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Advertising Microsoft

Is Microsoft's 'Find Your Joy' Holiday Ad Sad? (adweek.com) 52

Posted by EditorDavid from the dog-gone-commercial dept.
There's a zany twist at the end, because "This year more than ever, we felt that it was important to give people a little lift, to remind them that while we are facing a lot of challenges, there are many ways we can connect, be productive and enjoy the time we have at home," Microsoft's VP of brand, advertising, and research told Adweek.

But long-time Slashdot reader theodp shares a different opinion: While Adweek finds it "heartwarming", Windows Central's Sean Endicott writes that Microsoft's "Find Your Joy" holiday ad "just left me feeling sad."

After lock-downed family members immersed in Microsoft Halo, Teams, Minecraft, and Flight Simulator ignore the family dog, the pooch drifts off to sleep and dreams about being able to use the Microsoft products with fellow canines, including fetching a live grenade in Halo. The ad concludes with the line "This holiday, find your joy." Endicott does not approve: "I expected the ad to end with one of the people playing with the dog or at least cuddling it as it fell asleep. So much for that... Maybe this fictional family does that after the ad finishes, but Microsoft doesn't show it. And that's a real bummer."
Adweek points out that in Minecraft's Marketplace, Microsoft is also giving away a free "dogtopia" inspired by the ad (including bacon rollercoasters), while the vintage airplane will appear in Microsoft Flight Simulator, and custom backgrounds from the ad will be made available in Microsoft Teams.

Because this year more than ever it's important to give people a little lift to remind them that while we're facing a lot of challenges there's many ways we can connect, be productive and enjoy the time we have at home...
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Is Microsoft's 'Find Your Joy' Holiday Ad Sad? More

Is Microsoft's 'Find Your Joy' Holiday Ad Sad?

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  • I'm Sorry (Score:5, Insightful)

    by zenlessyank ( 748553 ) on Sunday December 06, 2020 @06:08PM (#60801192)

    But I don't give a damn.

  • Good ad, very diverse (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cygnusvis ( 6168614 ) on Sunday December 06, 2020 @06:12PM (#60801208)
    Perfect for the modern American who demands diversity and people of all ethnicities be represented.

  • It's sad... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by xlsior ( 524145 ) on Sunday December 06, 2020 @06:16PM (#60801222)
    ...that we're discussing an ad to begin with.

    • With so much of it around, what did you expect? Ads are the main content in most media these days.

  • Stop advertising for MS! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Sunday December 06, 2020 @06:19PM (#60801234)

    Until you posted this, I never even knew they had a new ad!

    In fact, this is the only reason I know MS does ads AT ALL.

    I figure it's gonna be that way for most actual geeks in here.
    We use ad blockers. We don't watch TV since the middle 2000s. We don't print out the series of tubes.

    So could you spare us this meaningless drivel from the luddite world of the beforetime?

  • Who's facing a lot of challenges? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Sunday December 06, 2020 @06:29PM (#60801256)

    "This year more than ever, we felt that it was important to give people a little lift, to remind them that while we are facing a lot of challenges, there are many ways we can connect, be productive and enjoy the time we have at home," Microsoft's VP of brand, advertising, and research told Adweek.

    Everybody is suffering from COVID-19, and most countries' economies are tanking. But Microsoft, Google, Amazon and a whole slew of big data companies are making out like bandits.

    Please Microsoft, don't give us the socially engaged company spiel: the virus is a business bonanza for you guys. Your abortion of an ad shows how much you really sympathize with the true victims of the pandemic, and what you're really concerned about: more business.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      You just have to reframe the picture. During a crisis that struck at time of division unprecedented in America since the Civil War, we can all come together get behind a single idea: there's a quick fix for this, and it somehow involves buying stuff.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Everybody except those countries that are well organised and not full of selfish fucktards who place muh freedom above the lives of others.

  • What are those 'ads' you're talking of? (Score:3)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Sunday December 06, 2020 @06:56PM (#60801326)

    How do they look like?

  • people who write articles analyzing whether Microsoft commercials are sad, truly are sad. Can you imagine if that were your job?

    • people who write articles analyzing whether Microsoft commercials are sad, truly are sad. Can you imagine if that were your job?

      That doesn't seem so bad. I write my random thoughts about mundane news stories on /. and nobody pays me for it.

  • The only thing I thought is a little bit sad was the guy, who watches an ad with a dog in it, not realising it's a make-belief story, and instead of seeing his own behaviour and response does he use it to project human nature and human feelings onto a dog. It's an act of virtue signalling, to complain and blame a corporation for their rather innocent ad, as a means to show a compassion for something that isn't actually real. Perhaps he is doing it, because he is lonely and he felt it's the right thing to do

    • Re:Projection of human nature (Score:5, Funny)

      by Krishnoid ( 984597 ) on Sunday December 06, 2020 @08:55PM (#60801520) Journal

      For the real life story, you'll need the "Behind the Scenes" video:
      "I've been sitting in this studio for three hours like a good girl getting ready for the other actors and stuff, not acting up or anything. So in this ad, I get to run and play with other dogs, right? And with humans too?"
      "Actually, your role in this ad is to get to dream about doing that, but on something called a computer -- not for real."
      "Ok, so ... what's my motivation here. I mean, like, to not just lie down and sink into depression? And don't say food, because that'll just be depression eating."

      • Let's not forget that a dog can sense a few things about humans, too. So the "Behind the Scenes" video could be like this:

        "I've been running from one depressed human to the next, but they're caught up on these devices and I couldn't get them to stop and to let go of them. They no longer care for each other, but only for these devices. They don't care for their immediate life and don't come together as a family anymore. Well, at least I now have the couch all to myself, but I feel sad for them. Oh, and what

  • It is sad (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jemmyw ( 624065 ) on Sunday December 06, 2020 @07:25PM (#60801372)
    I clicked through to watch it. It's not an icky heartwarming ad. Nobody will play with the family dog, they're too engrossed in their devices. Dog has a dream that it's in the games. And that's it. Ads like this don't really have messages, just pimping the brand. But if it did have a message, that message would be "We make better entertainment than your pet, we all understand you'd rather sit in front of your Xbox than go for walkies"

  • Is it sad because the dog is ignored, and ends up dreaming about being part of what its family is intent on, but can only have fun in its dreams?

    Or sad because the vast majority of the family members are also completely alone for the holiday season, intent on their individual pursuits rather than family togetherness?

    Or is it sad because she's selecting a torch in a village during the day and isn't playing full-screen?

  • It's an advert. Those are to be fucking ignored and if you read too much into them YOU are the problem.
    Trifling bullshit clickbait drivel isn't useful information nor is it even entertainment, it's just a demonstration of typical Dicedot laziness at its worst.
    Stop that.
    Post information for grownups.

  • I liked it for what it is, an advertisement. Too many people are way overthinking it.

  • Ccome on now. This ad frankly captures the depressed, escapist mood we all have right now perfectly. This post also captures Slashdot's tendency to cherry-pick out everything MSFT does as the source of all evil perfectly. Full disclosure, I have never worked for MSFT and am a day-to-day Mac and PS4 user.

    I'm sorry if you're sad. So am I. Go out and exercise, or play some Halo, and stop filling up my News for Nerds with your bitching. I'd rather hear about Stuff That Matters.

  • Why would anyone play crappy microsoft games? I've been playing minetest with my son. Also, dogs probably don't give a crap about computers anyway, they want real attention.

  • No dog wants to be played with 24x7. They love a good lie down and rest and relax without being irritated.
    Does the dog look well fed and cared for? Well, the dog's likely pretty well taken care of, fed, walked and so on.. It obviously isn't scared of them, so isn't being treated badly.
    All those pretty strong indicators that the dog is having a full and well tended life, and a random journalist goes "I think it may be being mistreated because I saw an instant of something, and therefore what I feel means

  • Corporate behemoth releases advert showing good little consumers using corporation's products for fun. Half of these good little consumers will already be spending half their working week on Teams so I think they're very much preaching to the choir! That said, if someone would like to buy me a gaming pc I'd love to play Flight Simulator but I think my family and pets would rather I spend time with them

  • What, no cats! The Cat Fancier's Association, and I will no longer use old Microsoft documentation for the litter box! A cat-astrophe in the making by Micro-dog-soft. Meow!

  • They all pretty much boil down to "Pay $1000 for the newest device with a modest spec bump."

  • At least the dog didn't wake up to his depressing reality at the end.

    This hardly seems holiday-ish at all, as people are already doing the things this family is doing on a regular basis. In fact, it's nice to see a Christmas scene without the stereotypes of it being shoved into my face with the force of a bench press.

    A tad bit depressing, yes, but it could've been A LOT worse.

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