With a reported advertising budget of 1.5 billion dollars, we expect to see lot Windows 8 ads from Microsoft. The company has already begun putting graffiti-style ads around the U.S and Europe for their upcoming Surface tablet, which will launch along with the new operating system. Now the first actual Windows 8 advertisement has appeared, but in a traditional video format.
The ad uses the Microsoft “Windows Reimagined” tagline that has been the theme of the new OS since it first appeared as a Developer Preview way back in 2011. Given the 30 second length we can assume it was made to run on television, although it I have yet to see it appear here in the U.S.
The video has a space launch type of feel to it with a countdown that, while beginning at “10” only gets back to “8”, which it then continues to repeat over and over as we see brief glimpses of computers and tablets running the next-generation version of Windows, all set to a musical background.
Windows 8, along with Microsoft’s first ever tablet, the Surface, will debut on October 26th, with a big launch event in New York City on the 25th and sales beginning at midnight. Most major hardware makers will also have devices ready for release on that day. The day promises to be as big as the Windows 95 launch, and given that pre-orders of the OS shot to number one on Amazon within hours, it looks like, despite what we have heard from the likes of Intel CEO Paul Otellini, it may just be a success.
