These two ads for the new Windows 7 phone are super clever and funny. But the campaign tagline — “It’s time for a phone to save us from our phones.” — seems odd. It’s cute, but who are they talking to?
I certainly have my iPhone out all too often. But never once have I thought it was due to a problem with my iPhone. (Wouldn’t that be nice?) So why or how could another smart phone relieve me of the constant distraction that is my current smart phone? The answer: it can’t.
Chairman Gruber has the same quibble. His thought?:
Perhaps this message from Microsoft isn’t targeted at existing smartphone owners. It’s for those shopping for the first smartphone, who, because they don’t have one yet, see existing smartphones as something unpleasant — gadgets that turn friends and family into anti-social heads-down faces-underlit jerks. I can see how that message might work.