Microsoft is kicking off a new advertising campaign with Windows Phone 8 ditching Jessica Alba and Oprah in favor of allegedly disgruntled iPhone and Android device owners. The campaign is called “Meet Your Match” and it aims to get people to realize how much their phones suck in comparison to the almighty Windows Phone 8 smartphones on the market.
Meet Elizabeth. She seems like a sweet gal walking on the beach, but you don’t know her secret, do you? It turns out her iPhone sucks harder than a black hole. Enter Microsoft to save the day. If she can complete a challenge in which she must send a text message to her parents faster than Ben, the challenger, can with his Windows Phone, he’ll buy her a plane ticket home from vacation. She doesn’t win, of course, but Ben is nice enough to give her a Windows Phone to replace her iPhone.
“Yeah, I’m like freaking out ’cause my phone sucks!” reacts Elizabeth when she finds out she has a new Windows Phone 8 handset. Nevermind the fact that earlier in the ad she said her and her parents “get along beautifully with text messaging” yet somehow now she’s seen the light in Windows Phone 8 and all her past experiences are horrible.
Also worth pointing out is during the challenge, Elizabeth presses “Edit” and then “Done” at the top of the iMessage conversation. Maybe I don’t know much about technology (spoiler alert: I do) but I’m pretty sure no one on Earth has ever tapped either of those buttons as preliminary steps to sending a text message.
That said, Microsoft at least did a good job showcasing the features of Windows Phone 8 like grouping people together to stay in touch. Watch the ad below to see for yourself.