Expect More Than a Flat-Earth from Microsoft

A new Microsoft ad intended to combat negative opinions about the company’s Windows Vista operating system is turning heads online. But it isn’t part of the real onslaught Microsoft is planning on Apple and other critics.

Microsoft’s kind-of-hard-hitting new ad

Since its release in early 2007, Microsoft has tried to market Vista as more secure, more reliable and generally “people ready.” The ads and promotions the company has come out with aren’t exactly memorable. Certainly they aren’t as memorable as Apple’s Mac/PC ads, which have succeeded in convincing the world that Vista is a bug-filled failure.

A Microsoft executive earlier this month told a crowd at a Microsoft-sponsored conference that the company was getting ready to take the fight to Apple and other critics with an aggressive ad campaign that could cost $300 million.

ZDNet noticed the ad to the left on Microsoft’s homepage yesterday, which equates popular impressions about Vista to the idea the earth is flat. It’s certainly harder-hitting than a bunch of hipster professionals playing around with a new computer. And it’s nice to see Microsoft finally acknowledge that others have managed to define Vista in the public’s eye.

But a Microsoft spokesperson tells us that the company hasn’t started its new campaign yet. In fact, this ad wasn’t developed by the advertising firm the software giant recently hired.
So what will the new ads look like? Microsoft still isn’t telling us. But we’ll know them when we see them.

-Ben Worthen

Technorati Tags: software, market