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Microsoft “It’s great to be a family” spots debut

Oct 16, 2011 5:33 pm by Kip Kniskern | 19 comments

Microsoft has just posted a couple of its new “It’s great to be a family” ads on YouTube. The work of ad agency Cripin, Porter + Bogusky, the ads play on the family theme, showing families interacting with the family of Microsoft products, including Windows PCs (where “it all starts”, according to the ads), Xbox, Kinect, and Windows Phones.

Each ad comes with its own background video (Epic Share, and Dog.ppt), showcasing more of the Windows “family” components used in the ads.

Without further ado, here are the first two TV commercials, “Epic Share”, and “Dog.ppt”:

The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

The ads are part of a new campaign to promote Windows, Xbox, and Windows Phone, and a new website at www.microsoft.com/family showcases the products, partners including Sony Vaio and Best Buy, and the ads:

Frankly, we can’t say as we’re overly impressed with the new ads. These families seem a bit too mainstream, and a bit out of touch with reality, attributes that could well describe Microsoft. We were hoping for something a bit edgier, more forward thinking. Come to think of it, that’s what we keep hoping from Microsoft, too. What do you think of the new Windows “family” ads?

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Anonymous

fail! especially the first ad. Kinect was the main focus of that ad… not a Windows 7 PC…. I mean clearly it all started with Kinect and ended with a Windows 7 PC… if you dont explicitly know what Microsoft’s products are you would have no idea what was being shown off in those ads. Cripin, Porter + Bogusky continue to make bad ads for Microsoft. Advertising is not simple but lets look at what research says about Windows Phone as an example. 40% of people are considering Windows Phone as a possible option for their next smartphone. However those 40% said the thing that was holding them back was that they did not know enough about it. Hmmmm, MS how about you use advertisements to educate and inform people about your products. This is wasted money. I am so dissapointed that this is their big holiday push.
http://twitter.com/efjay01 Ef Jay

Cripin, Porter + Bogusky must secretly work for apple, all their ads for Microsoft have been crap, yet they are supposedly highly regarded.
- Anonymous
  
  I don’t blame Cripin, porter…. MS’s marketing team decide what ads they go with, how they look. There is only so much Cripin, porter can do. MS is their customer…so they kind of have to do what they say. MS marketing team just flat out sucks.
Mario Albertico

Okay…how much is Cripin, Porter + Bogusky getting paid for this? Some decent lighting equipment, an HD camera, and a set of awkward 50s-esque white folks could not be worth more than a few hundred bucks. I’m willing to go one step further than @twitter-39530007:disqus and say that Microsoft’s own marketing team secretly works for Apple; nobody in their right might should have approved this. Way to ruin awesome gadgets and their potential…
Asrialys

Slightly unrelated, but Microsoft has got one or two Windows Phone 7 with Bing commercials during the season premier of Walking Dead.
http://macrosofter.wordpress.com/ quikboy

Lame. “Epic Share” has too much stuff going on within the time frame for most people not familiar with the stuff. For some reason, I just didn’t feel they were normal. And the Dog.ppt was kind of a snoozefest. All of these are too tame. Maybe I’m not the target audience, and I’ve only seen two, but I can’t see middle-aged parents being that impressed either. Too much activity going on, and not enough focus on key things.
Nikhil

Surprisingly these add air on Indian channel toady morning.
http://twitter.com/surilamin surilamin

Lamest ads I have seen in my life. Can Microsoft just hire the same people that do Apple’s ads.
Anonymous

These are right up there with the skydiver snapping pictures with his WP7. I mean, WTF? Google’s ads (esp. that one where the dad is writing email to his baby girl) make me tear up like long distance ads from the 80′s. Apple’s ads are so clean and sharp, I just want to go buy an overpriced latte and look at some art. The first thing that occurred to me when looking at these Microsoft family ads is “what a bunch of dorks.” Seriously.

The Bing zombie ads were alright, but given the context, they still seemed rather forced.
Fred A.

You know, I have to agree with most of the people replying here. I am not going to say what they should have or have not done, but whomever (at MS) has the final approval for these ads, needs to get a reality check, or replaced. I prefer the latter, because the majority of their ads have not been great. This is not good advertising, in my opinion.
Webguy

hehe I liked the second one!
t4lkradio

Commercial #1: embarrassingly terrible, Commercial #2:
good not great. Who is running marketing for MS??
Blueyonder

Not again, MS? That first ad is just embarrassing. When are they ever going to get this marketing thing right? I see brilliant flashes of creativity in WP7 but it never seems to manifest itself in their advertising.
Laure

Chris Capossela runs marketing for MS. And I have to admit, I am disappointed.
1- we see nothing of the product
2- it is just too fast
3- the actors look stupid
4- the music isn’t nice

Really???
Anonymous

Should have had the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Advertising Agency work on it. Would probably have been better.
- Mario Albertico
  
  Haha….indeed!
Anonymous

What I find funny is that the situation in the kinect ad has happened with my family in real-life… my Dad danced (to Lady GaGa), I filmed on my LG Windows Phone and we all mocked… good times- I still think the advert sucks though!

I’ve given up on Microsoft ever making a decent advert, if anything they need to rapidly expand their retail presence across multiple continents- at least the people at stores could explain the virtues of products!
mpcurran

What about this one?
Adrian

Fan made ads are much better