Windows 7-themed Family Guy ads suck
The new Microsoft ads which use old clips of Family Guy have hit the Web. And, well, they suck. Unfortunately.
In October it was reported that Microsoft was slated to be sponsoring Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show. This was a special on Fox featuring Seth MacFarlane, the genius behind Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show, and the Web-only Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy.
However, a couple of weeks later Microsoft decided to pull out of sponsoring it after seeing a preview of the show. Warner Bros. stepped in and sponsored the show instead and the new Sherlock Holmes movie got the marketing.
Microsoft didn’t walk away from Family Guy or Seth MacFarlane entirely and has now released a number of Windows 7-themed Family Guy ads that are appearing on TV in the States. The problem is that they’re not very funny or clever, and are in fact just old clips from Family Guy overdubbed to promote Microsoft’s new operating system.
I can’t say I’m impressed. It’s as though the kudos of being connected with Family Guy is everything and the actual quality of the clips is secondary. But unless the ads make people laugh and eager to see them air time after time then they’re not going to be able to sell Windows 7.
NB: Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins has claimed all the bloggers who have covered this story are inherently wrong in their coverage and have failed to check their facts. Unfortunately, his fact checking only seems to go so far. He cites this Variety article from Oct. 26 as the original source for the story, but it was in fact an AdAge article (now moved behind a pay wall) from Oct. 15 that started it all.
No, there wasn’t ever a Windows 7-themed episode of Family Guy. However, the original source claimed Microsoft was sponsoring Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show with bags of specially-filmed Windows 7 ads. And it appears Microsoft did then pull out of sponsoring the show, only to be replaced by Warner Bros. promoting the new Sherlock Holmes movie.
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November 30th, 2009
The paywall thing is probably why I didn’t realize it – I tend not to read sites behind paywall, particularly when they aren’t part of industries that are areas of my core coverage.
Thanks for the nod.
November 30th, 2009
thanks for the information, your blog is very good and interesting
November 30th, 2009
“Those suckers that bought Vista Ultimate, myself included, are screwed,” said yet another commenter. “There isn’t a chance in hell that I am paying $219 for what should really be Vista SP2. We were promised ‘extras’ which we never got, now we are being excluded from the pre-order special. Anyway even at $49, it is still too much to pay.”
The extras that commenter mentioned refer to “Ultimate Extras,” one of the main features Microsoft cited in the months leading up to the 2007 release of Vista Ultimate to distinguish the operating system from its lower-priced siblings. According to Microsoft’s marketing, Extras were to be “cutting-edge programs, innovative services and unique publications” that would be regularly offered only to users of Vista’s highest-priced edition.
But users soon began belittling the paltry number of add-ons Microsoft released and the company’s leisurely pace at providing them. Just five months after Vista was launched, critics started to complain.
Earlier this year, Microsoft dumped the feature, saying that it would instead focus on existing features in Windows 7 rather than again promise extras.
The furor over Vista Ultimate has even reached analysts’ ranks. In May, Michael Cherry of Directions on Microsoft urged Microsoft to give Vista Ultimate owners a free upgrade to Windows 7. “It would buy them a lot of good will, and I don’t think it would cost them much,” Cherry said at the time.
Some of the commenters in the latest Computerworld stories about Windows 7 echoed Cherry.
“I am running Vista Ultimate and feel ripped off by Microsoft because … [we] never received the extras we paid good money to get,” said “Hellfire” in a long comment. “The very least that they should do is offer a heavily-discounted upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate to those that have lost money by purchasing Vista Ultimate.”
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