Geek Chic

This is totally amazing — a really clever marketing campaign from Nintendo on YouTube.

You have to check it out

via AjaxBlog

Round 2 of Microsoft’s “We’re not as lame as you think we are” campaign aired last night during The Office.  Check it:

Ok.  It’s better than the Seinfeld ads.  I’ll give it that.  But that’s not that much.

(more…)

Ok.  It’s now been generally accepted that Microsoft’s Seinfeld-powered ad campaign was a major bust (although to give them a small amount of credit, the edited version of commercial 2 was better than the full 4:30 disaster).

This morning I thought it’s perhaps time to get to the bottom of this: which ad firm has the monumental task of trying to make Microsoft look cool.

The answer? Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Apparently the go-to people for when your company is completely out of touch but you want to be perceived as being ‘with it.’ (you can read more about them on Ajax Blog)

While I have to say they’ve been doing a pretty pathetic job on the Microsoft campaign so far, I was at least curious enough to check out what else they’d done.  Turns out many things.  This was my favorite:

I hadn’t seen that round of VW commercials — the only ones I’ve seen are the talking car/brooke shields ones which are not as funny.

So they can do something right, I guess.  We’ll have to wait and see how the Microsoft campaign goes.  I can’t imagine any other outcome than the commercials being kind of ok — at best — but mostly serving as an excellent set up for a hilarious Apple counter-attack.

A Microsft engineer who looks like John Hodgeman whining about how ‘I’m a PC and I’ve been made into a stereotype’? Come on!  Does it get any easier than that?

BTW – Apple’s market share is up to 10.6% in North America.

The second installment of Microsoft’s pro-Vista (and secretly anti-‘Get a Mac’.  possibly VERY secretly) ad campaign emerged from the bowels of the beast today, after the first commercial came out last week.

I don’t even know what to say.

The uncut version of this one is 4:30.  It’s not really funny at all.  It doesn’t say anything about their product.  It’s a truly awful commercial — one that makes Microsoft honestly seem even more out of touch with their consumers than I had thought before I watched this commercial.

Try it.  See for yourself.

It just feels like watching a train wreck.  Of a train filled entirely with octogenarians.

What on earth are they thinking?

I think we should start placingbets on whether the next one will make even less sense.

Microsoft talks a little here about how these commercials are just icebreakers.  And that they have done their job by just getting even negative attention:

When you set out to create advertising, the thing that keeps you up at night is not “Will some people not get it or like it?”

Rather its “Will anyone pay any attention and notice”? I think we can safely check that box. Oscar Wilde’s quote on the subject may be overused, but it’s good to keep in mind when thinking about marketing products that can get taken for granted in today’s crowded media landscape: “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”

So by that logic, McCain’s negative campaign ads are just adding to Obama’s brand recognition!  He’ll be elected for sure!

It just doesn’t make any sense to me.  Really.  Unless this is some super old- or new-school ad campaign philosophy:  ‘If people think your product sucks, make commercials that suck too!  Then people won’t be confused!’  or maybe Microsoft has some secret deal where they make money when people stop using their software.

But in all seriousness… there are a few holes in this argument for me.  Namely — it’s not like people haven’t heard of Microsoft Vista.  They just don’t like it.  These commercials do nothing for me than make me continue hating Vista (before I’ve even tried it, mind you.  I’ve never used Vista.  I know I’m not alone in this sentiment.) and think that Microsoft is out of seriously out of touch if they believe a campaign like this will in any way help their case — even if it’s just getting a ‘tap on the shoulder’

Plus that guy from Microsoft is so smug in his response.  It’s hard not to disagree with him the moment one starts reading.

My answer remains: Get a Mac

I must admit I was pretty moved by the DNC’s showing last night.  First Gore, then Obama.  I really think Obama knocked it out of the park.

But I also think the intro video that preceded his entrance was the most ridiculous, sentimental piece of moosh I’ve ever seen (you have to watch it on HuffPost):

Obama Biography Video at DNC

On the other hand, it offered the Daily Show to, in their own way, hit one out of the park:

Thanks Daily Show.

I came across a post on CrunchGear about some University of Washington students experimenting with a new video manipulation technique using still photographs to enhance or alter video.

The results are unreal.  Check this out:

Did you see the part where they used a layer mask to remove a No Parking sign?  That would usually take forever to do in After Effects.

Amazing.

I know we’ve all heard the audio clip from our dearly indicted Senator Ted Stevens where he refers to the Internet as a series of tubes.  But until today I hadn’t heard the entire clip.

Wow.

First of all, I have absolutely no idea what point he’s trying to argue — his thesis is totally lost in all of his elderly technophobic blubbering.  Maybe it’s some anti-spam Senate bill?  Dunno.

It’s similar to what I imagine would happen if I sat my grandparents down and said to them ‘explain to me how you think the internet works and what you think you can do with it.’

This is who runs the federal government. A bunch of rich white guys who are too busy having their decks rebuilt by oil companies to take time to figure out how the internet works.

Good to know that, in the true spirit of America, it’s much more important to have a strong opinion when it comes to technology rahther than have any facts.