Microsoft Windows 7 Party? Are you kidding me?
So I have seen lots of buzz this morning about the Windows 7 Party video and couldn’t help but chime in. Watching this video is worse than watching an infomercial at 3AM, when all you want to do is check out some Brady Bunch reruns but instead are forced to sit through some BS presentation about a ladder than can folder up into a coin purse or a knife that can cut through cement and still be sharp enough to amputate an arm. I honestly think the only way you could sell a Windows 7 party is if Billy Mays rose from the dead and brought Jesus with him, although, I am sure that Jesus uses a Macbook Pro.
Please watch the video:
I kind of hope this is some sort of clever scam and not a real Microsoft endorsed video, Unfortunately, some credible news sources are reporting it is indeed legit. Microsoft has had some awful beer thirty advertising ideas in the past but this one may take the cake.
Ever since I struggled through this video, I have been trying to picture what a Windows 7 party might look like. A Windows 7 party is probably a great way to lose friends, although, someone throwing one is very unlikely to have any friends to start with. I would imagine most Windows 7 parties will take place in a dark basement, with a lonely 37 year old guy swearing into the darkness because his World of Warcraft just crashed due to a bug in the new Windows 7 OS.
How many parties do you think will actually occur? Of those what percentage do you think will be interrupted by a frozen Windows 7 machine? Does anyone, anywhere think this is a good idea? This cannot be good for the Windows brand that is already struggling with the young tech savvy crowd. Microsoft continues to fail miserably in its advertising efforts. To answer a question from the token black guy in the video, “Can you believe Microsoft put the launch of Windows 7 in our hands?” NO! I hope Bill Gates personally fires his entire advertising department for further destroying the Windows brand.
I have tested Windows 7 and it was a decent OS. It is what Windows Vista should have been. My question is, why ruin it with such a have baked advertising campaign? This idea is so awful I am now embarrassed to use Windows. I think I will switch my Windows 7 testing machine to Linux this weekend.
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Comments
Hmm, well, I’m about to give a Win7 party (but I’ve not seen the vid due to your warning :-O)
I will setup a Vitual Machine containing a x64 bootimage for booting over network (PXE), where multiple Win7 64Bit versions (home, pro) will be available for installation plus a I’ll create a big USB penstick w/ all win7 drivers and software needed.
So I’ll invite all my geeks for the weekend to install/setup Win7 together and we’ll have some games in our LAN.
So… This has many advantages as we install all the same time, when problems occour, someone is around to solve them , all drivers and software just needs to be downnloaded once, and so on.
Greetz,
GHad
I like how they were all wearing the Windows colours… except the woman in purple, but there were lemons for the yellow…
@GHad I am glad for Windows that someone is actually going to have a Windows 7 launch party because I was a little worried for ol Bill nobody would. The OS is decent I have it running for several months. The only problem I had was poor support for my video card but that is not really their issue. That being said, if I were going to have a launch party which I wouldn’t anyway… this video would change my mind.
@SeanJA I didn’t notice that before but you are right. It is also interesting they included the old lady, the mom, the trendy young guy, and the token black guy. All they left out were someone Asian and someone handicapped. I have been trying to picture a scenario in real life where this group would be in the same room but thus far I haven’t been able to imagine it.
I have honestly never seen this ad.. I almost fell out of my seat when I saw this blog post because I was recently invited to a windows 7 party. ROFL!!
@ThatOneGuy Those throwing the party get a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate so I can see why someone might have motivation to throw a party but my question is… who would attend? If you go, you’ll have to report back and let us know how many times the demonstration machine crashed during your party.
I made it about as far as the really bad edit to “call customer service if you have any questions”. Maybe MS sloppy edit will inspire others to mash this thing up and make it a bit less insipid and a bit more inspiring (not necessarily inspiring one to install MS7, though).
Well, the video was meant for hosts that were accepted by Houseparty.com, not for the “public” as it has been shown to everyone the last few days. Microsoft seems to be taking a different approach to their advertising schemes, unlike Vista, when nobody even knew it was released. The host that were chosen were not filtered out by any technical means so they used this video to show that “anyone” can host a party. I see they got that point across.
As for a boring party, I think it’s a little challenging to try and have a party around a piece of software. I am a chosen host but luckily, I have clients that are all interested in throwing their Vista out the window. Word of mouth got my small business in some great places so who knows what this will turn out like for Microsoft.
This commercial is one of the lamest things I have ever seen.