Another creepy Microsoft Kin ad?

Consumer Reports disapproves of another Microsoft ad campaign that promotes the new Kin cell phone.

Last month the consumer magazine thought Microsoft was promoting sexting with this advertisement. Microsoft quickly edited their commercial to remove the part where a guy snaps a picture of his chest and sends it to someone via his handly little Kin. Consumer Reports called that creepy.

They don’t call the new campaign creepy, but they say it “promotes risky behavior” by young people who use social networks. A parenting expert who viewed it apparently agrees with the consumer group’s opinion.

For “The Journey” campaign, a girl named Rosa Salazar sets out to meet her Facebook friends in person. Consumer reports says, “Unfortunately, some of those friends are total strangers—making this a behavior no parent would encourage.”

Here’s a short version of the commercial.

A longer version explains Microsoft’s concept behind this Kin campaign, and lets us see more of the interaction between Rosa and Matty. Incidentally, Matty Goldberg is a comedian who doesn’t look that dorky on his own Facebook fan page and has an interesting background. In this longer version he says social media is a “pretty good way to pick up girls.” Compared to the old days when you “had to go to bars and stuff,” now he can sit around half naked online.

An upcoming part of this Kin series features Rosa heading off to California, where she becomes the stalker, seeking out a musician she only knows through Facebook.

Bottom line from Consumer Reports – they say the ads send out a couple of bad messages that young people might act on. The first implication is that social networks are populated with well-meaning strangers worth knowing, and the second message is that it’s perfectly safe to meet these strangers in person.

Was the first ad creepy? Is this one risky?

Microsoft, a company that’s not usually thought of as being edgy, might benefit from adult’s perceptions that the Kin phone is somewhat dangerous for kids. Young people tend to look for the parents’ seal of disapproval on devices.