I can't say that I have ever seen a Microsoft ad that was particularly good ... More often then not there are tons of unintentional messages in their ads that are the opposite of what anyone would want; consider their "Windows 7 was my idea ads" which could be interpreted as even idiots knew what Microsoft has needed to do since 1995 and they’re finally getting around to it.

Now, my personal opinion on the press Microsoft has been seeing is that people are dramatically overstating it. While it has been seeing significant interest from tech-related resources, I haven’t seen many comments on it from the wider press; and these people’s opinions are not (really) generalize-able being that many of them believed that people were dying to buy a $600 PS3 and would avoid the Wii because it lacked HD output.

Won't squeezing out every available CPU cycle increase the risk of RRoD in the vulnerable boxes still around?

With the whole 'alienating the hardcore gamers' argument does anything think when Sony tried to get the casual audience that THEY alienated them with Singstar? Doesn't seem so! And with that does that mean we're gonna see a pink Xbox to try and appeal to female gamers? :lol:

If all depends on the software, I've had every single Nintendo console over the years and my mum never even thought about playing one until she saw me play Wii Sports and Wario Ware with my cousin so if they have a 'killer app' that can appeal to the casual gamer and/or the hardcore gamer then maybe they could pull it off. Providing that Natal works as well as they say it does too.

I don't particularly agree with the windows ads at all. In fact, I completely interpret them the way you said. People on the street knew how Windows should be but MS couldn't figure it out til' now.

I'm thinking more about their xbox advertising. First, they advertise the games for the developers so that they can put "Xbox Jump In" at the end and completely leave out that the game(s) are available on other platforms. Additionally, they misrepresent multiplat games by saying "Only available on Xbox360". However, nobody can take issue with it because they lead up to the quote with "etc etc on xbox live,". They advertise just about every core game that comes out on the system with about as much coverage as Killzone 2 got, and instead of saying "Xbox 360 Arcade, now 199$", they say "Xbox 360, now 100$ dollars off".

Additionally, it's not just tv advertising, but print ads, sending games to just about every reviewer in any newspaper to get written about. They hire actors to take photo ops as master cheif in malls all over the world. Halo 3 had an advertising budget that exceeds many Hollywood movie budgets. They are just insane with their advertising. Don't get me wrong, I wish Sony advertised like MS does, although I still love the "it's thinking" ads and the new ones as well.

Have they ever even made a popular casual game? Their mascots are a cybernetic spartan and a chainsaw gun wielding mad man. Doesn't sound very family friendly. Maybe Milo can change their image.

Dont you mean this :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km5-OACKRjA

Could you give us the link of Ballmer with the chainsaw? It would be more ROTFLific than the Frankensteve one!

haha, I never noticed that the spy girl was wearing a PS armband lol. I meant the Cell ads. The one with the baby and the MLB one. You know, the ones with the empty room and the ps3 magically floating around.

Behold the Masters of Advertising!

I wrote all those songs.