The good news for Microsoft: It seems to realize that Gap-style dance routines are no longer the best way to sell computers. The bad news: Its new marketing direction involves watermelon kung-fu. Neowin reports that Microsoft’s official YouTube page this week posted and then quickly removed three new advertisements for something called “Windows 8 Training Camp” that all failed to actually show Windows 8 at any point during the ads.
While the ads are amusing to some extent — the spot where two men play a round of ping-pong with paddles attached to their rear ends while they use their hands to play Mozart’s “Rondo alla Turca” on the piano is particularly clever — it’s debatable whether they’ll give viewers any idea of what Windows 8 is really about. The most jarring ad involves three men using their hands to puncture watermelons to make various sculptures as a way to purportedly demonstrate the “power of touch” on Windows 8.
Since Microsoft quickly yanked these ads from its own account, it’s safe to say that the company didn’t really think they were ready for primetime either. Videos for all three ads, which were saved and uploaded by other YouTube users, are posted below.
UPDATE: Microsoft has placed the videos back up on its YouTube account and sends us the following message: “We created these online-only social videos for the Asian market, where they were well-received. As with most of our global work, we are now sharing them on the Windows YouTube channel.”
