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With the consumer launch of Microsoft’s Windows 7 just six weeks away, the company has debuted its first television ad for the new OS.
The company’s spot, which made its first appearance Thursday night during the premier of CW’s “Vampire Diaries” series, centers around a little girl who is playing on her dad’s computer and cheerfully tells the viewer that her name is Kylie and that Windows 7 is full of “happy words.”
She proceeds to go down a list of search results that show positive reviews of Windows 7 — the happy words that she’s referring to.
Finally, hearkening back to Microsoft’s ongoing response to Apple’s “I’m a Mac” ads, Kylie closes with the words: “I’m a PC and more happy is coming.”
The ad, part of a new campaign dubbed “Good News,” signals a ratcheting-up of Microsoft’s promotional efforts in advance of Windows 7’s consumer availability on Oct. 22. The company also posted the ad on its Windows 7 team blog early Friday morning.
While it borrows earlier Windows ads’ phrase “I’m a PC,” the new campaign takes a different tack — especially compared to Microsoft’s confrontational “laptop hunter” ads that it began earlier this year.
Microsoft execs said the “laptop hunter” campaign — which showed users choosing a Windows PC over a Mac based in part on price considerations — raised Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) ire over what Apple complained were misstated pricing comparisons. Microsoft later modified those ads.
Now, the newest 30-second ad — designed by Microsoft’s agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky — taps into the innocence of a four-and-a-half year old child to highlight Windows 7’s vaunted user friendliness.
It wasn’t the first time audiences got a look at the new ad. Microsoft employees who either attended Thursday’s company meeting held at Seattle’s Safeco Field baseball stadium or watched via Webcast got a preview of the campaign during the course of the meeting.
Responses from commenters on both the team blog as well as on Twitter varied, ranging from “it’s sickeningly sweet,” to “her innocent ignorance of Windows is very cute indeed.”
A Microsoft spokesperson declined to discuss the ad or campaign.
