f13.net

This is the first ad with Jerry Seinfeld as MS's new pitchman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz6amk3P-hY

High res version here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/?ocid=ftp_wmg_vs_79

I saw this on Adult Swim tonight. It couldn't even figure out what brand of shoes it was for.   :uhrr:

Just saw this on TV myself, and really this ad was a waste of money. Didn't say anything about the product (which hardly needs advertising already) and wasn't nearly as clever or funny as the Apple ones. I thought it was for shoes myself.

They could've had a snarky Jerry Seinfeld doing a much better sales pitch about Win vs Apple, instead of him pretending to hang with Bill Gates. Gates is there as a very wooden looking partner seeming scared along with not belonging anywhere near a shoe store. The logo at the end was the only semblance of product placement, and I my reaction was meh.

I don't get it.

Why not just go the obvious route and do a parody of the Apple commercials?

PC Guy: (in armor with a laser gun in one hand and a sword in the other, with a dozen other people doing some sort of choreographed fighting)
Mac Guy: Hey PC, what're you doing?
PC Guy: Oh! Just playing a game.
Mac Guy: Really? Which one?
PC Guy: Um, all of them.
Mac Guy: (dejected, looks down) ...oh. (shuffles away)

(Windows Logo)
For those of us who do more than just edit home movies.

You mean  That (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCA9xi2Um84&feature=related)?

I did enjoy that his shoe club ID picture was his mugshot.

I just watched this with the sound off, awful commercial.

Haha, the guy in the 2nd part of Tebonas' video is the 3 PS3s (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh1jB4hVJRg) guy

What could it have been though really. There's been nothing but bad press on Vista itself so they have no choice but be in the business of marketing "Microsoft". This won't do anything for the OS itself as the only people who will end up getting it are the curious or the masses who buy their PCs at Best Buy. The rest are lost, but still need their MS Office and maybesomeday Surface.

Awful, terrible, terrible ad. A little funny, though I really never needed to see Bill Gates wiggle his bony nerd buttocks. I think it totally failed on the "Make Microsoft look cool" front.

I loved it. I'm still smiling. Clearly it's about humanizing Microsoft - hacking at the evil empire image. It has nothing to do with making the company "cool" like Apple.

Its just an odd commercial. I don't even get what they are trying to portray. That Gates is actually schrewdly economical, entirely unlike his company's code?

I like it.

I don't get it.

Two mega-billionaires in a discount shoe store?

What exactly is so effective about this alternate reality frame?

Maybe the next ones will be better.

Choice of Seinfeld is odd too, considering his apartment had a Mac (back in the days when Mac OS sucked (pre OS X *nix-y goodness)), and that he participated in Apple "Think Different" campaign, you'd think they'd hawk how Jerry is a different, hipster kind of switcher in 2008 (Vista!)…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

Gates is actually known as a penny-pincher. There are stories about him doing things like holding up checkout lines searching for coupons. Not sure that's what they wanted to portrary in the ad, though.

Their ad is working. This thread was created.

People talking about how stupid their ad is is probably not the "buzz" they were hoping for.

I'm pretty sure you weren't the target. Let's ask Jewish people that aren't Ookii.

I liked it too.

Strangely enough, I liked it.

I liked it too. Well, lets say I didn't have an averse reaction. Liking it may be pushing things. However, I still don't get the point at all.

I seem to recall you liking the PS3 "This is Living" ad also (another ad that had nothing to do with the product it was advertising).

I like ads when they're visually appealing or entertaining. I don't watch much tv on tv (any), as such, I see about 10-15 ads a year, all normally during the superbowl. As such, I don't care if they're selling anything or even if they're remotely effective.

none of this will change the fact that Vista is a flop.

The more I think about it the more this reminds me of Me&Bob.   Maybe Microsoft should try to put money in to the fucking OS and less in to the pockets of Seinfeld and the ad agencies.

Because they don't have enough money to do both, right?
Because money solves everything, right?
Because...  :oh_i_see:

They could buy more engineers.

Look how well that's worked for them in the past.

So you're saying they are targeting the New York Jew?

This ad did not make me want to do anything except hit Jerry Seinfeld with a shovel.  "Jupiter brain"?  Really?  Should have commented on airline food.

I don't get Seinfeld's humor, so I don't get the ad.  Seems like a monumental waste of money to trumpet how frugal Gates is, while ending with talk of an edible computer.

A four hundred million dollar ad campaign to talk about how frugal Gates is...

When your personal fortune is over 50 billion, I suppose 400 million is frugal.

#2 - 5 minute version w/Bill Gates doing "the Robot" at the end
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBWPf1BWtkw

But is it FUNny? No, not really, Jerry needs to give Larry David a call. Or something.

It was definitely better than the first one. I see what they're going for and it's not directed at anyone here. It's for all those idiots who believe every second of a Mac commercial.

I don't know if they're actually supposed to be funny.  It seems to me that they are trying instead to humanize Microsoft, which I think the ads do accomplish.  They aren't trying to make you like them so much a they are trying to make you not hate them.  The ads are supposed to be a bit odd and awkward.

Dear fucking God, just stop it. PLEASE? It hurts.

Now this OTOH is funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2bxO3NluXA

My boy likes the one where PC is inside a pizza box.

Those Mac commercials make me want to punch Justin Long in the dick.

I like the Mac commercials, but I don't think I'm supposed to like the PC guy and dislike the Mac douche.

But I totally do.

I  :heart: the Mac commercials and dislike the Mac guy too… …John Hodgman is the star and comedic genius of the deal…

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h204/killer-ra/Gifs%20II/macVpc.gif)

In other news...


Rest of the article here. (http://www.gadgetell.com/tech/comment/microsoft-stops-bill-gates-jerry-seinfeld-ads-for-next-phase/)

Edit: Didn't know the video was out. You can watch it here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKNn1RUD7F8)

Microsoft’s ‘I’m a PC’ Ads Created On Macs (http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/09/19/microsofts-im-a-pc-ads-created-on-macs/)

Not surprising but still amusing.

I like the Windows ads much more than the Mac ones. As it was so eloquently put above, my response to the Mac ads is on the same level as my response to hipsters.

That Mac guy.. the actor.. he's funny, but those commercials don't do it for me. For one, they just play into that whole hipster shit that you guys loathe... and being "hip" isn't even the issue at all on why Apple's machines are a good choice or why Mac people have used Macs this whole time. I mean, I'm with you on that being a shitty point to sell something.

Besides, the "hipsters" are a myth. They never existed. Yet, now they probably do, just because of those commercials.

Before, Apple had a lot of artists, film geeks, and musicians as a heavy fan base -- who just "happened" to be fairly worldly/cool people who preferred Macs for creative uses. They may or may not have been "hip", but if they were, it had nothing to do with them using Macs.

Secondly, after OS X, you had a lot of UNIX gurus jumping on board. And I'm talking real UNIX gurus -- the kind that look like Santa Claus, and used to punch cards and shit -- these kind of guys started showing up at Macworld as well.

But that's really it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1JIa5r5nkE

Very funny! I haven't really been following this thread and have no clue why you posted that here, but it was good.

Funny that it was just cycling through the same photograph too.

He posted it because John Hodgman is the narrator in the video.

Welp, that's the end of that (http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080917/seinfeld-and-gates-ads-over-not-that-theres-anything-wrong-with-that/). But apparently, it was all, part, of the, plan (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/sep/18/microsoft.windows)  :why_so_serious:

Not sure why you've gone for the  :why_so_serious:, there. I think it is entirely believable.

Oh, not the question the veracity. It was just because of the "all part of the plan" quote from The Dark Knight :-)

Microsoft has it all wrong. *shakes head*

All they need to do is show (and keep on showing) some hot, cool chick that no one really dislikes using windows. Say, Gwen Stefani. Want to "humanize"? Then it's that simple. And sad. Pharell Williams isn't a bad idea, but not enough people know him. Also, he's not a hot girl.

"Deepak Chopra" is not a step up from Seinfeld. Might as well put in Joel Osteen and Tom Cruise.

[edit] Scratch all of that. Just put Jack Black in the same room as Bill Gates. THEN it will be funny. Whether it made sense or not.

Most people are not you Stray and Gewn Stefani and Jack Black would do shit all for them. You've got to stop saying things that you would like as if they're objective points. Using a "hot cool chick" to sell something isn't exactly a novel idea.

Not everybody's you either Lam. To each their own.

And I know for a fact Pharell uses Macs to sequence his beats.

Uh, I don't personally care much about Gwen Stefani or Jack Black. They're just examples for a type. Don't get all caught up on some bullshit about me trying to parade "favorite celebrities", or whatever it is you're doing there. I'm just saying... Gwen's a musician whom people of different tastes like, and she's attractive. Fit someone else in there with the same profile if you like. See if I give a fuck. The only reason why I mentioned Jack Black is because a comedic schtick like they had with Seinfeld would be more memorable (not to mention younger) with Black. Nothing more. I have no clue on whether Black prefers Macs or not, but to me, he fits the profile of the other "geek" to me. On one hand, you have the "I'm a PC" guy variety that Apple makes fun of. On the other, you have the "hipster" Justin Long variety. Bring in Jack Back to act out the third type. He's cooler than both. And again, if you don't like him, then fit someone else in the profile.

Basically, Apple has forced Microsoft into a "who's cooler" contest with their commercials. You can play it straight and respond with a hot, talented chick doing useful things on her computer (edit: in fact, now that I recall... HP does just that with Gwen Stefani herself), or do some comedic bit with an even cooler type of geek.

Also, there's no need to accuse me of trying to claim to be novel. I never said I was. The whole point on why I said "hot cool chick" is precisely because it isn't novel. I spelled it out : I said that it was "that simple and that sad".

Bullshit chest thumping out of the way, MS's new commercials are much better.  I saw the first one last night and they should have gone this route from the start.   Although the little African village bit was kind of out there.  I don't think of Africa when I think of technology, or well, anything not having to do with guns and violence.

What's funny about the fat beardos who used to use punch cards, those guys roll(ed) their eyes at the UNIX hipsters.  Circle of life or something.  Anyway, getting into a who's-cooler slapfight is a dumb move when your OS is garbage.

Yeah, it sucks. I'm just saying though. For the sake of talking about advertising. Not so much for the product per se.  :awesome_for_real:

If Scarlett Johannsen dropped by my house, she might be able to convince me to buy Vista.  It would be a tough sell over television, though.

Nah, it would take Scarlett Johannsen, Kiera Knightley and Natalie Portman, (complete with hot grits) to make me even think of letting Vista into my home.

Ah, shit, those three together would even get me to install it!  Assuming they all have the afternoon free and like Boone's Farm.