Tuesday, 23 September 2008

The Microsoft Saga - Dropping Seinfeld and going back to the old

Adland comments: 'last week was a bit of colossal Microsoft mess wasn't it? We barely had to to pick our jaws up from the floor after seeing the Seinfeld & Gates "simple life" ads before they were yanked and replaced with the biggest "meh" testimonial ad you've ever seen.

While it looked hopeful for a moment - perhaps as Backman suggested the "Hodgman takeoff is the best idea they've had in a long time". But then Microsoft used the Hodgman PC guy from the Mac ads to make a point in the wrong way, big mistake.
There are a few rules of advertising - most which we break every day - but one you shouldn't mess with: When you are #1 in a segment you never ever mention the competition: You are not Avis, Microsoft - you are the biggest software company on the planet'. More here.

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I am director of the Media and Persuasive Communication (MPC) network at Bangor University where I also lecture on political-economy of the media. I am currently working on a book provisionally titled Deconstructing Privacy for Peter Lang and leading two empirical projects in connection with privacy perception and the use of new media for smoking cessation. I am author of Creativity and Advertising: Affect, Events and Process (Routledge, 2013); The Mood of Information: A Critique of Behavioural Advertising (Continuum, 2011); and Digital Advertising (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2009). Please contact me at mcstay@bangor.ac.uk if you are interested in Ph.D supervision or consultancy services.