Any good smartphone fanboy has likely had an argument over which mobile OS is best, but there’s a good chance that those fights focused on the dominant players: Android vs. iOS. In its latest commercial (below), Microsoft takes a page from Samsung and makes fun of its competitors, positioning Windows Phone as the more civilized choice. No need to argue; just switch to Windows.
The spot opens on a wedding, already in progress. All of a sudden, everybody on the bride’s side and everybody on the groom’s side whip out their smartphones, tablets, and phablet to capture the vows. A Samsung phablet user in Advanced Dork Factor glasses gets up and blocks the entire aisle. A snarky New Yorker type rocking a bowtie and sweater vest implores him, chuckling, to remove his “enormous phone.” Phablet Nerd’s buddy, Pompous Dude, asks him if he means “the enormously awesome Galaxy?” Then he gives Dork Glasses an NFC-enhanced high five.
After a minute, it’s on. The wedding guests throw off their jackets and throw down, Apple and Android fanboys attack each other by the dozens, throwing chairs and punching dudes through the air into wedding cakes with cheap wire-fu. As the chaos begins to spin out of control, we’re introduced to Tall Boy Caterer and Apathetic Girl Caterer, who have evidently been filming the whole time on their Nokia Lumia 920s.
Tall Boy Caterer asks, “Do you think that if they knew about the Nokia Lumia, they’d stop fighting all the time?” And Apathetic Girl Caterer’s all like, “I think they kind of like fighting.”
And the tagline: “Don’t fight. Switch.” Now, of course, this is a pretty aggressive ad, but that’s some seriously aggressive marketing – it almost sounds like an order. But it’s happening as we speak – the Nokia Lumia has helped Microsoft’s OS rise from 1.4 percent to 4.1 percent of the U.S. smartphone market since this time last year. Also, Nokia recently said that it sold 5.6 million Lumia devices worldwide during the first quarter. That figure is up 27 percent from the previous quarter.
This ad seems to be designed to catch peoples’ attention – both with the subject matter depicted and in lines of dialogue like ”Do you think if people know about the Nokia Lumia they’d fight so much?” It’s kind of like it’s playing to its audience’s unfamiliarity with the product, but it’s playing down the major disadvantages of not owning an Android or iOS device (IE: Apps, or lack thereof). And again, a tagline like “Don’t fight. Switch,” might end up working in Microsoft’s favor, but it’s really Microsoft who’s picking a fight here.
