Happy holidays everyone - I hope everyone had a great break and is enjoying the new year!
So over the holidays, I noticed the Microsoft Windows 7 commercials on television. You know the ones where the person has a flashback of themselves thinking up a concept, informing Windows of their idea and... boom- it becomes a reality. If you don't know what I'm talking about here's one of the commercials:
The whole concept for the set of commercials is -"I'm a PC and Windows 7 was my idea". This statement suggests that the consumer feels as though the new innovations Microsoft is making to their system was his/her idea that he/she passed along to the company and the company listened.
When I first saw the commercial, I thought it was slightly humourous that when the guy has the flashback he is a much more attractive version of himself. However, after I saw a few other versions of this commercial, I wondered if it was humourous at all.
With these ads, Microsoft is telling users that they realize Vista was a bomb, they’ve listened to their suggestions and complaints, and used them in the design for Windows 7. As such, Windows 7 is the idea of the people.
I understand that they are trying to highlight the ideas of "regular people", however why include reenactments where people are a better looking version of themselves? Are the commercials suggesting that these people are delusional? That they have low self-esteem? Perhaps these commercials are suggesting that we all want to have, or do have, an image of ourselves that is slightly better than what others see.
At first the commercials seemed funny to me, but after seeing a few, I didn't understand why they incorporated the reenactment, and didn't just focus solely on their program being the idea of the people. Because if Microsoft is trying to say people like you and me helped to create Windows 7, why not have everyday, regular people talking about it?
Besides, the people in the commercials are fairly attractive to begin with, so why make them look like completely different? I feel by bringing in this switch of actors in such a short amount of time, it is more likely to cause confusion and a chance that the viewer will miss the main messaging of the commercial.
The whole concept for the set of commercials is -"I'm a PC and Windows 7 was my idea". This statement suggests that the consumer feels as though the new innovations Microsoft is making to their system was his/her idea that he/she passed along to the company and the company listened.
When I first saw the commercial, I thought it was slightly humourous that when the guy has the flashback he is a much more attractive version of himself. However, after I saw a few other versions of this commercial, I wondered if it was humourous at all.
With these ads, Microsoft is telling users that they realize Vista was a bomb, they’ve listened to their suggestions and complaints, and used them in the design for Windows 7. As such, Windows 7 is the idea of the people.
I understand that they are trying to highlight the ideas of "regular people", however why include reenactments where people are a better looking version of themselves? Are the commercials suggesting that these people are delusional? That they have low self-esteem? Perhaps these commercials are suggesting that we all want to have, or do have, an image of ourselves that is slightly better than what others see.
At first the commercials seemed funny to me, but after seeing a few, I didn't understand why they incorporated the reenactment, and didn't just focus solely on their program being the idea of the people. Because if Microsoft is trying to say people like you and me helped to create Windows 7, why not have everyday, regular people talking about it?
Besides, the people in the commercials are fairly attractive to begin with, so why make them look like completely different? I feel by bringing in this switch of actors in such a short amount of time, it is more likely to cause confusion and a chance that the viewer will miss the main messaging of the commercial.
