Samantha Rose Hunt09 June 2009, 12:20 PM
Microsoft has launched its first ad in a $100 million campaign for its newly rebranded search engine, Bing.
You've seen the new search engine, now blame Google for the economic crisis, absolutely free! That seems to be the sales pitch coming out of Microsoft for its new "Bing" search engine, or "decision engine" as Microsoft likes to call it (that's going to catch on about as fast as the new name for netbooks Microsoft has dreamed up).
The first Bing ad pushes the concept of search overload, and claims that Internet users have been “lost in the links” as the economy has entered a downward spiral.
The Bing commercial which has been titled Manifesto works to connect the effectiveness of search engines to the negatives happening on Wall Street. The company doesn’t necessarily cite Google but gives the impression that things aren’t always as they appear, and seem to point a finger directly at the company which currently dominates search.
"While everyone was searching, there was bailing," states a narrator. "While everyone was lost in the links, there was collapsing. We don't need queries and keywords if they bring back questions and confusion. From this moment on, search overload is officially over."
The ad positions Bing as "the one and only 100 percent engineered to cut through the [crap] decision engine."
The ad declares: “Starting today, we need the right information to make the right decisions. Decisions to make us feel right, decisions that help us get to the right place, at the right time, even if it’s right around the corner. And we need to make decisions about what the right stuff is. Right now, it’s time for the one and only 100% engineered to cut through the crap decision engine. Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, it’s time to Bing and decide.”
At the end of the ad, we’re brought to a screeching halt as the advertising agency simply states “Thanks for the bailout.”
Frankly, with an ad like this, we can only assume Microsoft is deliberately trying to gain headlines, which whoops, we're giving them. As for lending credibility to the Bing search engine, we're not so sure.
Disclosure: APCmag.com is part of the NineMSN network, which is providing the Bing search engine in Australia.