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Microsoft Dropping Seinfeld, Directly Targeting 'Get a Mac' Ads
- Thread starter swingerofbirch
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killerwhack
macrumors regular
Seinfeld Sidekicks
Gee, do you think Jason Alexander, Michael Richards or Julia Louis-Dreyfus would be willing to appear opposite Jerry Seinfeld in a commercial produced by Apple ??
Gee, do you think Jason Alexander, Michael Richards or Julia Louis-Dreyfus would be willing to appear opposite Jerry Seinfeld in a commercial produced by Apple ??
Nah, actually they've just heard people tell them how much it sucks. Those of us who are computer savvy and have actually used it know that it had some problems before SP1 but it's solid now and works great for me...64 bit even.
Microsoft follows, again ...
Well, it's not surprising really ... the Seinfeld commercials were hardly captivating or innovative (kind of like Microsoft). Gates is NOT the guy to be in commericals, so that was mistake #1. Seinfeld is also NOT the guy you want since it's most obvious that he is "snickering" at the whole charade even though he goes through the paces of doing the commercial.
What Microsoft needs, first, is an operating system that people want (vs. people need).
Second, Microsoft needs to come out with something innovative that the general public will want in droves. Sorry, Office ain't that, and neither is the poorly named Zune music player (in the color drab brown especially).
Microsoft has become the IBM of the 1980s ... but even IBM commercials these days are better (and funnier) than Microsoft's.
Well, it's not surprising really ... the Seinfeld commercials were hardly captivating or innovative (kind of like Microsoft). Gates is NOT the guy to be in commericals, so that was mistake #1. Seinfeld is also NOT the guy you want since it's most obvious that he is "snickering" at the whole charade even though he goes through the paces of doing the commercial.
What Microsoft needs, first, is an operating system that people want (vs. people need).
Second, Microsoft needs to come out with something innovative that the general public will want in droves. Sorry, Office ain't that, and neither is the poorly named Zune music player (in the color drab brown especially).
Microsoft has become the IBM of the 1980s ... but even IBM commercials these days are better (and funnier) than Microsoft's.
I have to agree with this. I use to believe all the hype about how much Vista was nothing but a total piece of junk. But after putting together a new PC last month, and buying Vista 64 after some clever convincing from a friend, I've been nothing but impressed with how stable it runs. Don't get me wrong, I love my MBP, but for a home PC not work related (Designer/Flash Developer), I prefer my Vista box.
Now having run it for a month, I get rather irritated with the Mac PC ads that continue to pound away at the idea that Vista is nothing more then an unstable piece of crap of an OS. It's no wonder so many PC users have such animosity towards Apple and Mac users.
- iPhone ads: Show the product. All white background, no visual distraction. Walk you through some of the features, like Safari and GPS. All about the product. Tells you why it's a great product, and what the idea behind it is.
- MacBook Air: Show the product. Key feature: size. Make the point visually that it's very thin. That's it. Shows the idea behind the product, and no extra fuzz.
- iMac ads: Show the product. Design philosophy: remove the cable clutter. Spin the product around, make it clear that it's a neat unit. That's it. People get the point.
- iPod nano ads: Show the product. Key feature: lots of colours, new, thin form factor. Spin the product around, let them see it. Show the new colours. Done.
- iPod touch ads: Show the product. Key feature: games (app store). Show some examples. Nuff said.
Notice a pattern? Show the damn product! Make it all about the product![/QUOTE]
Um...notice the pattern? Those are all physical products. I haven't seen any "iphone 2.0 software upgrade" commercials or even any Leopard commercials. Microsoft's only physical product is the Zune...They "showed the damn product" with that and what did it get them? Windows is an OS. It is what you make of it. Other than just buying a slot of ad time to put the windows logo in the center of the screen for 30 seconds, what would you suggest they do? Show people working on a form letter or filling out their expenses in an excel spreadsheet? Playing Crysis? Clicking on the start button and opening a movie file or something? Maybe show someone opening a box and typing in a product activation key and waiting for the microsoft servers to send back the hash?
That's pretty exciting stuff, there.
No, Microsoft's main business is their OS. The less you notice it, the better it is working for them. Eye candy is not really important. Functional eye candy can be, but it isn't the sort of thing you advertise on TV. "Watch this, America: When you use detail view in windows explorer and there are photos in the folder, you can see the photos' aperture, shutter speed, focal length and dimensions without clicking on anything at all! Isn't that useful and exciting?" Not very sexy on TV. But honestly, something that Apple has dropped the ball on, big time. Intelligent, contextual details in list view would make Finder actually good for FINDING things without having to do a damned search and setting parameters every time. On second thought, maybe Microsoft should do an ad where they show how hard it is to find the aperture value of a group of photos in OS X, from a company with a freaking application called APERTURE.
Can you tell I'm bitter about this? I'm sick of Apple acting like list view isn't the most useful view. Column view is only useful when you've got tons and tons of folder nested inside each other. Apple has been discouraging users from doing all of this folder organizing for years now. With list view's column options being so pitifully limited, I have to think it is intentional. They want us all to use cover flow view and think to ourselves "my Mac isn't fast enough anymore." when really we just need a useful list view.
/unexpected rant
- MacBook Air: Show the product. Key feature: size. Make the point visually that it's very thin. That's it. Shows the idea behind the product, and no extra fuzz.
- iMac ads: Show the product. Design philosophy: remove the cable clutter. Spin the product around, make it clear that it's a neat unit. That's it. People get the point.
- iPod nano ads: Show the product. Key feature: lots of colours, new, thin form factor. Spin the product around, let them see it. Show the new colours. Done.
- iPod touch ads: Show the product. Key feature: games (app store). Show some examples. Nuff said.
Notice a pattern? Show the damn product! Make it all about the product![/QUOTE]
Um...notice the pattern? Those are all physical products. I haven't seen any "iphone 2.0 software upgrade" commercials or even any Leopard commercials. Microsoft's only physical product is the Zune...They "showed the damn product" with that and what did it get them? Windows is an OS. It is what you make of it. Other than just buying a slot of ad time to put the windows logo in the center of the screen for 30 seconds, what would you suggest they do? Show people working on a form letter or filling out their expenses in an excel spreadsheet? Playing Crysis? Clicking on the start button and opening a movie file or something? Maybe show someone opening a box and typing in a product activation key and waiting for the microsoft servers to send back the hash?
That's pretty exciting stuff, there.
No, Microsoft's main business is their OS. The less you notice it, the better it is working for them. Eye candy is not really important. Functional eye candy can be, but it isn't the sort of thing you advertise on TV. "Watch this, America: When you use detail view in windows explorer and there are photos in the folder, you can see the photos' aperture, shutter speed, focal length and dimensions without clicking on anything at all! Isn't that useful and exciting?" Not very sexy on TV. But honestly, something that Apple has dropped the ball on, big time. Intelligent, contextual details in list view would make Finder actually good for FINDING things without having to do a damned search and setting parameters every time. On second thought, maybe Microsoft should do an ad where they show how hard it is to find the aperture value of a group of photos in OS X, from a company with a freaking application called APERTURE.
Can you tell I'm bitter about this? I'm sick of Apple acting like list view isn't the most useful view. Column view is only useful when you've got tons and tons of folder nested inside each other. Apple has been discouraging users from doing all of this folder organizing for years now. With list view's column options being so pitifully limited, I have to think it is intentional. They want us all to use cover flow view and think to ourselves "my Mac isn't fast enough anymore." when really we just need a useful list view.
/unexpected rant
This is not a universal experience. I've been using Microsoft OS's since DOS 2.x in 1986. I've had a VistaBeast notebook for over a year now (Sony VGN SZ430; 2.o MHz C2D; 2gb ram; 320gb HD; DVD-RW; Vista Business 32bit) and even after SP1 Vista is still a POS. It is NOT a system issue, because using Sony approved drivers, I can "downgrade" to WinXP Pro and it is a very functional laptop. Within 5 days of reinstalling Vista Business from the manufacturer's restore disks (two weeks ago) the machine is again running like someone poured cement into the processor; Office 2007 breaks constantly; internet wireless connectivity is spotty; all things it does not do as a WinXP system.
Consultant
macrumors G5
Well that's because MS doesn't have a great product to show.
Ballmer can stand in for George's dad...
Zune Ballmer Ad. =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIk4qTKmKzE&feature=related
hagjohn
macrumors 68010
Vista doesn't suck. I've used it successfully since it came out with only a Nvidia driver issue. I've had more troubles with Leopard than I have with Vista.
hagjohn
macrumors 68010
"Pre-installed crappywares" are usually loaded by OEM's, not Microsoft and you can get Vista for $99.
No..... no, those of us who are computer-savvy also know it sucks. It's the ugliest, most confusing, poorly-designed OS ever. Including Linux.
Did you actually READ anything that's been said? The positive attitude towards Microsoft went up, and the negative went down - how much more effective does an ad need to be? Yes, the ads suck, but they did what they were designed to - get people talking about Microsoft, and in this case, positively.
BongoBanger
macrumors 68000
http://gizmodo.com/5051682/microsoft-ads-featuring-bill-gates-and-jerry-seinfeld-not-canceled
Looks like reports of Seinfeld's and Gates' partnership's death were exaggerated. 🙂
Looks like reports of Seinfeld's and Gates' partnership's death were exaggerated. 🙂
Bosox3
macrumors regular
ezekielrage_99
macrumors 68040
Can't believe there's a a multi-page thread on an in-depth analysis of Microsoft commercials.
WHO CARES. ITS A COMMERCIAL.
WHO CARES. ITS A COMMERCIAL.
Eidorian
macrumors Penryn
They would gain more customers if money went to improve their products instead. Now they just waste them for some stupid ads. Windows XP was the last OS I bought from them. Now I will keep reinstalling that if I move to other MAC computer.*
*Some business websites work ONLY on windows and I am forced to use windblows...
*Some business websites work ONLY on windows and I am forced to use windblows...
I've heard similar things said and it seems to be overwhelmingly on laptops. Some of those issues are probably a result of weak hardware but yours clearly isn't which leads me to believe that it's a driver thing. I think that there has been a lot of problems and laziness from third parties in getting their drivers together. For instance - almost 30% of Vista crashes have been caused by Nvidia drivers. It doesn't matter if the drivers are "Sony approved." I'm sure those Nvidia drivers were "Nvidia approved".
Wow...really? What's so confusing? I found it very easy to use straight outta the box with no prior Vista experience. I find the organization of things, navigation and searches to be quicker and easier than XP. The layout, as far as I can think of off the top of my head, is quite logical and commonsense. Remind me though if there's something I'm not thinking of that doesn't make sense. Is it confusing to you just because it's different than XP?
F*cking copycats
Microsquish was, is, and always will be a lame-ass copycat. I have no problem with someone copying something as long as they make it ten times better. Microsoft has never done that. Jobs said it best "I have no problem with Microsoft's success...they just don't have any taste."
Microsquish was, is, and always will be a lame-ass copycat. I have no problem with someone copying something as long as they make it ten times better. Microsoft has never done that. Jobs said it best "I have no problem with Microsoft's success...they just don't have any taste."
Eidorian
macrumors Penryn
I'm definitely going to agree here. Vista on a desktop isn't as unbareable as it is on laptops.