The Tendo View

I had one of those rare moments recently when an ad actually influenced my brand sentiment.

Maybe it stood out because it’s a rare occurrence for me. Or because it involved a brand I”m not particularly fond of. Or then again, maybe it was compelling creative. I think it was mostly the latter.

It was a TV spot for Microsoft Bing. Yeah, there’s been a ton of publicity about Bing stealing one or two percentage points of search-engine marketshare from Google. I’m a little predisposed as a result.  But that wasn’t it entirely.

After seeing the guy who mimics Google search pages by uncontrollably spewing out irrelevant phrases about Hawaii, how to fix parking tickets, and talk to hot singles in your area, I laughed, paused for a moment, and thought, “yeah, that does sort of happen with Google.”

Then it occurred to me that the mightly, infallible Google, smartest search engine ever, might actually be flawed; something I’ve never really considered.

I’ve only used Bing a couple times, so I don’t know if it’s any better. But that’s not the point.

The Bing ad not only engaged and entertained me, it also made me think twice about Google and search in general.

Nice work, Microsoft.