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Kerotan said:
EricHiggin said:
It's a thoughtful product, and good on MS for bringing it to market, but the ad feels more like a charity ad then a gaming ad. I mean an entire 2 minute spot and no games shown whatsoever?

It's more a PR exercise then an advertising campaign. They are looking to improve the image of their brand rather then make straight sales of this product. Obviously it will help it sell but it's a niche market.

As far as PR campaigns go this is a very good one.

Edit:

This was taken the wrong way. Saying it's a niche market from an advertising point of view is a compliment to Microsoft because the financial reward from this is likely not big. Yet they are still putting in a great effort to help disabled gamers. That's great PR for the brand and image. 

MS could've stuck with the articles that were already written about this product, but they went all out and spent a boatload on a Super Bowl ad to show people they aren't just about making money and actually care. Since this product probably isn't financially driven, on top of the money spent to make this as widely known as possible, using the most expensive type of ad, does make it clear MS is trying to say we really do care, and here's proof.

Simply saying "PR" was probably taken the wrong way because it's mostly used in a negative manner, but I get what your saying. MS isn't directly trying to sell XB's with this commercial, and while they could potentially sell some indirectly, that's not the main objective. If they were seriously trying to sell XB's, they would have at least shown some games. That's what surprised me the most. They stuck to their guns and kept the focus on the charity aspect and not the gaming ecosystem itself.

What matters most is how MS follows through with this program. If they discontinue the product in the near future, that would make this all look pretty shady. There's really no reason to assume that's the case though, so there's really no reason to assume this is being done out of greed. I said not to long ago that MS needed to work on their PR, and this ad is a step in the right direction.