by: David Armano
I'm not sure what else to say except get the heck out of your RSS feed and watch this video. Or for your convenience, you can go here, where there is a blog dedicated to "The Break Up" between traditional advertising and the consumer. It's also funny as heck. Please watch, you'll be glad you did.
Interestingly enough, the creator of this video and site works for Microsoft—who incidentally just got a whole lot cooler in my book. :)
But wait—there's more. Apparently this whole thing was inspired by "It's the Conversation Economy Stupid". Even cooler. My favorite quote?
"Let's just hug".
Update: Here's A little more background on the effort behind the video series and blog.
"Together with our ad agency Openhere, I’m currently making a commercial for Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions. The film is called ‘The Couple’ and makes some statements about the relationship between today’s advertiser and today’s consumer. A quite risky project if you know that the commercial explicitly challenges the advertisers - our clients - to question themselves and the way they communicate with their target groups. In this blog, I will keep you posted about the making of the campaign. I have also given the agency access to this blog, so that they can vent their ideas as well. As should be in this format, there is only one rule: “their are no rules!”
Also, by the end of the month, I’ll be able to tell you whether I still work as a Marketing Manager at Microsoft, or whether this project finally turned itself against me".
Original Post: http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2007/05/breaking_up_wit.html
Boring and banal, but what would you expect from this particular advertiser. Tried for caring and cute, but both actors convey just smugness. Once again, they don't get "IT".
"Elvis has left the building."
The entire ad industry needs a group hug! This video is so bang on, so true about one way marketing and how most marketers completely miss the interactive, tactile dynamics their consumers scream for in the midst of the detached techno-revolutionary impersonal world of communications!
Ted H
Spindoc
Claremont Consulting Group
Toronto, Canada
This guy needs to get out of Microsoft and into a more creative environment.
The spot is too good to be pushing mediocre MS crapware.