thought my girlfriend summed this up best (I had to torture her with this):
"Ah, I see, everyone's wearing button-downs ...
Microsoft really are completely square and white, aren't they?"
Yes. Yes, they are.
I expect we'll see better adverts for the consumer launch, since this is aimed only at partners. But, boy, corporate videos are hilariously lame.
For the opposite extreme, these actually are cool:
http://www.clearification.com/
... from Demetri of Daily Show fame. Not sure exactly what this has to do with Vista, of course, but they're entertaining.
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Rob said 3:38PM on 12-06-2006
Fall in to The Gap...
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Mertz said 4:51PM on 12-06-2006
snoozeapalooza...
where was Magic the dog?
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Michael said 9:43PM on 12-06-2006
Wow ... that was unfortunate.
Even for the business customer (whom this seems to be targeted to) I can't imagine them making it through the ad - let alone understand how Vista is going to help them any more than XP does already. If it does ...
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chuck said 10:18PM on 12-06-2006
man, i thought i was watching 'get shorty' all over again. sure sounded like it... and what did all those words say?
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