I’ve been pretty tough on Microsoft in this space. Frankly, they haven’t done much in the mainstream advertising front that has been very significant or noteworthy recently.
That opinion changed though on Tuesday when, while watching SportsCenter, I was treated to an amazing 3 minute Xbox 360 advert. That night, Xbox sponsored an entire episode of SportsCenter. The show was introduced as being exclusively sponsored by Xbox. I was passively watching the show and it’s commercials until I heard an intriguing guitar solo accompanying an interesting advertisement. This is what I got:
This version is 3 minutes long, there is also a 1 minute version airing in the EU.
This is a magical advertisement that kept me guessing until the end about what it was actually advertising (even though I should have known it was the 360). I must admit that this is one of the most well directed and produced commercials I have seen this year. Props to Microsoft, finally. Mccann-Erickson of San Francisco did the creative on this one
One additional note: I think that ESPN is beginning to cross the line on their “news” show SportsCenter. More and more, advertisers are being granted access to placements on the show. Examples: Budweiser Hot Seat and Coors Light 6-Pack. SportsCenter is presented to us as a news show, and the placements in the show cross the line of objectivity and should probably be kept out. Xbox’s sponsorship took things a step further by adding green accents to the set as well as their logo scattered throughout the presentation. ESPN has been walking dangerously close to adding too much advertising to their programming and they are just a few steps away from mirroring the excessive product placement used in Fox’s The Best Damn Sports Show, Period, and frankly, I think ESPN is better than that.
ESPN has an Ombudsman, George Solomon (Washington Post’s Sports Editor), who critiques ESPN on a monthly basis. Solomon has mentioned the need for objectivity in the SportsCenter reporting. He is an interesting read and has been very objective.
