Can I just talk for a moment about how bad Hotmail’s new ad campaign is? It’s on buses and billboards and stuff, and it’s about the “New Busy.” Examples:

“The New Busy use cab drivers as therapists.”

“The New Busy make beavers look lazy.”

“The New Busy always keep a suitcase packed.”

“The New Busy like to play Fill the Calendar.”

Here’s a photo of a bus.

Here’s their nauseating site.

God! Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong! How could you be so wrong?! I’m probably someone they’re trying to target with the “new busy” campaign. I want to vomit!

Here’s someone else’s summary of why. Here’s my summary:

- the campaign is trying to “create a tribe” by offering a definition for your life.

- the campaign assumes that your life is defined by your achievements. This is false.

- the campaign assumes that, even if your life were defined by your achievements, you would want to admit that your life is defined by your achievements. This is false.

- finally, the campaign assumes that your achievements are defined by how “busy” you are. This is false.

Argh! This campaign is so incredibly poor. It is about three cuils of reasonable. The thought behind it is the reason that we all hate our lives these days. It might have flown in the 1950’s. (“The New Busy buy a cookie-cutter house because it’s faster!” “The New Busy mow their lawn with a gas-powered mower!” “The New Busy fast-forward their old Amos ‘n’ Andy tapes so they can listen to them twice as fast!") But it is about twelve steps backward in the 2010’s.

In other news, I decided on my habit for this month-or-so; it is so blindingly obvious that I should have been doing it for years. It is this: I will sleep enough. And to ensure that I do so, no alarm clocks. Done! Easy! And because I am not NEW BUSY, this is not a problem.

Comments:

Anonymous - Apr 4, 2010

You’ve not got this campaign at all have you? Like it or not the point of the campaign is not about rushing around. That’s why it also says ‘The New Busy is not the too busy’. That’s… errr… the point.

Dan - Apr 4, 2010

Nope, I don’t get it! It also says “the new busy makes beavers look lazy”. So the new busy are busier than (supposedly very busy) beavers, but not too busy. Some of the “new busy” things are about not being so busy, some are about being busier, and some are about … email? Mixed messages at best.