The Rookie Strikes Out
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I'm not loving the newest "I'm a PC" commercial in Microsoft's "The Rookies" series. |
The second commercial, like the first, focuses on Windows Live Photo Gallery features. It's a good approach. The software is surprisingly rich, despite the seemingly simple user interface. I have lots more good to say about Windows Live Photo Gallery than not. Competition is stiff from Apple, Corel, Google and others, in response to which Microsoft could have packed in lots of complex features.
Instead, somebody stepped back and took a better design approach by emphasizing simplicity and hiding complexity. Windows Live Photo Gallery does the heavy editing without the end user asking, which is the benefit both commercials try to convey. I unexpectedly saw this characteristic last week. As an image imported, Windows Live Photo Gallery straightened it. Whoa, nice touch.
Back to the newer commercial: Alexa is cute, like other rookie Kylie. But she's also older; greater should be expectations from her. Alexa puts together a panorama, but it isn't enough, at least not in 30 seconds. I would prefer a longer spot with more emotional impact.
The earlier, Kylie commercial worked because:
- The preschooler is so cute
- She photographs a pet
- She says, "Che-e-s-se!"
- She e-mails the pet photo to her parents
The commercial is rich with emotional context. It's endearing in ways that Alexa's ad spot isn't. Seven-year-old Alexa is older, more mature. She's a second grader. Her commercial should have been 60 seconds and her work for a school project—a room tour. Her makeshift fort could still be the subject. Panorama is the only way because how else could she photograph the entire fort? (Let's skip real-world photography and wide-angle lenses.) An A grade on the project would be good.
The school project approach would be emotionally richer and show practical benefits that parents could understand. I'm not suggesting that the Alexa commercial is bad, it simply could be lots better.
For these ads to be most effective, Microsoft needs to do more of them. How about one a week for the next six weeks and debuting on the same day of the week—Microsoft's new commercial Monday, or something like that? Apple's generated big buzz with its "Switcher" and "Get a Mac" ads, which I'm not hearing about "The Rookies." But that's OK. Good advertising doesn't generate buzz about itself but for the product being marketed.
By the way, I love that from The Rookies Web site Microsoft offers embedded videos from Soapbox instead of YouTube. Damn right, Microsoft should drive traffic to its video sharing site rather than Google's. Besides, the videos will end up at YouTube anyway. So Microsoft gets the benefit of YouTube's viral marketing reach while pulling an inkling of traffic to Soapbox.
Something else—and surely somebody responsible for Microsoft marketing thought of this: Apple won't easily parody The Rookies ads, not without consequences. Apple could craft Get a Mac ads making fun of the newest I'm a PC ads. But, what is Apple going to do, make fun of little kids? I don't think so, not without creating a little badwill. Apple could bring in its own kids for a Get a Mac ad showing PC hardship or how the Mac is supposed to be better. But even that would be in bad taste.
[Please send your tips or rumors to watchtips at live.com].
Comments (14)
"Damn right, Microsoft should drive traffic to its video sharing site rather than Google's."
I love the way they also use Flash rather than Silverlight. Moonlight is crashing my browser daily, and that's if the site hosting the content acknowledges that I have a Silverlight compatible plugin installed (that site normally being microsoft.com). It will be removed tomorrow.
Even my XP installation does not recognise that I have Silverlight installed and tries to install it repeatedly.
No wonder nobody else believes in Silverlight if even Microsoft cannot get it right.
Posted by billybob | February 16, 2009 7:20 PM
Wow, Microsoft has developed an application that can read minds! It "does the heavy editing without the end user asking...nice touch."
I love sophisticated software, but I draw the line when it preempts the user and takes over without permission. What if I intended a photo to be shown at an unusual angle or with dark shadows?
This is typical Redmond "R&D" foolishness. Users aren't participants in the experience, they're stupid bystanders. Repeat after me "Yes sir, may I have another?".
Posted by trent | February 16, 2009 9:39 PM
I look at Apple like a racist White person bragging about his own ass. that is why 99% of Mac buyers are Whites. Have you seen any value buyer with Macs? Asians, Indians, South Americans, Middle Easterns, no one owns Mac. Only White folks coz the ad and products are targeted for them. Mac is riding Vista's failure. Also, Mac success was in parallel to the credit boom.
Posted by guest | February 16, 2009 10:23 PM
Like the first add, this one doesn't seem to acknowledge the existence of the web. The end result it printing the picture, not posting it on Facebook. Looks like they are out of ideas again and repeating themselves.
Posted by smist08 | February 16, 2009 10:32 PM
seriously?
are you now critiquing each individual tv commercial?
do you even still yearn to be a REPORTER
Posted by ya | February 17, 2009 1:18 AM
Quote guest "I look at Apple like a racist White person bragging about his own ass. that is why 99% of Mac buyers are Whites."
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Rubbish. That comment in itself is racist. A piece of hardware is not favored by any particular ethnicity (IMO) people buy what they want.
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Quote guest "Have you seen any value buyer with Macs? Asians, Indians, South Americans, Middle Easterns, no one owns Mac."
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Are you trying to suggest that only "whites" are able to afford Macs? Rubbish again, it seems to me like you are suggesting that only "whites" can get the good salary to pay for them? Your comments are insulting and ignorant.
Certainly in the UK we see all ethnicities with MACS.
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Are you of the same ilk that believes all Linux users live in their parents basements?
Posted by Goblin | February 18, 2009 6:54 PM
Hey, Goblin! You got that right!
And Mac is boosted by Vista's failure, but it's not riding on Vista's failure. It was the best personal video and photo production system long before the word "vista" was associated with Microsoft.
And what's with his racist rants? White is a color, not a race. "Asians, Indians, South Americans, Middle Easterns [sic]" refer to people from a specific geographic location, not a specific race. You want to talk about race? How about the Tour de France? The Indianapolis 500? The Boston Marathon? The Human Race? THOSE are races!
Apparently, our "friend" didn't post his full name. He only posted "guest", when he really should have posted "guest wrong"!
Posted by Philosopher | February 18, 2009 10:32 PM
The two commercials are cute. MS did a decent job doing these commercials.
I doubt however that they are persuasive to the computer buyers in a household, however.
Most adults and young persons have too much experiences with the frustrations of Windows and the reports regarding VISTA's poor performance (or perceived poor performance are legendary and wide-spread.
perhaps this will help MS with Windows 7 when it finally comes out.
However, recent history (and I believe the near future) will continue to favor Apple products as the Mac OS x operating system continuing to evolve and be updated (to Snow Leopard this year and beyond that), iPod family (iPhone, iTouch, and new stuff coming) grows and the MacBooks continue to innovate in style, size and substance.
MS's ads are perhaps 'too little, too late' and not enough but a quantum leap beyond the stupid Seinfeld/Gates ads of a year ago (and who isn't a big Seinfeld fan? I know I am but these ads???)
Posted by Juan | February 20, 2009 12:09 PM
The panorama ad is faked. The 7-yr old girl took flash photos, and yet the images on the PC are not flash. Stitching flash photos would be obvious due to light falloff in the corners and hot spots. The panorama shows none of those issues. It's sad that when they are trying to prove how easy Vista is to use, they fake it.
Posted by KenC | February 20, 2009 2:52 PM
@Philosopher:
Thank you for a great response to 'guest'. He also forgot that some Blues, Reds and even Purples use Apple's products.
It amazes me how people mix their rants and they end up sounding (writing) like ignorant people (NOTE: Ignorance is not race biased)
@guest (guest wrong)
What would you say of a person that has some african descent, whose skin is very dark, born in México, from two caucasian parents who were born in Spain and lives in Iceland and just bought an iMac?
According to you that would be a northamerican-nonamerican-nonwhite-norblack-spanish-mexican-folk.
And if you ask him, He has just one answer: He is a human.
Posted by Solo Vino | February 20, 2009 2:58 PM
@Solo Vino: "And if you ask him, He has just one answer: He is a human."
... or not.
Posted by Vulpine | February 20, 2009 4:18 PM
I'm a PC and I was born yesterday.
Posted by baaker | February 20, 2009 4:19 PM
Um, is Microsoft suggesting that these things can only be done on a PC? Firstly, all those things have been possible on a Mac for years, and they can even be done by 'old people' like me. Windows is still a very frustrating, irritating and virus-prone OS compared with Mac OS X and will never approach the Mac's simplicity of use while Ballmer fails to learn the lessons taught by Steve Jobs. Secondly, the acronym PC stands for 'personal computer' - so if Microsoft wants to differentiate itself from Apple and the Mac, (which is also a 'personal computer'), so they should qualify the generic acronym by referring to either a 'Windows PC' or 'Wintel PC'. Thirdly, Mac owners can already run any flavour of Windows on their Mac - so perhaps Microsoft needs to find some Mac owners who prefer using Windows media applications rather than iLife applications. Happy hunting!
Posted by GrumpyOldMan | February 20, 2009 7:55 PM
Re: "the acronym PC stands for 'personal computer'"
Amen!
There were lots of gadfly PCs available before the IBM PC running Microsoft DOS was introduced. And even the IBM PC remained an IBM PC even if Microsoft DOS was wiped from the disk and replaced with QNX or Mark Williams Unix, or (much later) Linux. The Apple II is a PC, the Apple Lisa is a PC, the Mac and iMac and MacBook are PCs. And a Dell or Aberdeen computer running Linux is a PC.
But I'm not surprised that Microsoft thinks a PC is only a personal computer than runs their bloatware. They released a version of the make utility called NMAKE, for New Make, which really was still far behind the old AT&T make. It was only New relative to the original Microsoft make, which was a tinkertoy piece of crap code that any moron could have written, which in turn led me to believe that despite Bill Gates' genius, he hired mentally retarded chimpanzees to write the software that he didn't buy or steal from others. The original MS Make wrote errors to standard output, and output to standard error. Really, now. What programmer is so utterly stupid and devoid of any professionalism or worth at all to come up with that behavior? And where did Bill Gates find this moron? Passed out in an alley?
There is a purity and elegance to the system design of Unix, and that elegance is the part of Unix that remains present in Linux. The freedom that is offered by Linux and FOSS is the crown jewel; the elegant design is an added bonus. And the fact that it runs on a Personal Computer levels the playing field for the entire world.
- Philosopher: Another grumpy old man.
Posted by Philosopher | February 21, 2009 1:06 AM