Microsoft Trying Really, Really Hard With New IE8 Ads

Microsoft, bless its heart, really wants a successful ad campaign. The company has been tearing through taglines and spokespeople at a breakneck pace, attempting in part to hit back at Apple's highly successful "Get a Mac" campaign, which more or less exists to take Redmond down a peg. As a result, we've seen "I'm a PC"; some lady named Lauren, who was actually an actress named Lauren; and Jerry Seinfeld chatting up former CEO Bill Gates about cake.

Now, for a new series of new ads promoting Internet Explorer 8, the company has toiled deep within the quirk mines, going so far as to recruit "Police Academy" vet and star of the talking-horse vehicle "Hot to Trot," Bobcat Goldthwait. The result is a series of tiny Dadaist movies like the one above, which features a woman repeatedly vomiting on her husband after discover what's in his search history. Lesson learned: Get IE 8, and your wife will puke on you less--unless, you know, that's what you're into.

Also, there's Dean Cain, who pops up at the end of each ad wearing a suit; he's like a cross between Rod Serling and William Shatner's second career as a self-satirist. They're weird, uncomfortable, and, at the very least, they've got a lot of people talking. Reactions at this point includes strong dislike and a general sense of disbelief that Microsoft would stick its stamp of approval on these spots. By that token, the campaign has done its job.





Still, it's hard to imagine these spots existing beyond their current state as a weird anomaly made even stranger by the fact that companies don't really tend to throw a ton of money behind browser advertisements. Of course, increased competition from Firefox and Google's own Chrome ad budget has put Microsoft in a less than ideal position.

What it boils down to is the same sort of wall Microsoft keeps running into with its Zune marketing team: How does a gigantic multinational corporation present itself as a hip alternative? The issue is even more pronounced since, unlike in the MP3 player space, Microsoft is about as far from being the underdog as one can possibly be in the browser space. The company's market share is eroding, but for the foreseeable future, IE still rules the roost, if only because most people can't be troubled to learn the nuances of a new browser.

So what's a huge conglomerate to do? Put a little funding into ads, and then float them on the Web to see if they work. If the things tank, it's a lot easier to disown them. If they're a success, you can call them a stroke of brilliant viral advertising. Either way Dean Cain gets his money. So it's a win-win, right?

Some of us will laugh at the commercials and some of us will laugh at Microsoft. Either way the company will pat itself on the back for a job well done.