No more awesome Bill and Jerry ads from Microsoft

[ParticleReality]

Remember those awful Microsoft ads with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? Well, now you can forget them. Microsoft flacks are desperately dialing reporters to spin them about "phase two" of the ad campaign — a phase, due to be announced tomorrow, which will drop the aging comic altogether. Microsoft's version of the story: Redmond had always planned to drop Seinfeld. The awkward reality: The ads only reminded us how out of touch with consumers Microsoft is — and that Bill Gates's company has millions of dollars to waste on hiring a has-been funnyman to keep him company. Update: In a phone call, Waggener Edstrom flack Frank Shaw confirms that Microsoft is not going on with Seinfeld, and echoes his underlings' spin that the move was planned. There is the "potential to do other things" with Seinfeld, which Shaw says is still "possible." He adds: "People would have been happier if everyone loved the ads, but this was not unexpected."

http://valleywag.com/5051455/microsoft-to-announce-jerry-seinfeld-ads-cancelled-tomorrow

RELAX, computer users, after only two weeks Microsoft will stop teasing you as the company begins the next phase of an ambitious — and risky — $300 million campaign intended to make over its tarnished image.

The campaign, which begins Thursday and carries the theme “Windows. Life without walls,” will move away from the enigmatic teaser commercials that featured Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld in offbeat conversations about shopping, shoes, suburbia and the potential of computing to improve life. The teaser ads have generated considerable discussion since they started on Sept. 4, not all of it positive.

What follows is an audacious embrace of the disdainful label that Apple, Microsoft’s rival, has gleefully — and successfully — affixed onto users of Microsoft products: “I’m a PC.”

One new Microsoft commercial even begins with a company engineer who resembles John Hodgman, the comedian portraying the loser PC character in the Apple campaign. “Hello, I’m a PC,” the engineer says, echoing Mr. Hodgman’s recurring line, “and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”

The strategy to use the Apple attack as the basis for a counterstrike is typical for the agency behind the campaign, Crispin Porter & Bogusky.

Crispin Porter, part of MDC Partners, relishes efforts to transform perceived negatives into positives. For another client, Burger King, the calorie-stuffed menu is portrayed to a target audience of young men as a rebellious personal choice to “Have it your way.”

Mr. Gates makes a cameo appearance in the new Microsoft spots, along with celebrities like the actress Eva Longoria, the author Deepak Chopra and the singer Pharrell Williams. (Mr. Seinfeld is gone, at least for now.)

But the stars are everyday PC users, from scientists and fashion designers to shark hunters and teachers, all of whom affirm, in fast-paced, upbeat vignettes, their pride in using the computers that run on Microsoft operating systems and software.

Among them are more than 60 Microsoft employees, who are accompanied in the ads by e-mail addresses — even Mr. Gates’s (bill@windows.com).

Fuck you assholes. These were COMEDY GOLD.

[The Fake Shemp]

Seinfeld & Gates was awesome. :'(

I sense a lot of deep rooted hatred from the Apple-using media.

[Rman]

i liked them.  who cares if they were not ''selling'' anything?  ms can afford to do quirky stuff like that, being market leaders and all. 

[cool breeze]

Those ads were brilliant.

Mr. Gates makes a cameo appearance in the new Microsoft spots, along with celebrities like the actress Eva Longoria, the author Deepak Chopra and the singer Pharrell Williams.

 

[Van Cruncheon]

the first one was dullsville, but the second one brought the lulz. a shame the applefag media types can't appreciate a little cleverness.

[Rman]

i'm surprised john c. dvorak hated them.

[Phoenix Dark]

yawn apple

macs get killed by the PC every year.

[Powerslave]

Rman please change your avatar man it's so impersonal.

[The Fake Shemp]

the first one was dullsville, but the second one brought the lulz. a shame the applefag media types can't appreciate a little cleverness.

Every scathing review of this campaign was written like this:

"These nonsensical ads pale in comparison to the clever, impact Apple advertisements that clearly resonate with the mainstream and core users alike - like me, who is typing this on my MacBook Pro."

[Madrun Badrun]

the first one was dullsville, but the second one brought the lulz. a shame the applefag media types can't appreciate a little cleverness.

You have them backwards. 

and who the fuck review ad campaigns? 

[The Fake Shemp]

Apple fans.

[Joe Molotov]

I was looking forward to a full season of these. 

[recursivelyenumerable]

I'd like to engage in schadenfreude over the Vista backlash, but the problem is that what people are bitching about is basically the same shit people bitch about with Linux distributions.  There seem to be a lot of improvements over XP (like the fact that they bothered to replace the goddamn My Own Personal Documents And Settings\These Are Files That May Or May Not Be Installed By Various Applications\These Applications Were Installed By Spamco Ltd. Copyright 1998 All Rights Reserved\Text Files Between 16K And 128K\blah\blah\blah\blah\blah\blah\blah\blah for installing user-specific data with something halfway sensible)  IE still suxx though.

[Great Rumbler]

Those commercials were awesome. On the other hand, the Apple commercials are annoying and stupid [except for the PC guy].

[Akala]

There is an awesome new (?) commercial making the rounds that is video of a focus group testing the "new prototype windows" and after they like it, are told it's actually Vista.

It's cheesy, but IMO accurate.

[border]

Ads are not cancelled:

http://gizmodo.com/5051682/microsoft-ads-featuring-bill-gates-and-jerry-seinfeld-not-canceled

The news seemed a bit dodgy in the first place, since you figure they've probably already paid Seinfeld and shot the entire series.

[Vizzys]

There is an awesome new (?) commercial making the rounds that is video of a focus group testing the "new prototype windows" and after they like it, are told it's actually Vista.

It's cheesy, but IMO accurate.

mojave

[border]

I haven't browsed Dell.com in a long time.  They are really riding the backlash though:



You pay for Vista, but they install XP and just give you a Vista installation disc should you want to migrate to Vista.  Too bad they won't just set the PC up for dual-boot.

[drohne]

man, eb's ms fandom runs pretty deep. i should start a clippy appreciation thread and see if i get a bunch of enthusiastic replies

that one bit from the first commercial where bill says 'leather' and then nods inanely at jerry for several seconds is funny. somehow.

[CurseoftheGods]

man, eb's ms fandom runs pretty deep. i should start a clippy appreciation thread and see if i get a bunch of enthusiastic replies

[Great Rumbler]

I liked the picture on Bill's credit card.

[CajoleJuice]

man, eb's ms fandom runs pretty deep. i should start a clippy appreciation thread and see if i get a bunch of enthusiastic replies

jesus christ

[Eel O'Brian]

that has-been funnyman still probably makes enough money in a single day off residuals to hire the entire valleywag team as personal asswipers

[muckhole]

I liked the picture on Bill's credit card.

If I recall correctly, that photo is from his mugshot.

Yeah, here it is:

[CajoleJuice]

that has-been funnyman still probably makes enough money in a single day off residuals to hire the entire valleywag team as personal asswipers

[Eel O'Brian]

that's what i'd do if i had gates or seinfeld money

hire someone who used to talk shit about me for a really humiliating job

then fire them after about a month

"i'm sorry, tom, i'm gonna have to let you go.  you're just not cutting it as an asswiper."

[etiolate]

Hallejuah

[recursivelyenumerable]

man, eb's ms fandom runs pretty deep. i should start a clippy appreciation thread and see if i get a bunch of enthusiastic replies

well I've come to sort of like COM, COM+, ATL and the registry.  Stockholm Syndrome

[cool breeze]

I saw the new ad on TV.  It is actually pretty good.

[border]

New advertisements are here:

http://gizmodo.com/5052051/microsofts-im-a-pc-ad-beats-seinfeld-but-not-hodgman

At least the Seinfeld ands were kinda weird and funny.  These are just stupid.  Do they really need to convince the world that diverse demographics use PCs?  Are they really so worried that everyone thinks PCs are for dorks and businessmen?  Seems highly paranoid and reactionary, and gives Apple more credibility than they deserve.

[Rman]

Ah, man.  The Seinfeld ads were much better.  This is more like a ''real'' commercial.  Ugh.

[Bocsius]

I'm a PC and I play Solitaire.

[FatalT]

Those commercials are horrible at being commercials.

[Mandark]

Say what you will about those ads, they're miles better than the Mac ones with insufferable Justin Long.

Wasn't there a false report that he was getting fired from those back in the day?

[Fresh Prince]

These ads will be more effective and not half bad better than the Apple and otherPc company ads. Gates and Seinfeld however was awesome