A Decade of Dreadful Microsoft Ads

Barence writes "PC Pro has rounded up the most howlingly awful examples of ads churned out by Microsoft over the past decade. The selection includes the cringe-worthy Gates & Seinfeld ads — where Gates looks like he’s delivering his lines with the help of a cattle prod — to the terrible Windows 7 party ads (an 'F1 key for social inadequates,' according to PC Pro), to the one that got away: an excellent in-house training video produced by The Office's Ricky Gervais."

Gates and Seinfeld?

[Anonymous Coward]

That was my idea.

Re:Is that Windows 1.0 commercial real?

[truthsearch]

But wait, there's more! If you think that one looks like a parody check out this classic DOS 5 upgrade commercial [youtube.com].

Missed some bad Microsoft ads

[dwheeler]

They missed some hideously-bad ads for Microsoft.

My favorite "bad Microsoft ad" is a 2000 TV ad, which uses the musical theme of "Confutatis Maledictis" from Mozart's Requiem [fitug.de]. The screen says "Where do you want to go today?" while the chorus sings "Confutatis maledictis, flammis acribus addictis" ("The damned and accursed are convicted to the flames of Hell").

There's also a 2009 ad featuring a vomiting woman [guardian.co.uk].

Hey come on!

[bearflash]

The scene where Gates is reading Code Complete as a bedtime story to the little girl single handedly made me want to buy the book

Re:Is that Windows 1.0 commercial real?

[eln]

That was awesome! I want to go out and buy MS-DOS 5 Upgrade right now!

Re:The Windows/386 Ad

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I the only one who thought from the very first minute of that Windows/386 commercial that it looked like the setup for a porn flick?

Then comes the strip-tease (sadly too much off camera) just reinforcing that. Though when I saw the outfit she changed into, I was like "HOLY MOTHER OF FUCK, MY EYES, CHANGE BACK!"

And you've got to love how Microsoft pushed the whole sexist patronizing angle all the way to 1989

Re:I Really Liked the Seinfeld Ads

[gregarican]

It's funny that one person modded me Flamebait. C'mon, self-deprecating humor is refreshing for one of the world's richest and most recognized people, right? You also mean Bill Gates' last day [youtube.com] sucks too?!

Re:Delusional

[TheRaven64]

The point of those adverts is to say 'we listened to user feedback when designing Windows 7.' The problem with them is that they imply that Microsoft didn't listen to user feedback when designing Windows 1, 2, 3, 3.11, NT 3.5, 95, NT 4, 98, 2000, ME, XP, 2003, or Vista. Which might be true, but is probably not exactly what they wanted to tell everyone...

Re:Where's the Zune Penis Ad?

[frank_adrian314159]

Why did you post this link? That ad was troubling on so many levels.

Re:Microsoft's Most Effective Ads

[sproingie]

> When I play with Windows 7 and the new Office Beta, I see dozens of my pet peeves fixed

That's because Windows 7 was your idea! ;)

Re:FP

[Travelsonic]

Except in Nebraska!