Has any one else seen the new ads by Microsoft promoting the new update of internet explorer, IE8? The feature former Lois and Clark actor Dean Cain and involve situations that apparently require the use of extremely long acronyms. S.H.Y.N.E.S.S. is the funniest, I’ll admit, but the most controversial (and most disgusting) is the O.M.G.I.G.P. ad, which features a woman projectile-vomiting after seeing what her husband has been looking at on the computer.

Although Microsoft quickly pulled the ad after receiving overwhelming negative feedback and it is now hard to find online, I still can’t get the image of the man at fault falling to floor after slipping his wife’s vomit. Commenters on YouTube apparently were thinking that same thing, as some asked if it was a joke  or if Apple was behind the entire thing, as mentioned in the above linked article.

These video ads, designed as a viral marketing campaign for Microsoft, are definitely not as successful as they were supposed to be. Overall, I think a lot of professionals in the internet marketing industry would agree with me — Microsoft should focus on providing a better web browser, stop taking ideas from Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox (like private browsing and faster navigation), and learn the line between an offbeat ad and an offensive one.

Image from http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/stone/2009/04/21/test.html via Google Images