Microsoft has launched an advertising campaign with the catch phrase: “To the Cloud.”
Typical for Microsoft, some people love the advertisements and others think the campaign is just awful.
The campaign will run across television, magazines, the Web, billboards and airport signs. It is designed to show the customer benefits of cloud computing.
According to WinRumors, Microsoft is also kicking off a campaign called “Cloud Power,” designed to show off the benefits of the “private cloud.”
To the Cloud
Let’s take a look at three spots from the “To the Cloud” campaign. The first video features a couple at the airport who have just learned their flight may be delayed anywhere from 15 minutes to three hours. They go “to the cloud,” to remotely access a show off the personal computer at their house. The woman is happy to watch a show about celebrities. The woman mellows out, blissful to watch her show about celebrities on parole.
In the second example, a CEO of a nascent startup is at a coffee shop and he needs to share a document. The business plan is due in two hours and it needs a bit of work. He goes “to the cloud.” The marketing guy looks at it from the office. The CFO takes a look from his house while his kids bop him on the head with a rubber toy. The CEO can now can quit his day job.
In a third example, a woman is editing a photo of her family. Her daughter is texting. The boys are fighting and Dad is trying to break it up. She goes “to the cloud,” and edits the photo. Behind her, the family is sitting on the couch where the picture was taken. She clicks a big Facebook icon and says: “Finally, a photo I can share without ridicule. Windows gives me the family nature never could.”
The ads are at once brilliant and a bit aggravating, too. Moving walls reveal a new laptop for the characters in essence so they may go “to the cloud.” It’s all playful and fun. It’s all so easy. Cloud computing – it’s for sharing photos, watching movies and starting a company.
What do you think of these ads? Do they trivialize cloud computing or make it accessible for us all? And is that so bad?