When I first heard that Microsoft was going to develop a series of Windows commercials for print and television, I was thrilled. I couldn’t wait to see what it came up with. You know I’ve been a Windows user for years - I know where it’s been and where it’s probably going. Something was better than nothing, right? Not quite. Turns out they were just as uninspiring as the operating system itself. Let me be a bit more specific - these “Start Something” commercials are unapologetically generic. Let’s just see what happens when we query Google for start something windows commercial and press the Lucky button? Oh, my. That’s bad.

Every “Start Something” advertisement tells me that I can complete all sorts of tasks within the Windows operating system. That’s not the problem, really - I think it’s great that Microsoft is telling users what they can do with their PC. But that’s where someone in marketing really screwed up - because everything it tell me I can start in Windows, I could just as easily start in OS X. Oops. Uh, is this Windows marketing or just a general consumer awareness campaign? No matter, I’m sure the folks at Apple aren’t complaining about it. I don’t know how much money Microsoft spent on the blitz, but I still look at my machine the same way I did before they told me what I could “start” with it. Rather, what I could “start” with any computer. That’s not just sad, it’s disappointing.

And the most frustrating part? I find out that I can do “something” with Windows, but it doesn’t make any specific product recommendations for me. Worse yet, when I visit the official site, I’m told about hardware and software in its Marketplace that nobody else has bothered to recommend. I fear Microsoft is doomed to repeat this mistake ad nauseum - producing mediocre products and doing a mediocre job at presenting them to a world that’s complacent with mediocrity. I’m hoping that Windows Vista won’t fall victim to this just-good-enough syndrome, though. It has another year to turn that ship around - to release an amazing operating system that makes everybody want to drop their Xbox 360 controllers and run back to their personal computers. As it stands, Windows is just an average OS for an average person who wants to do average things.

[tags]windows,apple,marketing,microsoft,advertising,start something,generic,microsoft windows,marketplace,consumer[/tags]