Microsoft Thinks Its Customers Are Idiots

Leave it to Microsoft to depict their customers as morons even when they claim to be empowering them.

Their new “[Person]’s [Idea]” ad campaign for Windows 7 showcases “everyday” PC users taking pride in the fact that Microsoft listened to their complaints and built a new, improved OS that incorporates their suggestions.  With this approach, Microsoft presumably intended to:

• Admit they’re aware that their older OS had problems
• Show that they listen to their customers
• Make their customers feel like valued members of the Microsoft team

Unfortunately, these ads hit all the wrong notes.  For example:

Based on this ad, I come away feeling as though Microsoft has the following impressions of its customers:

• They don’t understand technology
• They don’t care to understand technology
• They’re willing to buy substandard products and simply hope those products will eventually improve to the level of efficiency they should already have been at
• They’re lazy

I had a feeling this wasn’t the only ad in the series, and that others would reinforce my suspicions.

Yup.

Here, Kirsten adds another twist to Microsoft’s concept of “customer empowerment”: she downplays any concern we should have about Microsoft “stealing” her idea by letting us know she’s flattered that they did it.  (I wonder if Microsoft would be similarly flattered if Kirsten thought so much of their new OS that she handed out pirated copies of it on a street corner…)

There’s also Steven, whose house is filled with PCs even though they were hell to connect before, and Jack, who’s so proud of Microsoft “using” his idea that he called his mom to tell her about it.  Now we see which virtues Microsoft really values: slavish brand loyalty despite user dissatisfaction and a copious mix of hubris and stupidity.

(If I really wanted to nitpick, I could also touch on the fact that each of the “normal” people in these ads envision themselves as physically attractive paragons of insight during their flashbacks, which implies that Microsoft doesn’t think “normal” people are self-confident enough to think of themselves as being already attractive in the first place.  Or, in some cases, that Microsoft’s idea of “heightened attractiveness” is actually less attractive than the “normal” people themselves.  But, I digress…)

Time will tell if these ads directly impact the public’s perception (and purchase) of Windows 7.  But I’m more interested in what the potential success of these ads says about what Microsoft really thinks of its customers — or what Microsoft’s customers really think about themselves.

Tags: audience, branding, bullshit, Business, marketing douchebags, perception, pop culture, Sociology, video