Really. 

A few observations.  

They should have started running these ads before their rollout. Would have made the Ballmer interviews go better. 

The ad works because it says something we all feel about phones, even if sometimes we're the ones bumping into people. It's annoying when people walk around with their mind and eyes elsewhere.  

You even see assholes riding their bikes at full speed reading their phone, hands totally off the handlebars. They aren't bike riders, they're missiles. 

It also works because it doesn't mention the competition. It isn't about the competition. It's saying -- hey -- we've been paying attention, even though we haven't had a product you lust for, we know what's going on.  

It answers the "Microsoft is clueless" challenge. 

Of course it says nothing about the phone.  

If the product sucks the ad is for naught. But you sort of suspect they wouldn't have gone to the trouble to create such an excellent ad for a shit product.  

But that's not the first thing we need to know. We don't want to buy a phone from someone we don't admire. Apple made it about that. I bought a Droid because they had something Apple didn't -- macho and guts and freedom (or at least the promise of freedom) at a time when iPhones seemed wimpy and locked-up and unreliable. Now with the iPhone 4, Apple is selling luxury. And as always selling Apple. 

Microsoft needs to tell us what we're buying when we buy Microsoft. They're beginning to say something here. We're buying someone who is like us. Patient but getting kind of fed up. Really.  

Maybe their phone reflects reality. Or maybe that's really-ity.  

Good work!