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Microsoft Causes Internal Family Strife

Posted by kdawson on from the what-were-they-thinking-if-anything dept.

techmuse writes "Fresh from its ad featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld eating churros and discussing shoes, Microsoft has introduced a new advertisement in which the aging former CEO and comedian take up residence with a family, causing infighting and malicious plots by the family members. Although the ad does not mention Microsoft's operating system directly, it does mirror the real world experience of the company's products — appearing where not wanted, hard to remove, causing administration headaches, and finally being forced out in hopes of getting one's living space back."

24 of 543 comments (clear)

  1. i'm no MS fan, but... by gadabyte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    holy flamebait summary, batman!

    --
    the united states is a nation of laws; badly written and randomly enforced -- frank zappa
    1. Re:i'm no MS fan, but... by emag · · Score: 5, Funny

      Commenting on the video, or Seinfeld's "comedy" in general?

      --
      "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H.L. Mencken
    2. Re:i'm no MS fan, but... by asg1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I disagree... I thought this one was good for a few laughs. Yes it is a commercial but how many commercials do you actually laugh at? Again, like the first ad, Microsoft just got many to watch it and talk about it; thus it was successful. Besides, do you really think they are trying to reach out to the average slashdotter? Remember that these ads aren't targeted at us.

    3. Re:i'm no MS fan, but... by MMC+Monster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, I found parts of it pretty funny.

      It does accentuate how out of touch both Seinfeld and Gates are (and even mentions that fact).

      You would have no idea that it's a commercial about an OS.

      In fact, you can run the same commercial and put a picture of Tux at the end, with the slogan "Keep uninvited pests away" (or something like that; I'm not a marketing guy) and be quite effective.

      --
      Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
    4. Re:i'm no MS fan, but... by JWSmythe · · Score: 5, Insightful

          No, no. There's an underdog spin on it.

          They are staying with a family. The family obviously boards other people. The grandmother has been living there for 12 years. Maybe this is a reference to Windows 95 being ancient, but still kicking around the house.

          While they are there, the little girl gets upset that she lost her room. Here they are calling non-Microsoft OS's bratty little girls.

          The little girl gets her revenge by planting the stolen item in Gates' pack. This is either saying that other OS's use deception to get what they want. Gates, being the better man just leaves to let the bratty girl have her way, because there are bigger things to come.

          I like understanding subtle undertones to what appears to be obvious. I also like listening to the words of "Hotel California". :)

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    5. Re:i'm no MS fan, but... by s1lhouette · · Score: 5, Funny

      There is more subtle undertones that i would not have expected. When the delivery guy arrived, Gates took the food without paying. I find it kind of odd that Microsoft would portray their spokesmen as a thief. Is this Microsoft admitting that they take what they want and that they have no morals?

    6. Re:i'm no MS fan, but... by mhall119 · · Score: 5, Funny

      2) Kid is playing computer and says "This is AWESOME! When are you going to release it?" Bill says "Never, and don't tell anyone where you got it"

      Holy Crap it was Linux!

      --
      http://www.mhall119.com
    7. Re:i'm no MS fan, but... by camperdave · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes it is a commercial but how many commercials do you actually laugh at?

      I remember one commercial that caused me to burst out laughing. Many years ago, there was a commercial by one of the beer companies advertising its new twist off bottle caps. It was set at a pool party. This hunky guy hops onto the diving board, smiles and points at the ladies, and does a spectacular dive into the pool. Everybody oos and ahs in appreciation. He climbs out, smiles and points at the ladies, grabs a beer and starts looking for the opener. Then an ordinary, plain looking guy says "That's nothing". He then proceeds to jog across the water from one end of the pool to the other. Everybody is gasping in astonishment. He then grabs a beer, and twists off the cap. The hunk pointing at the pool, stammers out, "How... How did you do that?"

      "Easy", says the plain looking guy. "It's a twist-off".

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    8. Re:i'm no MS fan, but... by daremonai · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't think I can afford him.

    9. Re:i'm no MS fan, but... by ozmanjusri · · Score: 5, Funny
      Kid is playing computer and says "This is AWESOME! When are you going to release it?" Bill says "Never, and don't tell anyone where you got it"

      Bill showed him a beta of Mojave.

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    10. Re:i'm no MS fan, but... by nine-times · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You would have no idea that it's a commercial about an OS.

      I guess it's not really an ad for an Windows, but rather an ad for Microsoft in general. To clarify ads these days are rarely about the product. Really, the next time you're watching TV, watch all the ads carefully, and ask yourself regarding each one, "What does this tell me about the product?"

      Established brands rarely tell you anything about the product unless they're introducing something new. For example, Coke commercials. They might have someone holding a coke bottle or maybe even taking a sip, but the commercial doesn't have any "information" about Coke. McDonald's is the same way. Unless they're introducing a new sandwich or something, they don't talk about the product. They just show someone holding the bag or taking a bite out of the sandwich. But you know what? Everyone who takes a bite of the Big Mac or a sip of that Coke have some things in common: They're happy and attractive and having fun!

      Current advertising theory holds that there's no point in giving people information, because people don't make "rational decisions". They make their decisions based on emotional attachments. So what advertisers aim to do is to attach a positive emotion with a product on a subconscious level, so that when you think about that product, you feel good. That good feeling makes you more likely to buy that product.

      The holy grail of advertising is to be a part of an entire subculture that's attractive and happy and cool, a subculture that people want to be a part of, and to have their product be synonymous with their product. They want to make you feel like you can't be a part of the culture that you belong to without owning that product. They want you to feel like you're not yourself without that product.

      Now I don't know how successful these ads will be, but it's clear that they're trying to remake the Microsoft image. They're trying to construct the emotional response you feel when you think about Microsoft, because the current emotional response from a lot of people consists mainly of frustration. So instead, they're trying to make Gates, as the embodiment of Microsoft, come across as a quirky fun guy that you'd like to have around even if he is a little hapless. He may as well be saying, "Hey, I'm not perfect, but I'm kind of nice and fun and even helpful, so invite me into your home."

    11. Re:i'm no MS fan, but... by CodeBuster · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Where are my mod points when I need them, the parent is bang on target. The holy grail of marketing, at least according to the presently ascendant theory, is to market and sell a brand image and NOT the products associated with that brand. This is far more profitable, assuming that it can be accomplished, because good products come and go and they cost money to research, develop, and produce, but if I can sell you on the concept of a brand then you will buy almost anything, regardless of quality and especially in the short run, that is associated with that brand. The real value and the highest potential for profit are selling the brand, not the products. Now, obviously this does not always work and it doesn't work on everyone, particularly not on intelligent people who think for themselves, but it does work on Joe Sixpack and that is the majority of the non-niche markets. Microsoft is attempting to develop and expand their brand so that they can sell their products to an American public that is becoming increasingly ignorant about how technology actually works and concentrates mostly on what is cool or in style over functionality.

    12. Re:i'm no MS fan, but... by nabsltd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I have to agree. I laugh at the Mac/PC ads, mostly because they are so over the top.

      Macs aren't that wonderful and PCs don't suck as much as the ads would want you to believe, but that don't change the fact that the ads are well done, and even non-techies find them worth watching.

    13. Re:i'm no MS fan, but... by nine-times · · Score: 5, Informative

      True, but your missing the point. I saw a documentary on this a while ago, and they played two coffee commercials back-to-back, one from the 50s and one from the 90s. The ad from the 50s actually talked about how good the coffee tasted, while the commercial from the 90s showed a man and a woman in a cozy setting, drinking out of coffee cups (you never saw the coffee) and enjoying a romantic conversation.

      The point is, they aren't selling you the coffee, they're trying to sell you the emotional feeling. Their goal is to get you to subconsciously associate their brand with warm-fuzzy feelings of romance. Showing the scene of a couple in a cozy environment is a way of generating that feeling, and showing the coffee cups and the box of coffee creates the association, but it really isn't about showing you the product or telling you anything about the product.

      But Gates is a psychological stand-in for Microsoft, and serves well enough to generate the association. In order to make you feel warmly about Microsoft, the makers of this commercial believe that it will be sufficient to get you to feel warmly about Gates. Whether that's true or whether the commercial succeeds in getting you to feel warmly about Gates are separate issues. I'm just telling you what the ad agency is trying to do here.

      The point is, commercials today often have nothing to do with the product, and the people making the commercials don't want you to think about the product. They just want you to feel a specific emotion in connection to their brand, and they'll try to create that association in any way they can, whether it includes showing the product or not.

      Now as to why they don't really show any Microsoft products, I have some guesses. First, you know the products already. You've seen Windows. If you'd consider buying an XBox, then you already know what one is and probably know the advantages/disadvantages compared to other platforms. Talking about their products is about as useless as Coke trying to describe the flavor of their cola; you know what Coca-Cola tastes like.

      In fact, a lot of people associate Microsoft Windows with "frustration", so showing their product might only serve to bring those feelings to the forefront. Also, the bad associations people have with Microsoft are that Microsoft is a big, powerful, pushy company. So not showing their product can serve to counter that, because there's no way you can watch those commercials and feel like they're pushing their product on you.

      Finally, not showing the product can work in a sort of reverse-psychology kind of way. Jerry keeps asking Bill about plans for future products, and Bill shows the kid a game that's not released, and we don't get to see it. By refusing to show us their current products or possible future products, they might be trying to get you to ask, "what cool things might Microsoft be working on?"

  2. Advertising by jmpeax · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Microsoft's operating system - appearing where not wanted, hard to remove, causing administration headaches, and finally being forced out in hopes of getting one's living space back.

    Well you know you could just avoid giving Microsoft all this publicity if you feel so strongly about the quality of their products.

    As for the advert, I thought it was quite funny. It didn't mention any specific products, but that's not really the point: the very personification of Microsoft (good ol' Bill) is given a soft, friendly image that will inevitably reflect onto the company and its products. It's got a kind of quirkiness that works really well - this will no doubt help improve sales of more personal product line (such as the Zune) that aren't really compatible with the hygienic, corporate image of Windows and Office.

    --
    Amnesty International
    1. Re:Advertising by timster · · Score: 5, Funny

      Personally, I don't think people are getting it -- the idea is to tear down the image of Microsoft as a savvy, omnipotent monolith by demonstrating that they can get totally taken by an ad agency.

      --
      I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
    2. Re:Advertising by Lord_Frederick · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If the ad itself is being talked about, then it has been successful on some level.

  3. Re:I want to see one by multisync · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'd rather see him have to admin an MS shop myself.

    --
    I don't care why you're posting AC
  4. Great summary :-) by Peter+Simpson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd like to see them visit a family with a nerdy kid who uses a MythTV box.

    "Yeah, I used to use Windows, but it wouldn't record all the shows I told it to -- something about a "broadcast flag content protection error". Ever since I replaced it with Myth, I've had no more problems.".

  5. Selling the big lie by Ancient_Hacker · · Score: 5, Informative

    Microsoft did not connect billions. They did not create TCP/IP, SMTP, the Web, or much of anything else.

    They have ridden the wave with mediocre email apps and web browsers, but that's not much to crow about.

    ( And you would not have to crawl under a car to diagnose a blown head gasket, so there )

  6. Re:I want to see one by smittyoneeach · · Score: 5, Funny

    Gates using Emacs,
    RMS using Word,
    see which head splodes first.

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
  7. As long as the Mac is represented by burnitdown · · Score: 5, Funny

    The family having a son who's into emo music, dresses in women's jeans, is bicurious and self-obsessed in a flood of his own drama should do nicely.

    --
    Anti-Globalism, Traditionalism, and FreeBSD.
  8. !!?? Where do you live ??!!?? by hummassa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Facts speak volumes.

    As you seem to live in another planet, and one where facts do speak volumes nonetheless, I friendly request that you take me to your leader -- after asserting that your homeworld environment is livable for my pitiful lifeform.

    Because, in this planet:

    • spin speaks volumes
    • hype speaks volumes
    • noise speaks volumes
    • a beautiful face or a nice body speaks volumes
    • knowing how to throw or kick a ball speaks volumes
    • engineered lying speaks volumes
    • brute force speaks volumes
    • money speaks volumes

    But facts were never and will never be on the list. Not even close.

    --
    It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
  9. Re:I want to see one by gabec · · Score: 5, Insightful

    holy flamebait summary, batman!

    Seriously... Slashdot never has made claims at being unbiased, and I have no excess fondness for MS products (I'm currently writing this from my ubuntu desktop) but still... Frontpaging needlessly harsh opinions best left to tongue-in-cheek office humor don't serve the slashdot community.

    If I want vitriolic bias, I'll head to Fox News.