On my daily commute, "The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea" assails me from a bus shelter. It's slightly better than the "you look great, but your legs could use a lift" Shake n' Bake ad that it replaced, or the H&M Neck Tube ad hanging around from before Christmas, but really? The ad annoys me more than anything else. I don't think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. In the New Recession, it's important to fight for 9 to 5 (or the closest approximation) to avoid becoming one of the many overworked and underpaid. How can anyone try for a normal schedule when there is someone more desperate willing to stay at the office until midnight and sleep under his desk? Don't even get me started on
Happily, a skim through Twitter shows that I'm not the only one rubbed the wrong way by those ads:
@BostonMo: Can someone please explain the new "New Busy" Hotmail.com marketing campaign? I don't understand a single ad around the Hub!
@FinnFPM: Have you seen the "new busy" ads about sleep-learning? Apparently the "new busy" are gullible idiots.
@tanukisan: Hotmail's "new busy" ad campaign makes no damn sense at all. I will continue to ignore the unreadable sliding text on 'em.
@baka_rakuda: I don't know what a "NEW BUSY" is but according to MS they can pack a weeks worth of clothes in a carry on. How very mundane.
@fastchicken: if you happen to know anyone in the MS Hotmail team, please point and laugh from me: http://tinyurl.com/ye5r3x9 The New Busy?
@mikegore: hotmail, your "new busy" campaign is annoying the hell out of me. maybe because i'm too busy using google programs...
@TheLastLow: Microsoft's "New Busy" ad campaign might be worse than Bud's "Drinkability" disaster. Are these people even trying?
@kehutchinson: The "New Busy" is a myth--we're all busy, and none of it's new.
Yes, that last one is mine, and it's worth repeating. We're all stressed out by the state of the economy today: layoffs loom, bills menace, and we all have to wonder where the breaking point is. We don't want tools that just confirm that we're hamsters in a wheel, we want tools that will make us feel like we have a little control in our lives.
So listen up, Hotmail. I'm not the New Busy, and there are plenty of others who feel the same way. Start building a tool that will be for the New Relaxed.