There’s an excellent post on RMM about this video ad (I have very little doubt that the word ‘viral’ was harmed in its creation).
The ad is a take off of the movie, “The Break Up“ with the couple discussing divorce representing the egotistical advertising world and the meek engagement-seeking consumer.
As Matt Morrison points out, while the ad is very funny, well done and exposes some deep truths about the modern communications world, it’s not exactly clear what it’s selling. It also falls into a trap of criticising broadcast-style, humor-based, uninteractive advertising with broadcast-style, humor-based, uninteractive advertising.
Matt asks the question about whether it is advertising’s job to have converstations or to start them. The ad’s creators could counter that the ad has its own associated blog site, although the comments on there seem suspiciously one-sided considering how Microsoft is regarded in some quarters.
Anyway, hats off to Microsoft for being brave and for creating an interesting a thought-starting piece. Perhaps it will encourage businesses to set up a “department of listening”, whether its in the advertising and marketing department or not.
Thanks for that. Great posting by the way and indeed it’s not an easy question but we have joined the conversation and I hope we can be listening as much as possible and acting accordingly.
Thanks Geert. Also very interesting to see you responding to posts about the campaign and engaging with the people who wrote them. With the Hugh MacLeod thing too, there seems to maybe be a change of approach within Microsoft?