Microsoft’s latest Internet Explorer advert offers us a baffling retrospective of the 1990s, pretending it was a time when IE ruled the world alongside 56k modems, Tamagotchis and floppy discs.
Encouraging users to “Reconnect with the new Internet Explorer” as found on today’s Windows 8 tablets and other devices where you haven’t got any other choice, the ad lists arbitrary things from the past, including yo-yos and trolls, which we associate more with the 1970s and 1980s, floppy discs (1980s), rubbish childhood haircuts (forever) and other old things plucked out of random points of history.
It doesn’t make much sense, but then, perhaps showing yet more historical cultural awareness, Microsoft adverts never have. Comments beneath the YouTube upload have wisely been disabled. That’s another thing we didn’t have to worry about back then. [YouTube]













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those trolls were only good for melting with lighters or throwing at cats and internet explorer, well, it was shit back then too
All trolls are only good for melting with lighters or throwing cats at.
well that was very nostalgic
POGS! Amazing. I’m sure I’ve still got a stack of those suckers around somewhere. Wonder where my 8-ball kini went.
We must have been the only ones that actually played rather than collected them
I’ve still got mine somewhere I think. I used to play all the time!
We should bring it back.
Giz UK pog tournament!
That got me nostalgic for Mosaic. Not sure if that was the intended effect.
“Comments beneath the YouTube upload have wisely been disabled. That’s another thing we didn’t have to worry about back then.” Maybe yu should consider it
Proper title for the Ad “Here’s some shit from the past that nobody uses anymore”
I was only 1-9 in the 90s so I con only remember stuff after 1995 really!
Well I was 20-29 and I wish I didn’t remember half of that shit
Nice advert from IE… I actually like a few of their ads.
I’m all for brands being slightly more emotional and irreverant.
IE: That same old shit you used in the 90s.
What a weird ad
You can just tell Gary hates MS, either that or he had no life as Floppy Disks and yo-yos were rampant in the 90′s….
All we ever did in high school in 1997 – 1999 was play with yo-yos and pogs
It seems like we still have problem with the progress here
http://youtu.be/lD9FAOPBiDk
Who made this advert? They have a very mixed message going on. I should never open an advert for a intended global product with the line, ‘You Might Not Remember Us’. That is like saying we are worth forgetting! Are they saying you grow up with Chrome and Firefox instead of us, or that you’ve used Chrome and Firefox for so long that you have rightfully forgotten us. Ever way it isn’t a good notion for starting an advert – you once used us as you didn’t have a better option, and now you do. I know this Microsoft – bedazzle me, give me desire, lie to me, cheat with cheap tricks and clever words, sell it. A nostalgic trip of truth doesn’t sell stuff – I just got a feeling of how far we have gone in a short time, thank God.
I think what they were going for was “we’re an adult browser for an adult man, not one of those hippy fancy new chromes”
LOL. you don’t understand market segmentation do you.
whats to understand
Errr, mosaic and netscape ruled back then
I like it, i just think its ruined by the internet explorer bit at the end, there i was fondly remembering the 90s, and then internet explorer sullied those memories!
When they make it cross OS I will love it a whoooooole lot better. So annoying having to switch to my PC to fix IE specific “quirks” while coding..