This isn’t about how much I think Microsoft sucks… this is about how much I think Microsoft’s advertising sucks.
I watch these commercials over and over, because I like the cute British accent and the cool French. And I keep thinking that I’m so into the cute British accent and the cool French that I must be missing a couple of sentences, so I listen (read) even more closely the next time. And… it has exactly the same words in it that it did the other 47 times:
What the hell does it mean??
… I’m lost. Why don’t you think it means exactly what it says?
Crystal thought Windows could and should have been simpler. Windows 7 is simpler*.
So, just like everyone else in this campaign, she claims credit for the idea of Windows 7, because Microsoft is doing just what the customer wants, therefor it must have been the customer’s idea.
I use it, and I prefer it to Vista and XP. But the commercials are a big 'ol bucket of stupid
If it weren’t for windows 7 commercials, I’d have no idea about the split screen function and that alone is worth the 35 bucks I paid for the OS.
What I think is odd about the particular commercial that the OP cited (and also the one with the hot French chick) is that the pattern for these so far has been "plain, homely person talks about Windows, then cut to “re-enactment” scene with a far hotter actor portraying them for presumably comedic effect; yet I think Crystal is hot just the way she is, so it just kind of makes the formula moot.
1st reply nailed it. You really couldn’t figure that out? The problem is not with MS’s advertising, my friend, but with you. I thought the idea behind the campaign was quite clear.
What is “the split screen function” ? Do you mean the deal where you drag a window to the right edge of the screen and it maximizes to 1/2 the monitor on that side?
100% agreed. Most of the “normal” girls in these commercials are super hot, and the “hotter fantasy girl” is not hotter, and in some cases, is definitely less hot.
Because there are various commercials, each introducing an improvement, I took it to believe that Microsoft listened to the public about the changes they wanted in Windows as well as suggestions numerous people made.
Maybe they think that hot French chicks will make everyone forget about the debacle of Vista.
What’s really funny is that the “hotter fantasy girl” (and the earlier “hotter fantasy guy” from the first duo of commercials) is the same for the same for British chick and the French chick.
The REAL fantasy is that Microsoft listens to users’ opinions on their products.
The hotter fantasy girl is a famous supermodel. I think it’s Rebecca Romijn(-Stamos).
The hotter fantasy girl is a famous supermodel. I think it’s Rebecca Romijn(-Stamos).
I find the “I’m a PC” line rather annoying . . . in the Mac commercials they stole the line from, the characters were actually supposed to be the personifications of those computers. Here they’re just using it for PC users, which makes about as much sense as a chef saying “I’m a stove.”
What annoys me the most about the commercials is that the “suggestions” are not exactly bold and innovative concepts. Did Microsoft really need these people to tell them that users are thinking “I want my computer to be easier to use” and “I don’t want to have to worry about my computer crashing”?
Thisis the ad and I think it’s clever. Microsoft did listen to a lot of feedback during the beta process and certainly it is a lot more open in that respect compared to Apple. The ad also highlights a neat feature of the OS.
Not only do they need people to tell them, they need to listen and do something about it when they are told.
I have no idea about Apple because I don’t own one, but I’m coming up on 25 years of being an MS DOS/Windows/Vista user. And Microdoft is famous for making most of their ‘upgrades’ worse than the last, and not fixing bugs. And I know there’s been at least one incident of outside computer professionals waring them of serious security problems, and MS ignoring them until stories started appearing in the press.
I would class this campaign as being similar ot the Domino’s Pizza campaign where they basically say, “We were crappy, but we’re listening now and we’re not nearly as crappy as we were.” Except MS doesn’t acknowledge their former crappiness.
Well personally my experience with Windows XP and now Windows 7 has been pretty positive but I was referring to the long beta process for 7. I didn’t download the beta myself and didn’t follow the whole thing super-closely but my understanding is that Microsoft did listen to a lot of user feedback which helped improve 7.
Do you guys really think Crystal is hotter than the fantasy Crystal?
I agreed with the first couple of ads. The women in those ads were much hotter then their fantasy counterparts. But, in this ad I find the fantasy Crystal to be much much better looking with crazy pretty eyes. The first time I saw the ad I said to myself (not that anyone heard me, so I can’t prove it.) “Finally! They got it right. She is fantasy like!” Not that the regular girl isn’t pretty, too.
Anyway. Yeah. The point of the ads is pretty clear. And, I think they are pretty cute and funny. I like them a heck of a lot more than the ones where they gave people money to buy laptops in Best Buy. These are interesting and funny. And, the real people actually do seem real (more real then the ones in the “We gave these real people money to spend…” ads). Like the guy with his wife. “He told his mother.” “Of course, she had to know.” That reminds me of computer geeks I know. Fun.
See, I think this is the entire point of the commerical series. They are all super-common desires, and just about anyone could take credit for “thinking up” whatever it is because the ideas are so universal. Therefore all users are responsible for the new things in Windows 7.