Scoble points out that YouTube is now lousy with the spots from Microsoft promoting their new Zune portable music player. It's hard to decide which one I think is the most surreal. I'll let you be the judge:- The Ballad of Lion and Gazelle has an animated lion eating a gazelle piece by piece while they share music.
- Picnic contains lots of crotch-shots as people mill about a picnic. The song also has the lyrics "I don't care what kind of drugs you're on." Wow.
- There's only two shots of the product in Battle.
- Concert just confuses the snot out of me.
- I'm actually disappointed the dog in Dog Scratch didn't lick himself.
- Couple isn't bad.
If you're into the Zune surf over to Engadget and watch as they completely dissect the player.
1. Dunno. I'm going to have to say that this is yet another example of how those reviewing the ads are failing to understand possibly who the spot is targeting. I mean, I'm fairly indifferent about the Zune. I'm not an iPodder, either. (I'm actually a proud user of the now-defunct Olympus m:robe, but anyway) The iPod "dancing" ads annoy the crap out of me now. Those commercials were directly responsible for ruining perfectly catchy songs.
These Zune ads (save for the Lion one, which seems silly - but it'll still probably work decently well) seem pretty fresh. They're trying to make the Zune look cool and hip without necessarily screaming "cool and hip" at me incessantly. I just see people going to concerts and sharing their music (legally! I suppose) which apparently is what you should do with your DAP.
The people that Microsoft is targeting are part of the anti-iPod underbelly of the DAP-using public. So the ads are decidedly un-apple. Is that so wrong? Or would you rather a silhouette figure dancing with glowing streaks? Time will tell how the Zune fares, and I have a feeling that its success (or lack thereof) will have far less to do with these ads and far more to do with the thing's performance and "look".
And no, you're not Sherlock Holmes for noticing the lack of Microsoft branding. That's obvious. Few companies elicit such a negative reaction (unless Enron made a DAP) so it's no surprise that they'd want to keep their name strictly to the fine print. Microsoft has been, if not somewhat unfairly, painted as the "suit" that knows no fun - which isn't the best image for a new, "ultra-hot" MP3 player.
These ads, whether successful or not, are trying the method of less-is-more when it comes to building suspense and interest in a product. Similar to teaser car ads that just let you catch a glimpse - it just might make the Zune a must-have device just in time for Christmas shopping. Or it might flop because MS is so late in the game, who knows.
Posted at 12:55AM on Nov 4th 2006 by Sarry Banders