I saw a Vista commercial on TV for the first time last night. It ran during the Monday night's Heroes episode. The ad was built around the notion that sometimes as you do things you stop and realize how amazing something is. The commercial is built from five or six different examples of this. For instance, there's a segment where a woman is running in the countryside and crests a hill overlooking a valley, stops, and looks back over the view in awe. You can probably guess what she says: "Wow." The end of the commercial shows a person at a desk, using a notebook running Vista and then proclaims "Wow" too.
What did I think of the commercial? It's not too bad. A little obtuse at the beginning. Maybe it was the music or the editing or something, or maybe I was a little slow last night, but by the end I got the idea. I look forward to seeing the ad again.
One thing I did like about the commercial is that it shows positive things--accomplishments. So many of the net-based Vista campaigns (like the DiMitri Martin ads) have been so, well, depressing. Maybe that works best on the net. Maybe it tests better with a young crowd. Not sure. However, it's good to see that the same tactic isn't being used on TV.
By the way, Microsoft isn't just running ads within the Heroes show, they've also tied in some Vista advertising at the end of the show when they preview segments from the next episode. To give it a Vista feel they show the previews in the 3D looking, Alt-Tab-like carousel. Makes me wonder though--is this going to become the signature screenshot of Vista? Hmmm. Is it really that useful or interesting?
Oh, I almost forgot to mention, the notebook shown at the end of the commercial? I think it was a Tablet PC. I'm not positive, but I think I saw a hinge. At first I thought it was a Fujitsu Tablet, but it might have been one of the HPs. I look forward to seeing the commercial again to see if this was a Tablet or not.



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