Ad of the Week: Internet Explorer – Do You Know This Guy?

What kind of marketing cojones does it take to start your ad off with "(brand name) sucks"? Well, that's exactly what Internet Explorer did in their latest ad. In fact, almost the entire ad consists of an online hater, posting disparaging words about their product. They do go on to show posts from IE and others about all the great new things they have implemented. The hater just goes on hating, though. 

In the end, it turns out the hater is a karaoke fanatic and a new karaoke related feature finally prompts him to post that IE sucks… less. And Internet Explorer says that's progress. Even the website at the end is TheBrowserYouLovedToHate.com. 

In this age of transparency and online honesty, IE has embraced the fact that their browser – once the default browser for just about everybody (with a PC anyway) – has come to be reviled, both for lack of forward thinking and for the fact that, as the biggest, most of the viruses we designed to work on it.

Now, they're doing something about it and aren't afraid to poke fun at themselves and acknowledge the issue. After all, everyone know about it, so why sweep it under the rug. Their obvious target is to win back some of the defectors, who certainly are aware of the problems and haters. it seems obvious, but there are many brands who won't dare to put those kind of things in an ad – preferring to pretend they don't exist. And for that courage, IE, I applaud you. 

 Internet Explorer – Do You Know This Guy?

So, what do you think? Did you like the ad and the thinking behind it or would you have preferred to they went another route? How about your brand or the ones you work with – would they be willing to let it all hang out like this?

Mike McClure, former and possibly future Explorer user

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