By Anita Li2013-05-11 22:59:14 UTCMicrosoft released a series of off-the-wall ads in Asia that promote its Windows 8 operating system using kooky visual analogies.
"Beautiful and Fast," above, shows three bare-faced women racing to apply a full face of makeup in 10 seconds. The final woman, apparently representing Windows 8's attractive and efficient interface, succeeds.
"The Power of Touch," below, shows three men in a watermelon-carving competition, with the last contestant — again, representing Windows 8 — producing an intricate carving of a bird using only touch.
"Multitask," below, shows two men playing the piano while simultaneously engaged in a ping-pong match with each other. The video is an apparent analogy for Windows 8's multitasking capabilities.
The approximately minute-long spots have attracted tens of thousands of views since getting posted to Windows' YouTube channel on Thursday.
Despite their popularity and creativity, however, it's unclear what language the actors are speaking in the ads. According to the The Seattle Times, some of the newspaper's staff members who speak Japanese, Korean, Mandarin or Cantonese say they're not speaking those languages. Microsoft declined to tell the Times what language the ads are in, saying only that "We created these online-only social videos for the Asian market, where they were well-received."
What's more, if you look closely, the audio doesn't match the movement of the actors' mouths. It's possible that Microsoft combined several Asian languages to create a hybrid one that would not target a specific market (therefore potentially isolating other markets), but would sound nonsensical to native speakers. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What do you think the actors are speaking in the Windows 8 ads? Tell us in the comments, below.
Screenshot image courtesy of WindowsVideos via YouTube
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