# A phone to save us from our screens?

> Microsoft's 2010 Windows Phone 7 launch ads take an anti-screen position. Without tangible interaction, can tiles pull attention out of glass?

- Page: https://www.elasticspace.com/2010/10/a-phone-to-save-us-from-our-screens/
- Author: Timo Arnall (https://www.elasticspace.com/)
- Section: Projects (https://www.elasticspace.com/project/)
- Published: 2010-10-11
- Updated: 2026-07-05
- Tags: Advertising, Film, Interaction Design, Mobility, Screens, Ubicomp, Video
- Site map for agents: https://www.elasticspace.com/llms.txt

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Microsoft has two new ads, anticipating their upcoming Windows Phone 7 launch. The first is an almost post-apocalyptic vision of humanity stuck with their heads in their mobile devices:

Video: [Official Windows Phone 7 Ad, Really [HD]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nYHmVbV3mA)

Here’s [David Webster](https://web.archive.org/web/20101126211433/http://www.techflash.com/mobile/seattle/2010/10/ads_microsoft_wants_us_to_pull_our_heads_out_of_our_phones.html), chief strategy officer in Microsoft’s central marketing group, explaining their anti-screen strategy:

> “Our sentiment was that if we could have an insight to drive the campaign that flipped the category on its head, then all the dollars that other people are spending glorifying becoming lost in your screen or melding with your phone are actually making our point for us.”

The problem of [glowing rectangles](https://web.archive.org/web/20100324114111/http://www.theonion.com:80/articles/report-90-of-waking-hours-spent-staring-at-glowing,2747/) is a subject [close to my heart](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKOyzybUTEQ), and [Matt Jones](http://magicalnihilism.com/2007/11/15/lost-futures-unconscious-gestures/) has been bothered by the increase in [mobile glowing attention-wells](http://berglondon.com/blog/2010/06/17/magic-tables-not-magic-windows/).

Video: [Season of the Witch: New Windows Phone 7 Ad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg1gbVGk19k)

I think Microsoft & Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s advertising strategy stands out in a world full of [slick floaty media](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbcnH0h69NY). The only problem is that without any strategy towards tangible interaction, I’m not sure the [‘tiles’ interaction concept](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdDAeyy1H0A) is strong enough to actually take people’s attention out of the glass.