This sounds wrist-slashingly excruciating.

The campaign features the humorous use of
fictional foes – aliens, ninjas and zombies – to illustrate that
defending against online security threats is easier than fending off
these comically rough customers.

By using humor in a relevant fashion, we can engage and inform IT professionals at the same time. Feedback from focus-group customers supported the decision to use
IT-geek humor as a jumping-off point into a serious topic like security.

Oh yes, IT-geek humour is something that blends so well with an ‘interacting flash video’. Groan.

The aforementioned creative Web experience
features an interactive flash video that leads customers through a
visually striking experience that delivers more in-depth product
information as they move through the site.

What is a ‘creative Web experience’ in advertising? I mean, do I get to create anything? What do I experience except a sense of loss (time and wear & tear on the eyeballs) topped with embarrassment at watching it in the first place. Where’s my ROI on watching such ‘creative interactive ads’?! Btw, I searched the ads as well as the "Easy, easier" campaign, but no luck.

Let’s not dwell on detail, let’s get more substantial – Steve Brown, director of product management for
security and access product management at Microsoft:

We’ve heard loud and clear from business customers that security
products not only need to provide the greatest level of protection but
also must be easy to manage and integrate with existing infrastructure. This ease- of-use is one of the key competitive
differentiators that Microsoft brings to the market with its Forefront
security products.

From what I understand the holy grail of greatest level of protection and ease of use is not one that Microsoft can claim to have found. But what the hell… Alec, would you care to have a go?

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