New Zune Ads: Real or Fake?

[Adam Krebs]

A couple days ago, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNQpFFmlNPk">two</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3_uGY9R5C4">videos</a> by a group calling themselves The Bundies and Chey. N were uploaded to the YouTube account &quot;youmakeityou&quot;. These videos claimed to be the new Zune ads, but I was a little skeptical. The production values were low, and the song was pretty hokey (referencing &quot;you make it you&quot; and &quot;original&quot;), making me doubt the fancy-looking ad text at the beginning of the song. Then again, it wasn't terrible, and would fit more with the urban marketing Zune is trying to promote.<br /><br />ClicZune's Stephane <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cliczune.com/2008/01/fake-zune-ads.html">says</a> that this is the same group responsible for a fake commercial for the iPhone that was later removed from YouTube. The Zune ads certainly look fake, but I'm going to wait until we get a confirmation to pass judgment.<br /><br />UPDATE: They're fake. I guess that settles that.

[Alber1690]

100% fake. Bet my Zune 80 on it. The "ads" (I hate using the word with such videos, even with quotations) do not fit any of the attributes of real ads, most obvious: lenght. TV Commercials are either :15, :30, :45, or 1:00 long, never :39 seconds. Nor do they advertise a YouTube channel more than the product's actual website, which they only advertised using the same footage from another ad company's work. Plus, if they were trying to reach a bigger audience via a celebrity, chosing some random self-claimed "artists" (or w/e they were) would not do the trick. Nice for bringing them up though, I bet people are thinking they're real.

[Adam Krebs]

Plus, if they were trying to reach a bigger audience via a celebrity, chosing some random self-claimed "artists" (or w/e they were) would not do the trick.

I actually have to disagree with this; Zune's built its marketing around promotion of unknown or little-known bands. Choosing a celebrity or well-known song in their ads would defeat this purpose, and so it's actually quite possible that they'd choose these nobodies from some urban-looking place. I kinda doubt they'd show the Zune as much, or have the video resemble a self-made rap video, but then again we haven't seen a Zune ad that features hip hop yet.

[Alber1690]

I actually have to disagree with this; Zune's built its marketing around promotion of unknown or little-known bands. Choosing a celebrity or well-known song in their ads would defeat this purpose, and so it's actually quite possible that they'd choose these nobodies from some urban-looking place. I kinda doubt they'd show the Zune as much, or have the video resemble a self-made rap video, but then again we haven't seen a Zune ad that features hip hop yet.

No, I completely agree, that's been one of their main ideals since the beginning. But common, these people from the clips are far from what Microsoft has chosen as the "little guys."

Now, I think that the new wave of marketing for the Zune is going to be more concentrated on what the Zune is and what it can do, because they have modified their new ads just enough where you can tell that they know that because they're new to field, people need to find out exactly why the Zune is not an iPod. For example, look at their new short ad (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_WbgFciwpA) (one for every color). It's now all about what the "Zune is..."