Microsoft

http://www.winrumors.com/microsofts-new-great-to-be-a-family-adverts-begin-to-air/

 

     Recently, Microsoft launched their new series of commercials titled, “It’s great to be a Family”. The commercial that I looked at in particular is titled “dog.ppt”, this commercial shows the uses of a Windows 7 Touch PC and Office 2010. This commercial features a boy presenting a PowerPoint to his parents about the reasons that they should get him a dog. After the son’s success with the PowerPoint (the son can be seen playing with a dog at the end of the commercial), the father creates his own PowerPoint giving reasons why he needs to golf on Sundays and presents it to his wife, to which she ultimately shakes her head no and the father walks away defeated. At the end of the commercial a narrator says, “It all starts with a Windows 7 PC”.  Both of these commercials are part of a larger advertising campaign to market and sell Windows 7 PCs.

            Throughout the commercial, upbeat music is playing during both the son’s and the father’s presentation, to set a lighthearted mood that says, “Okay, we can have fun with this”. The commercial’s main driving point is to appeal to the audience’s emotions, through the music and the silent, but comedic facial expressions and interactions between the family members. The point of the whole commercial is to show that their product is easy to use and (supposedly) effective.

            So far, the “It’s a great time to be a family” commercials are lacking in many aspects. There is no logical argument or reasoning to buy their product over, say, an Apple computer. The only thing they’re banking on so far with these commercials is the fact that they’re a credible company that is known to provide quality computers and programs, though this commercial also lacks in the sense that it doesn’t truly show what Office 2010 and the Windows Touchscreen can do. With these series of commercials, Microsoft attempts to appeal to the audience’s emotional side with lightheartedness and laughter, being that there is no real argument given that would turn a switch in someone’s head that says, “I’ll go buy a Windows PC”. So even though the commercial is entertaining, it gives no reason to Apple users or any potential customers in general to pick Windows over any of the vast competition out there. As was stated before, the only real thing this commercial has to offer is their logo, which is well known. But if the commercial’s intent was to covert users of other computer brands, just flashing the Microsoft logo all over the place isn’t going to do it.

            Some things that Microsoft could have done better in this commercial; first, provide an actual reason to buy a Windows PC over an Apple computer or an HP or whatever. Second, and probably most importantly, they should have implemented more usage of the actual computer and the Office 2010 program rather than the short snippets that they showed. I firmly believe that if they took the time to prove what their program and their new computers could do, such as a more in-depth look at each part of the program and what each one could be used for (granted this would make the commercial longer, but that is why they would be able to make more than one commercial, demonstrating the uses of each part of the program) and put the commercial to a comedic backdrop to make it informative and funny, they’d have a much wider reception from their target audiences, rather than garnering a few laughs from me before I return to watching Family Guy.  

Pretty convincing, I know.

 -Luke