--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Microsoft: "Empowering" image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Dec 02, 2014 # Microsoft: "Empowering" by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Microsoft’s 60-second Super Bowl ad merged technology with humanity. Narrated by Steve Gleason, a former football player now living with ALS, the ad showed the crucial role the company’s products play in people’s daily lives—from eye-tracking software that helps Gleason communicate to technology that helps the blind paint and double leg amputees run. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-everything-of-2014/3592387/microsoft-empowering/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-everything-of-2014/3592387/microsoft-empowering/"},"headline":"Microsoft: \"Empowering\"","datePublished":"2014-12-02T21:06:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:04:22.484Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-everything-of-2014/3592387/microsoft-empowering/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-everything-of-2014/3592387/microsoft-empowering/","name":"Microsoft: \"Empowering\""}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Super Bowl Ad: Microsoft","description":"Super Bowl Ad: Microsoft","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ZCCNIrC5/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-02-03T04:48:29.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ZCCNIrC5.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-everything-of-2014/3592387/microsoft-empowering/","duration":"PT59S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-everything-of-2014/3592387/microsoft-empowering/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```