NilPerOs

Assuming you know what the latter is, let me tell you all about the former. Silverlight is an internet browser plug-in created by Microsoft that allows you to view a variety of rich media including audio-video, vector graphics & animation. Sound familiar? Well it should, because that’s pretty much exactly what something called Flash does, and that’s owned by a company called Adobe. Flash is why we have things like YouTube & all manner of web-lovely stuff for you to waste your precious time on. Silverlight came in with a view to being a direct competitor with the Adobe product, but has thus far failed to live up to the hype. Why? Well quite simply, if it ain’t broken… and Flash ain’t broken.

Anyway, times must be pretty hard over there in Microsoft as they have just launched a campaign to encourage people to download and start using Silvernight with their browsers. So how do you encourage people to install a piece of software that pretty much no one uses and can only really do something that another piece of software already does very well? Sex… apparently. Through a partnership between Microsoft and Bondi Digital Publishing, Playboy Enterprises has put 53 back issues of Playboy on the Web, viewable through Microsoft’s Silverlight viewer.

OK, call me crazy here, but I’m guessing that they’re going for the computer-savvy, teenage boy market here (with apparently no age verification required on the site), hoping that it’ll tumble up through the rest of the online community.

The early signs thus far (and it is only a couple of days since this was launched) is that this is failing. It would seem people object at being told what technology to use, particularly when it’s merely an ineffective clone of an existing product.

The funny thing is that in last 48 hours I have read multiple blog posts about this campaign, and it’s amazing how often the same phrase keeps popping up, especially in the posts’ titles. I suppose it grabs your attention, and I’m a half guilty of doing it here. The phrase is ‘Sex Sells’, and it’s one of those tired old clichés that always gets banged around in advertising circles. It reminded me of the scene below from Mad Men. If you are not watching this program, you’re really missing out on something amazing. It is without doubt the best looking and best written thing on television right now. Anyway, here’s Don’s take on the aforementioned expression when working on a campaign for an airline. It’ll make ya feel good about working in advertising, just on the off chance you don’t already. Put that in your book…