Ad of the Day: Microsoft’s interstellar Christmas spot celebrates diversity through 3D design
Rounding up a year in which it precariously brushed its Paint app along the edge of the guillotine, Microsoft has praised the creative tool’s more sophisticated offspring – Paint 3D and Remix 3D – in a Christmas spot entitled 3D Holiday.
The ad, which was created by M:United/McCann and Blk-Ops, takes cues from The Wizard of Oz, transporting its heroine and ‘Gabe the Yeti’ doll from 2D into 3D. She jumps through a portal into space and, transported on a magical craft, gathers new friends who were stranded alone on a quincunx of planets.
The uniquely fashioned set of characters aims to show how imaginations can be turned into reality through 3D Paint – a fact conveyed in the reveal, which shows the young girl no longer in 2D or 3D but in live action, designing the story on her Microsoft Surface Book.
Aside from selling software, the brand also hopes to communicate that ‘when we are inclusive and our differences we can make the world a better place’ – a salient message as the year 2017 rounds to a close.
The tagline, spelled out in Christmas fairy lights, reads: ‘Create a better world’.
Kathleen Hall, corporate vice president of brand, advertising and research at Microsoft, said: “The holiday season is a time for community, inclusion – and imagination. Our goal was to bring all of those together and invite people to join us in creating a kinder more inclusive world through the power and magic of 3D."
