This Sunday, Microsoft will launch an ad campaign that tout its "family" of consumer products together, rather than individual campaigns for each. What that really means is the company is ramping up the sex appeal for products like Microsoft Office by including the Xbox 360 and Kinect in the picture.
The company's chief marketing strategist called that—rather unironically—the "halo effect," and he wasn't referring to the video game. Xbox 360 and Kinect have a lot of enthusiasm behind them, David Webster told the Seattle Times, so Microsoft is banking on the theory that a hot girl makes others around her more attractive, too.
"If they know we're the same company that came up with those ideas, and now we have these PCs and phones — they're more likely to think: 'Wow, I should check out these PCs and phones,' " Webster said.
The ads will air in 35 countries and will be dialogue free. They'll try to unify the products into a theme of bringing people together; for example, Dad's in the living room playing Kinect-enabled Dance Central 2. Daughter videos him with a Windows Phone, then her brother watches it on a Windows PC in the same room. It all ends with the tagline "It's a great time to be a family"
Can Xbox make Windows cool? Microsoft launches ad campaign [Seattle Times]
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