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Seinfeld-Windows TV Ad Anything But 'Delicious'
CWmike writes "Microsoft's $300-million ad campaign for Windows starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld launched Thursday with a long TV commercial almost entirely devoid of any talk of Windows, Microsoft or anything, really. With co-star Bill Gates, the scene is set in a shopping mall. Seinfeld, who did most of the talking, helps Gates buy a pair of shoes called the Conquistador. The commercial ends with Seinfeld asking Gates if Microsoft will "come out with something that makes our computers moist and chewy like cake so we can just eat them while we're working." Gates wiggles his rear to answer in the affirmative. The commercial ends (see video inside the story) with the Windows logo and the phrase 'Delicious.' Preston Gralla writes, 'I just saw Microsoft's much ballyhooed Jerry Seinfeld ad, and can say without equivocation it's one of the worst, most pointless ads in history. If this is Microsoft's response to the 'I'm a Mac' ads, it should fold up its tent and tell the world to switch to Apple."
Clearly the OP does not really understand what advertising is usually about. Most mass market advertising does not try to provide information, it is providing associations. It presents something enjoyable (here it is assumed that Seinfeld+Gates==Enjoyable) and then presents the branding that they want to be associated with that enjoyable feeling. The crazy part is that this works, and in a weird way can be suggested as actually improving the product. Since the next time the subject of the advertising uses/sees the product, they will subconsiously access that association with enjoyment ... therefore the product is more enjoyable as a result of the advertising.
I am not saying that this is a good thing, but it is how things work in the real world.
Now you can argue either way as to whether Seinfeld+Gates=Delicious ... I didn't actually watch the comercial myself ... but they might be reaching as far a transitive association all the way back to the Seinfeld show, which almost everyone agrees was enjoyable. In any case I don't think there was ever any intent to have actual informative content in the comercial ... they are just "building the brand".
See Seth Godin's book "All Marketers Are Liars"
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/all_marketers_are_liars/
or a quick review of it here:
http://www.businesspundit.com/lying-marketing-and-perception/
Thoughts on tech, Software Engineering, and stuff
If I didn't know that it was Bill gates I would have had just about no idea what that commercial was about. It was pretty stupid and pointless in my opinion.
Aren't Macs personal computers too?
Aren't Macs using the same x86 architecture as PCs?
What's the difference between a Mac and PC besides the operating system?
It wasn't like the first "I'm a Mac" was funny or anything... That was M$'s first one. Let's see a few more before we label the whole thing a bomb.
And please don't tell my friends I said anything that sounded like a defense of M$... I have a reputation to uphold!
A clever person solves a problem, A wise person avoids it. -Einstein
These adds are just suppose to make people think that Microsoft knows the average Joe, that they are a approachable friendly company. Kinda like how Exon Mobile has those commercials to show their R&D in alternative energy aka "not placing all your eggs in one basket" The goal isn't to switch Mac or Linux people to Windows but keep Windows people on Windows. Most likely Seinfeld (a 1990s star during Microsoft PR heyday period, where they were considered to be the most innovative products out there, by many people) help bring back the feeling of the 1990's where running Windows was considered the cool thing to do, and running Mac or Unix was just prolonging the death of an obsolete platform, and Linux was just a Fad OS that will go away once Windows 95 is released.
It is kinda like see how good things use to be when Microsoft was your favorite OS.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I should specify that I was watching it with some buddies of mine and had (up until this point) been quite raucous throughout the football game. But this commercial confused the hell out of us.
"Is it for charity?"
"Is it for shoes?"
"Is it for some sort of policy initiative?"
Nope. Windows. ...delicious.
But the end... the end... that setup, the punch line/butt wiggle and Jerry's response? Uhhh, just non funny, dumb and baffling. There are many things about Bill Gates that are not funny. The body he inhabits and all parts contained within qualify under that designation.
Just. Bad.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
They could try... making Vista into a good product?
I think it is actually an ad for churros. I anticipate huge churro sales spike following this campaign.
Actually, I think it's an ad for ads.
The ESB and T3 ended exactly as this commercial ended: a set up for the next one. This is going to be a chain of commercials and obviously the first one is out of context and sucks.
Just wait for commercial 3.11^w 95^w 98^w 2000^w xp^w vista^w 7: it won't suck. It will be delicious.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
I first saw it in a bar, last night, during a football game. The entire bar went quiet to watch it, laughed at the right spots, everyone laughed out loud at the end, and some applauded.
Sorry, but you're simply wrong, as is the original article. That ad was absolutely effective. It worked on every level.
Cope.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
The ad was a complete success. Can you believe that, after reading about it on Google News, I actually sought out and watched the commercial? Can you believe that right this very moment you are reading some unimportant commentary by someone whose opinion doesn't matter whatsoever about a TV commercial?
Score one for Microsoft.
Yeah, but did you watch it on CHROME?!?
Got to get the whole interwebs buzzing about something else this week.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
If you have to explain your ad to the world you should know you have done something seriously wrong.
It's funny that a lot of advertising agencies believe that they can actually duplicate the hype that has started around several services or products. And Microsofts advertising company just joined the club!
Uhhh, I really can't describe "tooth-talker" to Americans, because we don't have them, but when I lived in the UK, my wife and I noticed an odd speech impediment that many Brits have. We call it tooth-talking, for lack of a better term...it's where you can see them curling their tongue and really sticking it way out over their front teeth, causing them to lisp. Will Young, the pop star who won season one of Pop Idol, does it really bad. Jamie Oliver is the first person we noticed that does it. I don't mean to sound mean, but an American school-aged speech therapist told me there is no emphasis in the UK to fix the impediment in children (around the age of 4 or 5) like we do in the States. Not saying we are better or anything, just that we don't have it here, and a lot of people will have no idea what I mean when I say tooth-talker.
Why advertise to people who are already buying your product. The people who are old and stuck in their ways wouldn't switch from Windows anyway, so there's not point in targetting them. They need to target the younger crowd, both those who have switched, so that they switch back, and those who haven't switched yet, but are getting annoyed with releases like Vista, and may switch in the next 5 years.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
They GOT the white football fan. You do NOT suck up to your existing customers, you just give them good deals but not fancy smancy ads because they are already buying your product.
You aim a new commercial campaign setup to change the opinion of a product with the group who needs its opinion changed. That is the mac-whores, the linux-nerds and the XP-lusers. The middle age white guy who uses Vista because that is what came with his dell doesn't need to be convinced to buy Vista.
No, I think this case is far simpler. Advertising companies don't sell products, they sell ads. This advertisement company sold itself to Microsoft and this ad was just the by-product of it. It has no more aim then to get money out of MS and if that is done by convincing Bill Gates that he should shake his ass to the camera with an tv-star who hasn't starred in years, then so be it.
This ad has an audience of one and its name is Gates.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
as someone who helps out on ubuntu forums from time to time, that idea scares the crap out of me.
Don't point that gun at him, he's an unpaid intern!
You got me thinking - would a speech therapist be able to help an adult get rid of a foreign accent? What about a child?
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