In launching its Xbox games console on the European market, Microsoft used thought-provoking TV advertising to carve a niche separate from Sony PlayStation 2, its main competitor.

Working with BBH London creative team Fred & Farid and Spectre director Danny Kleinman, the Xbox was initially launched with a viral spot on www.playmore.com. "Champagne" depicts a newborn infant shot from the womb, sailing into the sky where he comes of age and old age, and ultimately crashes into his grave with the line, "Life is Short, Play Hard." The viral was so popular (it's been estimated it was forwarded 500,000 times) it went on to be broadcast and shown in cinemas. This initial splash was followed by the doc/music/effects opus "Mosquito."

Narrated by Linton Kweisi Johnson, the spot is a mosquito's lament over the loss of his kind's playful role as nature's winged sound system for their current joyless work as parasitic bloodsuckers. Special effects from London's Framestore-CFC create dancing and head-bobbing beasts and creatures (like a worm doing the worm) and swarms of mosquitoes in the shape of a speaker and headphones, pumping out a buzzed-up version of Etienne de Crecy's "Am I Wrong?" "Work less, play more" ends the voiceover, while an empty-eyed child stares at the camera and crushes a mosquito beneath the wheels of a toy.

"The central thought is to champion play and encourage people to look at how they live, the balance between the work and play side of life," says Harvey Eagle, European advertising manager for the Xbox. "We believe we should make sure we make time in our lives to do the things we enjoy, that's the message and the strategy. For the launch, the key thing we needed was awareness, so the TV work was an announcement of what we mean by 'Play more.' Overall, the awareness, buzz and noise around the launch has been encouraging. We are not giving out precise figures, but what I have seen is in line with expectations. It's too early to tell. We need to judge our position in a couple of years as Sony are the huge leaders and have a very strong position. It's a marathon, not a sprint."

The online element of the launch, developed by BBH in tandem with London's Dare Digital, hosts games and the "Champagne" viral. Print, ambient and event work comprised additional strands of the launch.

"We adopted different launch strategies than in the US, where the strategy was very much about promoting the hell out of the games. Looking at the European climate, the brand is more treasured here, and we needed to cater to that difference and develop a unique strategy," says Eagle.

Describing BBH as Xbox's brand guardian and creative leader, Eagle notes that the pan-European nature of the launch drew on the talents of partner agencies from across the continent that adapted the work to specific regions. Paris' Louis XIV, Barcelona's Tandem DDB, Frankfurt's McCann-Erickson and Verba, Milan were responsible for tweaking the work to make it linguistically and culturally palatable, for example, replacing Johnson's voiceover with a similar yet culturally appropriate equivalent.

And the fact that Microsoft, known for its focus on office software, is encouraging consumers to work less?

"Xbox's branding needs to complement the parent brand, Microsoft. The way I would argue on work less, play more is that Microsoft is all about improving work flow, doing more work in less time. You use Microsoft products to be more productive so you work less," says Eagle.

Fred & Farid on the other hand, justify the subversive nature of the "work less" message as a means to better reach consumers.

"We like subversive messages but were surprised they accepted it. But consumers receive brands better if the brand doesn't take them as stupid. People in Europe have a lot of distance from commercials and don't want the usual art selling things. They prefer to agree with the mood of the spot and to adopt the soul of the brand. If the soul is cool, fresh and subversive, they will adopt more than if you say, 'It's a good product,'" say Fred & Farid, going on to elaborate on the target consumer.

"Video game consumers today are not the usual teenage wanker in a dark room masturbating on the console. Gaming is becoming a social experience, not an isolated one. While PlayStation communicates to a small target in esoteric language, saying in a philosophical way that it is important to play is unexpected and new."

Indeed, the fairy tale delivery of "Mosquito" not only complements the musical themes of the spot, but also adopts the preaching tone the creatives sought.

"We tried to find justifications of why it's important to play. Video games are more than games, they are part of the leisure industry, competing with cinema in our leisure society," say Fred & Farid. "With the mosquitoes, the urge to get a job was the curse we built a legend around, the malediction."

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