Who needs Jerry Seinfeld when you’ve got a pole-dancing babe? Ask.com, the search engine formerly associated with a butler named Jeeves, is running an advertisement that features a voluptuous young woman doing acrobatic moves on a stripper pole under the heading “What are the best aerobic workouts?”
The ad may tell me nothing about the site’s technology or give me any reason to use it over Google, but it worked - I obediently ventured over to Ask.com to see if they had somehow managed to make search sexy (they didn’t). The results were just as mundane as they’ve always been, but the ad still drove me to the site.
Contrast this with the “edgy” ad campaign Ask used last year that was headed by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, which incorporated bizarre references to the Unabomber and urine-themed ads. The campaign failed to drive any traffic, and was abandoned only $15 million into the $100 million contract.
The same firm was in charge of Microsoft’s recent botched campaign featuring Bill Gates and Seinfeld. Microsoft has since shifted the campaign in a more successful direction (many think the shift occurred ahead of schedule, though the company maintains it went as planned), but should Microsoft ever decide to bail on Crispin it can rely on the same mantra that Ask has fallen back on: sex sells.
Ask.com is no stranger to displaying scantily-clad women in its ads - last year it ran one featuring a line of women promoting (but totally unrelated to) The Algorithm. We should also note that while Crispin has had its share of ill-received ad campaigns, it has also had some strokes of genius, including the Subservient Chicken.
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Love them or hate them, the Bill/Jerry ads drove analysis and arguments across the web. Bloggers dissected what the Conquistador was, whether the size 10 shoe was some kind of reference, and why a family was speaking Spanish. It drove millions of views on YouTube, and then led into their whole “I’m a PC” campaign. This is a stripper on a pole. You can argue that the MSFT campaign wasn’t funny, but this is far from creative genius.
I must agree, although they didn’t advertise anything on those commercials, they’ve turned in to a meme and thus, in itself, has created all types of feedback. Albeit good or bad, being popular is still being popular.
The Microsoft ads have definitely been taking a heavy beating since its release several weeks ago. However, I must agree with Tyler’s comment that regardless of what kind of talk it is, talk is still talk. Although the ads themselves don’t encourage me to go out and purchase a new computer running Vista as soon as I see them, they don’t deter me from buying Microsoft products either.
After all, Microsoft is still #1 in the market, and this campaign was entirely unnecessary as such. (Honestly, if you’re already #1, recognizing and addressing your #2 in an ad campaign is simply acknowledging your slipping hold on the market and empowering your competition. You are helping them promote their brand more than you are promoting your own brand, especially if there is already a huge community of supporters for said brand.) Regardless, they decided to run with it anyway, received some negative feedback on the campaign direction, and now Microsoft’s move is being discussed all over the internet by Apple, Linux, and PC-lovers alike. Aside from getting a little dirt associated with its name (honestly, who hasn’t had this happen?), Microsoft’s campaign perhaps did not succeed in the way it had hoped to succeed, but definitely has accumulated the kind of publicity that most would call successful.
Regardless, the current buzz around Microsoft’s negatively-received campaign and the bashing will soon be old news, and sales should not be hindered by this campaign. The only downside I can see is, aside from increased publicity, they are several million in the hole without increased sales. But who knows, maybe all they were going for was the publicity.
Getting people to click the ad is half the battle. If they leave your site as soon as they find out it’s not a porn site then you’ve accomplished nothing.
Hello, I’m a not-so-PC
I wonder if there are other ads in this campaign? I mean, sure, sex sells, but THAT doesn’t appeal to me. Give me some variety and I’d consider checking it out. And FWIW, nothing beats the subservient chicken.
Sure, better ads. But eventually, I’ll post my dead search engine commercial reel. These are very funny, very creative ads from Excite, Lycos, Hotbot and others. Ads didn’t help their marketshares at all, in the long term.
I enjoyed the commercial, but it is dumb. Doesn’t this commercial destroy credibility in its “Algorithm”? With these dumb ads, Ask.com will be in Oakland forever.
Stripper aerobics as integrated business model:
http://www.sfactor.com/
the msn ads had a little more redeeming value.
msn dont need ideas they need vision and leadership.
ask needs the exact same thing.
They should hire the Godaddy Girl for the ads!!
LMFAO
someone please tell me this is not an actual ad by ask . . .
You are probably referring to the marketing technique explained in: The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/)
“Blogs: We reach out to individuals who run relevant blogs and actually pay them to post our embedded videos. Sounds a little bit like cheating/PayPerPost, but it’s effective and it’s not against any rules.”
If it was an ad by Ask, they might have hosted the video themselves so that it would be posted on non-tech-related blogs. This one will mainly reach a techie crowd, and is thus an advertisement for TechCrunch.com and Jason Kincaid. Which is Fine! Technologists like us are not naive.
I don’t think they are doing Pay Per Post.
unabomber.
wow ok now microsoft need to hire or steal some great marketer from apple !!! .. it is a marketing era so you need the marketer possible with the most creative idea possible
Nice way of introducing TechCrunch television…lol
Hey, its similar to the Go Daddy ads - completely irrelevant but sex sells.
MS Seinfeld/Gates Ads are horrible, i hope they don’t resort to “sex sells” Ads, even they work.
http://gatesandjobs.blogspot.com/
like the posts before me said, the godaddy ads worked, obviously, everybody remembers them. Also in marketing any publicity, good or bad is still publicity. Just look, everybody here is talking about it and probably won’t stop online.
Why did you people not like my commercials? Am I not funny enough for you people to like the ads? Everyone loves Jerry Seinfeld, so why didn’t you like my damn ads with him in them?
What do you people want from me?
Bill.
microsoft has ads? who is this guy Jerry Seinfeld? huh?
Best aerobic workouts…
what - to look like and walk like a hoe?
I’m a PC and I read TechCrunch
I’m a PC and I write TechCrunch
I’m a PC and I comment on TechCrunch
i’m a pc and I surf the internet to find something to jack off to.
I’m a PC and I *own* TechCrunch. Bitch.
Hey I’m a PC and I surf the Internet too
I’m a PC and I CREATED the Internet
yo I’m a PC and I created Blackberry! and I’m very very old.
edgy
“I’m a TechCrunchy!”
“And I’m a viral video!”
“Shut up! This is how Microsoft should advertise.”
“I’m a TechCrunch Viral Video!”
I was waiting for her to fall.. lol
Microsoft is as sexy as the lady in video is
i thought the commercials were just fine…
GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!
Yes, sure, for perverts like you, only these kind of advertisements would work. But remember, Microsoft isn’t just aiming their ads at perverts like you.
That would be a wise decision for microsoft to do that. In fact, the MSN is starting to loose it’s popularity. Microsoft needs a makeover and that is to venture with ask.com
What Microsoft needs for Windows 7 is a REALLY good campaign with Bill Gates! Humor, self depreciation and mockery.. or just booobs.
Microsoft should find another ways and great ideas for advertisement.