Hasta La Creative!

The commercials are hard hitting, beating up Google for everything from invasive ads in Gmail to sharing data with app developers to placing paid results on its search page. Google, the ads claim, is “Scroogling” its users, or exploiting their private data to maximize advertising profits.

And just like ruthless political attack ads, you can go nearly the full length of these without a clue as to whom is behind them. Only at the end does Microsoft identify itself. “For honest search results, try Bing,” the narrator might say, sometimes waiting until the final two seconds to do so.

The Scroogled ads, negative to the core, are a rarity for consumer tech. Even the mean-spirited “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” variety featured a product comparison at least. But while the tactics may be ugly, the ads are working, according to two ad effectiveness firms, and research commissioned by Microsoft, which finds the ads are tarnishing Google’s image in the eyes of viewers and putting Microsoft products — including underdogs such as Bing — into the consideration set.

Continue reading at AdAge.com