In the last installment of Print Advertising Wars, we'll discuss how Microsoft promotes Visual FoxPro.

In general, the tenor of the advertising for Visual FoxPro has been rather cold. There are very few faces and of the few human figures within the advertisements, no one reacts to them. In short, you (as the Visual FoxPro developer) are all alone. Do you notice that many of the .NET advertisements have human faces in them? In other words, you may use Visual FoxPro, but you'll have a relationship with .NET.

While the following list isn't exhaustive, I've gone over most of the FoxPro Advisors going back to the original issue.

Here's a list of some of the FoxPro/Visual FoxPro advertisements contained therein.

December 1993 -- Textual two page advertisement for FoxPro 2.5 for Windows.

December 1993 -- Two page advertisement for FoxPro 2.5 for DOS. On the left is what looks like a picture of Southern California at dusk. A silhouette of a person can be seen on a balcony overlooking a city.

May 1994 -- Two page advertisement for FoxPro 2.5 for Macintosh. Picture of rough mountainside on left page, text on right page. As with the December 1993 advertisement, performance is stressed.

November 1994 -- One page advertisement for the Micrsoft FoxPro International Developer Conference (DevCon). The picture is of an airplane pilot in a helmet and face shield. Titled "Sit down, Strap in, Hang On" and subtitled "Come to Microsoft's FoxPro DevCon for the ride of your life."

August 1995 -- Two page Visual FoxPro advertisement. Left side has a strange green/black background, right side is text. The caption on the left is "you will not be the one who panics. you will not run and hide. You will pick up your toolbar and BEAT the project into submission."

August 1996 -- One page advertisement for Visual FoxPro 3.0 for the Macintosh. The picture is a man jumping inhumanly high in the air (his face is cut off) near the shoreline of a lake. A dog is to his left, our right, running toward the man. The caption reads "Ever since Fred got the new Visual FoxPro for Power Macintosh, he catches the Frisbee every time."

January 1997 -- One page advertisement of a man driving in a car. We're led to believe he is driving fast as the background is blurred. The caption reads "Thands to the new Visual FoxPro for Windows, Fred gets to work a lot faster".

December 1997 -- One page advertisement of a desert with a featureless man in the distance. The caption reads "With Visual FoxPro the uncharted territory of the Internet becomes a place where you already speak the language."

January 1999 -- One page advertisement of a man next to a computer, looking at a monitor. The caption reads "New Visual Foxpro 6.0. For Developers who love FoxPro, pack your upgrade: it's time for another honeymoon."

September 2001 -- Two page advertisement for Visual FoxPro 7.0 On the right is a picture of a man raising his hands in the air in the back of a room. On the left is the caption "Try to restrict your celebrations to a quiet fist pump or a mild boogie." Of interest is the subtext "...Others may not understand, but you do...."

So what do we make of this?

As time marched on, Microsoft has stopped highlighting the VFP performance advantages.

With the exception of one advertisement, there is not one human face in the images.

Details:

November 1994 -- Close up shot of a faceless fighter pilot.

August 1995 -- The toolbar advertisement was simply strange. I'm not sure what we were supposed to feel from this advertisement.

August 1996 -- The Frisbee ad. Although the man is facing us, we do not see his face. There is no other human in the shot. In other words, only his dog understands. Get it? Side note: I've seen this same picture used on greeting cards.

January 1997 -- Picture over a man's left shoulder (so we don't see his face) driving down a road. Alone. The caption indicates that Fred is driving to work -- but there is no one on the road. Get it?

December 1997 -- The infamous desert ad. With Visual FoxPro, you're one man in an inhospitable desert. Get it?

January 1999 -- I forgot about this advertisement. This ad goes a little bit against the grain. We do clearly see a human face. We see him next to a computer -- and that's it. The text next to the image is quite small (perhaps that's why I forgot this) -- For developers who love FoxPro . Get it?

September 2001 -- The fist pumping ad. Note that we are looking from behind the fist pumper so we do not see his face.

Also note that underneath his right arm is a picture of a balding man. He is clearly in front of the fist pumper and looking ahead, away from the pumping fists. Underneath the fist pumper's left arm is the faintest silhouette of what looks like a blond woman. If anything, this woman is looking toward the balding man at the right, ignoring the fist pumper. As the caption reads "Others may not understand, but you do." Get it?

Think about how this advertisement would work differently if the fist pumper was at the front of the room, turned towards the reader with the two individuals looking at him. In all seriousness, you know what this would look like? An IBM print advertisement.

It has been Microsoft's clear marketing strategy to try to isolate and denigrate the Visual FoxPro developer. It will be interesting to see if the advertisements for Visual FoxPro 8 continue this strategy of isolation.

Bill Anderson