Bing Zaps Commercials On The Daily Show (& More Shows Coming Soon)

Bing Zaps Commercials On The Daily Show (& More Shows Coming Soon)

Jun 12, 2009 at 12:46am ET by Matt McGee

Microsoft’s ad campaign for Bing took a(nother) turn for the clever tonight on The Daily Show with a new campaign called “Fast Forward.” It’s the first in a week-long run of advertising that will see Microsoft paying for several minutes of commercial time, only to air a 30-second spot in place of several ads.

The ad that aired on The Daily Show is somewhat tough to describe, and Microsoft has yet to make a copy of it available publicly. It begins with a Snuggie commercial, but after a few seconds the video fast-forwards (with accompanying sound) through the Snuggie spot … a hair replacement ad … hanging tomatoes … and other commercials, too. Finally, the audio goes silent and Bing’s message is shown on two slides:

“Getting You What You Want Faster / It’s What We’re All About”

As soon as the spot ends, the regular program resumes — meaning two extra minutes of The Daily Show tonight. That’s sure to win some goodwill from Jon Stewart fans.

As I said, it’s a very clever spot and if you’re watching the program live, there’s almost no way not to watch because it looks like your TV has suddenly decided to zap the commercials without any help.

The ad, or one like it, is scheduled to air on other cable networks between now and June 17. Here’s the schedule:

June 12: CMT’s Top 20 Countdown
June 14: Nick@Nite’s George Lopez
June 15: VH1’s Charm School with Ricki Lake
June 17: MTV’s Real World/Road Rules Challenges: The Duel 2

If you see the ad (or saw it), let us know what you thought in the comments.

Postscript by Barry Schwartz: Here is that commercial:

Matt McGee is the Search Engine Land Assignment Editor, and offers search marketing consulting and training to businesses of all sizes. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and HyperlocalBlogger.com.

See more articles by Matt McGee >

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