Microsoft’s new football-centric Xbox One ad focuses on Skype and fantasy football but excludes videogames.
Back when the Xbox One was originally announced there were some who took issue with the fact that Microsoft’s presentation of its new gaming console was somewhat light on actual games. In the months since, the company has made some arguable moves to rectify this. That said, if the console’s first North American TV spot is any indicator, it may still have some lessons to learn. While the ad does a fine job of highlighting features like fantasy football, Skype, personalized highlights and the ability to watch football games through the console, videogames aren’t mentioned once during the course of its thirty-one second run time.
Now granted, the point of this particular ad is to highlight the Xbox One’s football related functionality to capitalize on the start of the NFL’s new season. That’s perfectly understandable, especially considering the fact that Microsoft has spent considerable oodles of money to secure a partnership with the NFL. That being the case, it takes an arguable PR risk in excluding games completely from ads like this. This is potentially exacerbated when you consider that many of the features boasted by the ad are things that a lot of people already have access to. Personally, I’m not going to shell out $500 for fantasy football and Skype. The promise of a new, more powerful game console, however? That’s appealing. Then again, I live in a fairly game-centric bubble. What do you think? Did Microsoft mess up with this ad or did it score a touchdown?
