Did you catch How I Met Your Mother tonight? I love the show. But Mircosoft threw up all over tonight’s episode, Subway Wars. I’m serious. A Windows-banded notebook, a full-screen Bing map every five minutes, and Maury Povich carring an Xbox 360 Slim? Come on already.
I’m not going to bother uploading various clips to YouTube hours before it will hit CBS.com. Until then, enjoy these screenshots of the god-awful marketing job. Or rather, the somewhat ingenious marketing job that I’m totally helping to go viral…those sneaky Redmond bastards. (Minor spoilers after the jump)
It all started with Ted randomly pulling out a notebook at MacLaren’s Bar — nevermind the fact he has never done that before — emblazoned with a massive monochrome Windows logo on the lid. That made me smile. After all, there isn’t a stock notebook on earth with that logo and that was just the beginning of what turned out to be an all-out marketing assault.
The episode turned into a big race to see who could reach a certain NYC restaurant. Of course there had to be a full-screen Bing map was shown constantly with superimposed floating heads. But it didn’t stop. Oh no, Ted and his curiously-branded notebook was shown again, this time searching Bing for a website although Marshall totally said the URL just prior.
Towards the end of the episode, I totally expected to see a massive Windows Phone 7 advertisement when Ted and Marshall showed up in front of an electronic’s store with a person dressed up as a cell phone out front. Nope. Instead the two talked in front of a massive storefront window full of Microsoft products followed up with Maury Povich walking out of the store carrying an Xbox 360.
Microsoft, I got it. You wanna show off your goods. At least the show’s creators did it in such that was a gimmick and mildly amusing. Well done.