Microsoft Launches Anti-Google Campaign Featuring “The Googlighting Stranger”
Microsoft just launched an ad for their full-out anti-Google campaign, and it’s a little brutal. The video follows “The Googlighting Stranger,” a master of online advertising who now wants your business to test his productivity apps.
Microsoft is arguing hard that Google’s productivity suite just isn’t ready for primetime, accusing the search giant’s programs of changing rapidly and forcing users immediately to cloud-based computing. But fans aren’t buying it; the video is already heavily disliked on YouTube (almost three-to-one); and one popular comment mocks Microsoft, saying that their own popular programs will just be pirated.
Maybe the problem is one of style. Google might be trying to stumble into productivity, but Microsoft seems pretty awkward trying to get into funny, WTF-type videos; they should probably just leave that to the Doodle.
The video is apparently part of a whole campaign that includes an earlier video targeting Gmail:
While Google’s privacy concerns are certainly a hot topic,. Microsoft is probably on weaker ground attacking the site’s immensely popular and convenient email service. Perhaps that’s why they switched tones in their second ad to, “Google should stick with what they know.”
What do you think? Does Microsoft have any hope of effectively bashing Google?
