A Flawed Series of Windows 7 Commercials. Whose Idea Was That?

I'm seeing a new wave of TV spots from Microsoft where everyday Windows users fly across the world to test out the Windows 7 features they asked for. It's part of the "Windows 7 Was My Idea" campaign in a series identified as "Seal of Approval" on the Windows 7 YouTube channel (which houses all the videos described in this article. Click the "Seal of Approval" tab in the top window of the YouTube page.)

The Seal of Approval spots are about making someone fly halfway across the world for an extremely brief demonstration of the Windows 7 features he or she suggested. So here are my questions: Who's idea was that?! And, has that person been fired?

I like "Windows 7 Was My Idea." It has emotional appeal and an inclusive message. It suggests a culture and a camaraderie among Windows users. Microsoft is bringing the computer back to the people (like HP's "The computer is personal again") and democratizing the development of new features by taking suggestions from the peanut gallery. It's a solid idea upon which to build a campaign.

And with the "Seal of Approval" series, I think having people approve the features they suggested is a great extension of the idea. But flying them across the globe to do so just doesn't make sense to me.

And it's not like there's a universal destination (such as Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington). Diana flies from New York to Tokyo, Tyrone from London to Texas, Tom from Berlin to California, and Sophie from France to Tokyo. In seeing the spots on TV, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why our Windows users were shuttled off to these various locations.

Upon further review I inferred that these locations represent the headquarters of the equipment manufacturer shown in each spot. Diana and Sophie fly to Tokyo to test Toshiba and Sony computers, respectively. Tyrone goes to Austin to test a Dell desktop, and Tom visits California to test an HP. But I only figured this out because I was curious enough about the seeming randomness of these destinations to hunt down the videos and watch them repeatedly.

Despite Microsoft's and Crispin, Porter & Bogusky's best efforts, these spots still offer me a phantom reminder of the PC's most notorious perceived flaw-- when you get it home and start it up, it just doesn't work that well. OF COURSE Windows 7 works flawlessly in the R&D lab at the headquarters of the company that built the computers! The test that matters is how it works in the imperfect scenarios of the real world.

It's this kind of thinking that reminds me of the failed Vista operating system. It presumably worked well in testing, but upon release to the public was found to be incredibly buggy and unsatisfying. This issue was then amplified by Apple in a number of its Mac vs. PC ads, and helped seed an opinion that PCs are unreliable and annoying to use. At this point Microsoft hired Crispin, Porter & Bogusky (arguably the hottest creative agency in the world) to stop the bleeding and put a positive spin on Windows computing.

And after all that, these Microsoft ads still don't show PCs succeeding in the real world. They simply fail to contest Apple's assertions that PCs are problematic in everyday situations. In fact, the message they send is very much the opposite. These ads reinforce the PC's negative reputation by showing the extraordinary lengths a user must go to for a great PC experience. Tokyo, anyone?

Maybe refuting negative opinions toward the PC wasn't the goal of this ad. To that, I argue that fixing the PC's PR problem should've been the goal, or at least a goal (for the reasons stated above). And it's a goal that could've easily been achieved with a simple change: bringing the computers to the people.

Don't make loyal PC users fly around the world to use Windows 7 in your laboratory. Bring the computers to them and let's see Windows 7 succeed in the imperfect everyday environments of the average user. Then you show the PC as a strong option in the area where many consider it weak. It may not solve the PC's PR problem, but it rebuts the negative opinion strongly and directly.

Think about Tom, the Berliner who requested easier wifi connections, flying to California to test an HP laptop. Wouldn't Tom's experience (and by extension the viewer's) have been more meaningful if he'd actually tested wifi connectivity around the places he frequents in Berlin?

And in my opinion, bringing the computers to the user is just more accommodating than asking our users to take a couple days out of their schedule to fly around the world to test the manufacturer's computer. Honestly, it's this situation that initially rubbed me the wrong way and caused me to think more closely about why these ads don't work. As I said before, showing PC users traveling halfway across the globe in search of a satisfying PC experience sends a fundamentally flawed message.

A small factor in all this is whether our Windows 7 users are real people or paid actors. They appear to be regular Joes and Janes, but there's room for doubt. Microsoft's "Laptop Hunters" ad series (which you can also view on the Windows YouTube channel) seemed to show us everyday people looking for great deals on a laptop, until users pointed out some editing glitches and discovered that one of the laptop hunters was a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Hmmm, suspicious. (Read the AdAge article on this here.)

Whether the Seal of Approval spots are real or not, you'd need a rather heroic suspension of disbelief to play along with these commercials. No one wants to fly from London to Austin just to look at a Windows 7 laptop for a couple minutes (or in Diana's case, four seconds). And if there is more to these stories-- like VIP treatment, time to enjoy the destination city-- then tell us about it. Especially if it makes the primary narrative more credible.

Ultimately, a more believable narrative and a more poignant marketing message would've come from bringing the computer to the people. "Windows 7 Was My Idea" is a strong foothold for effective marketing, but execution in the "Seal of Approval" series was a misstep. And with the future of PCs riding on the new Windows OS, someone must take credit and responsibility for every Windows 7 idea, especially the bad ones.

-- Nate Winter