Google Chrome Assures Internet Explorer Users: 'It Gets Better'
The browser wars are heating up again! Are there any seven unsexier words in the English language? Probably not. In any case, they are, what with Google launching an aggressive new TV campaign tonight. It's all fiendishly calculated to tug at your heartstrings while diverting eyeballs and mouse-clicks towards their Chrome.
This ad, which debuted on Glee, features a quick audiovisual history of Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" project. Gay seniors, lesbian moms, transgendered Bonos and Toy Story's Sheriff Woody (didn't things get progressively worse for those toys? I distinctly remember something about an incinerator) are all on hand to remind you that there's life after gay bullying. And if you should want to learn more about it on a Google-brand browser whose logo looks like a cross between a rainbow flag and Milton Bradley's Simon, all the better!
Unmoved? Well, just try resisting the tear-milking relentlessness of "Dear Sophie," a love letter between a father and the daughter whose childhood he scrapbooks with Chrome's suite of multimedia tools. It's a "true story," Google told The New York Times, though it "used actors and changed the names."
Google is trying to capitalize on recent gains it's made in the browser market. While 45% of computers still use some version of Internet Explorer, only one year ago that number was 53%. Chrome, in the same period, tripled its user base from 40 to 120 million, going from 8% to a 15% share. Firefox has 30%, while Apple's Safari only claims 5%.
The time to strike is now! Someone moved their cheese, or something. Yeah, like I said. Browsers. Snore. [NYT]