Microsoft is trying to convince consumers that Google is an evil company. That’s why some marketing guru at Microsoft decided to create the “Scroogled” campaign.
On the last episode of the Scroogled show, we saw Rick from Pawn Stars harassing a nice lady who tried to trade in a Chromebrook. Rick said it wasn’t a laptop because it didn’t work offline, which isn’t even true.
That ad received lots of negative backlash. It was petty, simple, and misguided. Worst of all, it barely mentioned any of Microsoft’s own products. But that clearly didn’t stop Microsoft from making more Scroogled advertisements.
Want to see the latest disaster from Microsoft? You can’t say we didn’t warn you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wAgB5J1gSQ
In this commercial, some annoying balding man is harassing a surprisingly ethnically diverse group of people in Venice, California. The video footage appears to be chosen in a particularly careful way and cut to ensure people are smiling when they hear about Windows 8 and frowning/sad when they hear about the Chromebook.
The stupidest part about this commercial (if I have to choose) is the fact that Microsoft spends so long trashing Chromebooks that it runs out of time to promote its own devices. The last ten seconds of the commercial is spent hurriedly rushing through the fact that the Asus T100 features a snap-off keyboard.
If you’re Google, then you’ve gotta love watching Microsoft’s videos. At the time of writing, the video had 899 likes and 2,514 dislikes.
Personally, I don’t feel like these attack ads ever work. After watching this ad, people are going to remember Chromebook more than they remember the T100 (which sounds more like a Star Wars droid than a computer). At the same time, Microsoft is making the Chromebook seem like a more legitimate competitor by acknowledging its existence.
Maybe instead of spending millions trashing other products, you could spend millions fixing and promoting your existing products, Microsoft?
Oh, and by the way, the Chromebook has plenty of offline apps, which essentially defeats Microsoft’s entire point.
