Microsoft’s new commercial for the company’s Zune 4GB/8GB product seems to attempt to imply touchscreen capability upon a device that lacks a touchscreen. Microsoft lacks a device that can compete with Apple’s iPod touch, a touchscreen device with the multi-touch user interface.
In the commercial a girl sitting in an outside cafe is shown touching the Zune’s screen which takes her on a trippy Alice-in-Wonderland-like journey (as opposed to the typical Zune user’s fruitless journey to find an ecosystem of accessories or even another user with whom to “squirt”):
Direct link via YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0ZWXIf1Jq8
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Michael” for the heads up.]
Do you think that the average person viewing this ad could be confused and expect a Zune to have touchscreen capabilities? If so, they’ll likely be quickly returning their Zune post-haste. Maybe Microsoft hopes to make money on Zune restocking fees, since they can’t seem to sell the devices based on their actual merits in any meaningful numbers.
Advertising in the United States is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a United States administrative agency, to prohibit, “unfair and deceptive acts or practices in commerce,” according to Wikipedia in their entry “False advertising.”
Wikipedia further states, “What is illegal is the potential to deceive, which is interpreted to occur when consumers see the advertising to be stating to them, explicitly or implicitly, a claim that they may not realize is false and material. The latter means that the claim, if relied on for making a purchasing decision, is likely to be harmful by adversely affecting that decision. Evidence must be obtained for what consumers saw the ad saying, and for the materiality of that, and for the true facts about the advertised item, but no evidence is required that actual deception occurred, or that reliance occurred, or that the advertiser intended to deceive or knew that the claim was false. The goal is prevention rather than punishment, reflecting the purpose of civil law in setting things right rather than that of criminal law. The typical sanction is to order the advertiser to stop its illegal acts, or to include disclosure of additional information that serves to avoid the chance of deception, but there are no fines or prison time except for the infrequent instances when an advertiser refuses to stop despite being ordered to do so.”
Do you think this Zune ad constitutes false advertising?
MacDailyNews Note: The song — which you can buy via Apple’s iTunes Store 
— is “Lake Michigan” by Rogue Wave.
Hum….
Oh thats the new Zune 3.0.. Wont be out for 5 year…
Who cares?
The ad’s a mercifully brief trip to vomit city anyway.
No, I think the producers had a bit too much blow. That or they really are like jellyfish, 99% water, no brains and no anus.
Finally an ad that shows how wonderful life is with a Zune. This will be the death of all iPods.
The average person won’t pay any attention after about 5 seconds – but yes, the implication of touch sensitive is there right at the end, but nobody will care and neither do I.
What is the song and artist in the new Macbook Air commercial?
Only an idiot who doesn’t know a thing about Alice Through the Looking Glass would draw this conclusion. I don’t think it falsely advertises touch ability in the least. For one, she is only shown touching the screen once, and its to draw her finger back at the end. And she is previously shown navigating with the square weird thingy.. umm squricle or whatever. Had they shown her manipulating the device via the screen, then yes. But its pretty obvious that the advertisement wanted to imply the idea that the device “takes you to another world” and not that it has a touch screen. Of course that world it takes you too is probably in line with the excitement of the Tower of London. Although none of us will ever know because we will never own a Zune… or even know someone who does own a Zune.
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To jon1:
The song in the MacBook Air commercial is “New Soul” by Yael Naim. It’s on the iTS.
Easy, this is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Ellen Fleiss ad.
This is such a cheesy commercial. Worse than the touch screen inference are the attempts to use avant-garde conceptual imagesm, which fall short of being interesting or innovating. I especially dislike the scene near the end where, the girl swims with the sperm…WTF?
Umm, she never touched the screen in the commercial. She reached for the screen and it all of a sudden turned into an interdimensional window. Now if you want to sue Microsoft for falsely implying that the Zune has Stargate abilities then be my guest.
I thought the ad was beautiful. Perfect.
Makes the Apple ads look even better. If it was a good ad, a few more people might actually have bought a Zune over an iPod. Whew. Dodged that bullet.
Crap. Drugs are starting to fade. Now where were those ‘shrooms?
Considering that there are a lot of touchscreen devices (besides the iPhone/iPod touch), this commercial gives the impression that the Zune is “touch” capable. Even though it might not be deceptive advertising, I still find it to be pretty sleazy.
Not that it matters to me… I wouldn’t be caught dead with a Zune ;o)
forget about the zune. it is done. I want to know how Microsoft gets by calling its synchronizing framework as implemented in a few new cars as being called “Sync”.
Does Microsoft’s new Zune commercial falsely advertise nonexistent touchscreen capability?
No. The little girl touches her own reflexion in the screen and goes “Through the looking-glass” into different worlds, not pink rabbits only. This will not make me bye a Zune, but the ad is “averagely” well done.
I agre with Winston and others. All of the Zune ads I’ve seen look like the poor fools are on a bad acid trip
That was a really lame commercial.
I think it definitely tries to imply a touch-screen, it also steals the whole “touch your music” thing from Apple as well. However, given the kind of crap they are allowed to put in commercials nowadays (with microscopic, impossible to read disclaimer at the bottom), I don’t think anyone would have a hope of taking this to court or stopping them from showing it. If MS’s PR company picks up on people’s reaction, they *might* put a disclaimer at the bottom in said microscopic type, but that’s it.
When the truth in advertising acts were written, (1970’s) this would definitely be the kind of thing they were fighting against, but so would at least half of all advertisements on TV today. Back then it was considered that adverts should be reasonable and not try to mislead. Sadly, that view has not survived at all and the “truth in advertising” people are pretty much only funded so that the advertisers can point to the existence of the organisation in their PR material.
There certainly are a lot of “a touch makes something happen” visual analogies in that thing.
If you are Microsoft, and if someone makes the bogus connection from the ad, do you think they will take any steps to clear it up?
Aren’t we constantly told by ad people that the image is what matters?
Micro$oft proves yet again that they are clueless when it comes to marketing their products! But then again, it must be difficult trying to make commercials that imply “coolness” when the products themselves are not “cool”. Just like the Zune, Micro$oft’s commercials are a laughingstock!
smart advertising
I don’t think they have insinuated that the Zune has a touch screen, what I think is that they have a trippy advertisement that doesn’t ay anything about the product.
That was a bad commercial…
Almost, Worst. Commercial. Ever. Almost.
OF COURSE IT’S FALSE ADVERTISING!!! How many Zune owners do you know that are actually smiling?
You’ve got to be kidding. She’s clearly using the pad on the bottom to navigate the UI. And I thought Apple fanboys were supposed to be a creative bunch.