Internet Explorer appeals to Gen-Y with ’90s nostalgia commercial

Internet Explorer can be cool, too. At least that’s what the much-maligned brand hopes to prove in a commercial meant to appeal to Gen-Yers through a hearty dose of ’90s nostalgia.

Snap bracelets, pogs, a neon fanny pack, Hungry Hungry Hippos and square-shaped floppy disks all make an appearance in the sharable online commercial, which rolls out fads from a time when computers were slower and clothes were brighter.

Notably, the Internet Explorer brand doesn’t even appear until then end of the commercial, when the narrator uses the tag line “you grew up, so did we” and an Internet Explorer logo appears.

The ad seems to be hitting its 20- and 30-year-old target market; the video already has more than one million views.

The ad is part of an advertising approach that uses Internet Explorer’s rocky past. Sure, the browser comes standard on PCs, but it is often replaced for Mozilla or, now, Chrome. Microsoft seems to realize this, and it hosts the video — and other sharable content meant for Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler and other social media — at browseryoulovedtohate.com.

The verdict is still out on whether the self-deprecating approach to advertising will convince long-time Explorer haters to give the browser another try. As Jared Newman writes at PC World: “eventually Microsoft might want to tell the world why Internet Explorer is better than the competition. Because as any child of the 90s knows, ‘better than IE used to be’ isn’t saying much.”