Internet Explorer ad tugs at heartstrings of Gen-Y users
Whether you love or hate Internet Explorer, you've got to admit that some of its ads are pretty good. — Microsoft's latest IE ad, dubbed “Child of the 90s,” tries to appeal to people who remember the web browser at its worst.
Context & Ripple Effects
Internet Explorer enters 2013 carrying a decade of reputational baggage: the 2009 "IE6 Must Die" backlash made the browser shorthand for holding the web back, and even Google's answer that year was to gut IE from inside with Chrome Frame. By August 2012 the tone had shifted enough that coverage of IE's actual technical innovations was plausible — and "Child of the 90s" is Microsoft pressing that turn into marketing, asking the generation that mocked IE6 to laugh with the brand instead of at it.
The ad lands mid-rebranding push: days earlier Microsoft hired Andrew Kim, author of the influential 'The Next Microsoft' concept, and its Q2 results were a mixed bag against analyst estimates. The pickup was unusually broad for a browser spot — The Windows Blog, VentureBeat, CNET, AllThingsD, Adweek and Mashable all ran it within a day, meaning the nostalgia play bought Microsoft earned media well beyond its own channels.
First-order effects
- Microsoft gets a wave of free press for Internet Explorer from outlets that spent years covering the browser as a problem, converting its worst-era reputation into shareable content aimed squarely at Gen-Y.
- The campaign runs alongside a broader identity overhaul — the Andrew Kim hire and Windows Phone momentum — giving Microsoft one coherent story about a company willing to own its past.
Second-order effects
- Rivals Google and Mozilla are pushed to compete on brand emotion rather than feature checklists, since a nostalgia ad concedes nothing technical but forces a response on cultural territory Chrome has owned with younger users.
- For Microsoft's wider ecosystem fight — including the ongoing ActiveSync standoff with Google — a warmer consumer feeling toward IE lowers the friction of keeping users inside Windows rather than defecting to Chrome.
Third-order effects
- If self-aware nostalgia keeps working, expect more legacy tech brands to market their own past failures as authenticity — a playbook where admitting the IE6 era becomes an asset rather than a liability.
- Browser competition structurally shifts from standards-compliance battles, which defined the 2009 coverage, to identity and default-placement wars fought through advertising budgets.
The trend: The browser wars are moving from technical infamy to brand rehabilitation, with Microsoft using nostalgia to reposition Internet Explorer for the generation that abandoned it.