A more beautiful web is... Internet Explorer TV commercial
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters cite it as an example of Microsoft's surprisingly stylish newer ads and as a contrast to the company's messaging elsewhere.
What it is
A one-minute 2012 Microsoft television commercial for Internet Explorer 9, set to Alex Clare's 'Too Close'. It pitches a 'more beautiful web' with fast one-click access to favorite sites.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2012 to 2012.
What Hacker News said
Recommends mynameisvlad · 2012-12 · on “Microsoft's DroidRage Twitter campaign goes painfully wrong”
Their newest ads are pretty awesome. Surface's dancing ad [LINK] , the IE9 dubstep [this video] , the IE10 troll [LINK] , and the various Windows 8 international musical ads (the wave after the countdown ad) [LINK] [LINK] and [LINK] are definitely a step way up from previous ad campaigns that Microsoft launched. All in all, the Windows 8 ads are IMO fresh, and definitely leaning more towards the younger adult hip side. And they're pulling it off pretty nicely.
Cites DeepDuh · 2012-06 · on “Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet”
Well, Microsoft's marketing was never really known for consistency, was it? Compare it to this IE9 ad for example: [this video] . Imagine an average consumer seeing these ads and then he sees this: [LINK] . Which one do you think he will understand? To which can he relate more? (Btw. I don't say iCloud is good. Microsofts Skydrive on win8 (or whatever they're calling their cloud offerings now, I really don't have an overview anymore) seems quite compelling - but it seems to me like they can't really communicate well enough what it does.)
Cites SolarNet · 2012-09 · on “The XX shared their new album with only 1 fan to see how it goes viral.”
I think it has to do with Microsoft's recent social kick (everyone is on that kick lately >.>) and it also uses the visual style from IE's recent ads. (Like: [this video] )