Entertainment | Internet
Microsoft ads say search is sick, Bing is the cure
Microsoft Corp. is inventing a new malady for which its new Web search site, Bing, is the only cure.
- Agencies
- Published: 14:14 June 3, 2009
- In the first Bing ad, set to debut Wednesday night, Microsoft unveils "search overload" syndrome.
- Image Credit: Supplied
Seattle: Microsoft Corp. is inventing a new malady for which its new Web search site, Bing, is the only cure.
That's the premise of the $100 million, four-month advertising campaign Microsoft hopes will turn Bing into a verb and give the software maker a fighting chance against search leader Google Inc. - unlike its last redesign, Live Search, which launched four years ago to such little fanfare that many Web surfers still don't know where to find it online.
In the first Bing ad, set to debut Wednesday night, Microsoft unveils "search overload" syndrome - the state of confusion brought on by search results that don't answer a user's question. The commercial starts with bleeps and blips and a montage of Web-video frivolity (think cat playing piano).
"While everyone was searching, there was bailing," a narrator says over news footage from the economic meltdown. "While everyone was lost in the links, there was collapsing."
The chaotic footage and soundtrack give way to upbeat rock music and stock-footage-style shots of children happily using consumer electronics and adults making calculations, rehabilitating injuries and going places.
"It's time to Bing," the narrator concludes. When he says the word "Bing," his voice goes much, much higher.
The current events scenes are intended to tie the idea of saving money during the recession to using the new search engine to find travel and shopping deals, said Ty Montague, chief creative officer at JWT, the agency responsible for the TV ads.
"The world of excess is over," he said. "What people need is something that is more meaningful, gets to the point more quickly, gets them to what they want."
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