The Weirdly Compelling Microsoft Bing TV Ads

You've seen the television ads. They're everywhere for one thing, but also pretty catchy. They're those weirdly compelling Bing TV spots. You may have even paused when they come on, bestowing upon them a generous channel surfing reprieve, before your fingers marched on in their merry couch potato rhythm. The Bing ads entertain like a so bad it's good B horror movie. Everyday folks mind their own business, only to stumble onto family and friends machine gun fire ranting the most mind numbing, factoid babble. What dastardly fate has befallen these poor schmucks?

It's attack of the Google Zombies no doubt, since Microsoft Bing is new kid on the Internet search engine block trying to chip away at Google's vast search dominance. Bing's advertising maestros satirically paint those who use the "other search engine" i.e. Google, as victims of information overload. If you Google, you risk morphing into a vacant eyed data drone. You may sound well read, or even knowledgeable, like you're full of supportive facts, but what use are they if you can't organize them effectively or usefully target the purpose or project you're trying to tackle?

Without bogging down into Mad Men ad speak jargon or marketing mania, Bing ads play as a fun, soft sell. They don't try to educate, inform or strong arm manipulate an intended audience, which I guess is just about everyone who searches the net, but make us laugh and feel good about the product. Sure, by comic implication, the ads tout Bing as better, since it's supposedly more effective at bringing us facts and data we really need, instead of overwhelming us with data zombie overload. However, it's subtle, comical and mocks the competitors, instead of clearly delineating what Bing as a service does so much better than say Google or Yahoo.

I'm usually pretty strong about succumbing to any TV advertising. I'm more vulnerable to store advertising or in person marketing like sales, flyers or specials. The Bing ads though got me typing away and clicking over to Bing to give it a try. While it didn't overly impress me, it was a different search "experience" and I found it a bit more clearly organized than the other search engines. I don't think I'll make Bing my regular search thing for every single net search, but I will visit it every so often. The little Bing jingle plays damn catchy too.