Ad of the Day: Microsoft Halo

In a new campaign from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Microsoft follows the latest celebrity who's headed off to college this fall. But he's not a tween singer or a movie star. In fact, he's not even human.

The first spot below shows home video of a seemingly typical high school graduation, but with a surprise guest. Two smiling girls collect their diplomas to polite applause before the emcee proudly announces the school's most popular "student." And it's hulking 8-foot-tall supersoldier Spartan from the Xbox game Halo, sending the audience into a roar. A second home video-inspired ad follows a group of kids on a college tour, joined again by Spartan. One clumsy student hits him on the head (helmet?) with a Frisbee—and being a superpowerful, alien-killing soldier, he manages to hurl it back several thousand feet, chopping off some distant foliage in the process. Needless to say, his fellow tour mates are pretty impressed.

"Guess who's coming to college?" both spots ask (well, the first one says "university"—apparently it's for the Canadian market). And while Spartan may not actually be able to join you at school, Microsoft is making it possible for you to spend some quality time together by offering a free Xbox 360 with the purchase of a Windows 7 PC. It's probably safer than letting a cybernetically enhanced killer in your dorm, anyway.

CREDITS:

Client: Microsoft

Product: Halo

Spots: "Halo Graduation," "Halo Tour"

Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Boulder, Colo.

Executive Creative Directors:  Tiffany Rolfe, Jason Gaboriau

Creative Director:  Dave Steinke, Matt Ian

Associate Creative Director: Andrew Lincoln, Matt Talbot

Art Director: Todd Grinham

Copywriter:  Jim Robbins

Executive Integrated Agency Producer: Tony Tung

Sr. Integrated Producer: Sloan Schroeder

Production Company: Caviar, Los Angeles

Director: Keith Schofield

Executive Producer: Michael Sagol, Jasper Thomlinson

Producer: BP Cooper

Director of Photography: Damian Acevedo

Production Designer: Benji Bamps

Editorial Company: Plus Productions, Boulder, CO

Editor: Wayde Samuel

Executive Producer: Idalia Deshon

Postproduction Company: Method, Santa Monica, Calif.

VFX Producer: Cara Farnsworth

Lead CG Artist: Mike Warner

Lighter: Todd Herman

FX Artist: Morris May

Flame Artist: Kelly Bumbarger, Pierre Laguerre

Producer: Cara Farnsworth

Executive Producer: Robert Owens