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Microsoft Dropping Seinfeld, Directly Targeting 'Get a Mac' Ads

If they are changing their minds so rapidly about advertising, it makes me wonder if they have a concrete plan for anything.

I can't see how fighting fire with fire will help anything. Like a previous poster said, it must be about the products, the companies reputation will follow on from the products.
 
“Hello, I’m a PC,” the engineer says, echoing Mr. Hodgman’s recurring line, “and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”

...

You have got to be kidding me. This is even stupider than their commercials about nothing.

A commercial overly simplifying an idea? No way!
 
NAG said:
“Hello, I’m a PC,” the engineer says, echoing Mr. Hodgman’s recurring line, “and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”

...

You have got to be kidding me. This is even stupider than their commercials about nothing.
Click to expand...
the best part of this is that it's only going to make john hodgeman's character even more memorable.

why doesn't microsoft just commission someone who did a parody ad of the get a mac ads posted on youtube? this has been done already...
 
So that's how Microsoft starts their $300 million campaign!

hahha :) they're funny. That's what they should have done with VISTA, pulled it out right away after 2 months of its release.

If this is how microsoft starts its 300 million dollar campaign... I just don't know why people would still want to use windows.

The ad was boring, long, useless, and a bit draggy, oh, and did I mention, with so much flowery words and metaphors which complicated the ad....wait.. wait... does that sound like vista?
 
edrixc said:
hahha :) they're funny. That's what they should have done with VISTA, pulled it out right away after 2 months of its release.

If this is how microsoft starts its 300 million dollar campaign... I just don't know why people would still want to use windows.

The ad was boring, long, useless, and a bit draggy, oh, and did I mention, with so much flowery words and metaphors which complicated the ad....wait.. wait... does that sound like vista?
Click to expand...

Didn't you get the memo?

The campaign continues.
 
Saladinos said:
Well, they tried.

I don't get how hard these guys make it look to make a great ad. It's not that hard at all. People don't want abstract, and they don't want to have to think about it. They want you to tell them clearly what the idea behind the product is.

- 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! I saw a chewing gum advert the other day that had some guy at the photocopier. He fell through the floor, got dragged around different places, shrunk, and fell in to the copier. What on earth is that about? Why should I buy that product? To get high?

Even the iPhone advertising at the stores is beginning to get copied. Apple decided to have giant demo units, to show people the product. Now everyone's trying to do it, which is good, but the stuff on the screens is not what you get on the handset, which shows they missed the point entirely.
Click to expand...
What are you talking about?

First store demo models aren't new. Apple was just doing what every other phone in the store was doing. Out there to be used and tried. Apple just had their own kiosk. When I got a Treo in 2002 I was able to launch apps, try out apps and all that. Apple advertising didn't suddenly create demo models and now "everyone is copying them." Please.

With your concept of advertising there would be no Coca Cola polar bears. What does the Cadbury bunny have to do with candy? The 1984 ad barely shows the product. I noticed you didn't mention the iPod ads, if you take away the word of mouth from user experience and all the iPod had was those white silhouette adverts I'd probably have an Archos media player. And the think different ads, there isn't even a computer in those. Geez.

I mean really, Windows adverts have to show Windows? If you don't know what Windows is or what it looks like, you haven't been in an office or an electronics retailer in the past decade.

MS is probably going to copy HP's computer adverts with the hands and the graphics and celebrities. My two cents.
 
They were a good way to soften MS image...but at the end of the day it won't matter. Apple's marketing plan is underpinned by a great product. MS still has real issues with its product. So while they may get more users, many of those users will not be happy and thus more negative word of mouth that will undo any gains from the ads.
 
There's a print campaign too...


Windows_Print_Manifesto_540x496.jpg


http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10045384-56.html?tag=mncol
 
If Microsoft air something REMOTELY similar to the I am a Mac Adds, they will shoot themselves in the foot.

They need to CONVINCE the public that Vista is the next step and the way to go in this modern world and they are the "choice", but I guess they need more that 300 million and a bunch of Bozzos to make a good add. campaign, its pathetic that they still dont know how to properly sell a product that dominates the market after 25 years.

Hey Bill I can charge you 100 million and make a really good campaign.
 
I for one really liked the Microsoft ads with Seinfeld/Gates... I thought they were quirky and very funny. I'm disappointed to hear there won't be any new ones.
 
yeah but...

Saladinos said:
Well, they tried.

I don't get how hard these guys make it look to make a great ad. It's not that hard at all. People don't want abstract, and they don't want to have to think about it. They want you to tell them clearly what the idea behind the product is.

- iPhone ads: Show the product. All white background, no visual distraction.
Click to expand...

But it all starts with having a desirable product...MS haven't managed that for a while!
 
They tried the high road, now comes the low road... they really should stick to the middle of the road, that's what they do best.
 
The best irony of the whole episode might be that the ad agency techs were using a Mac Pro & Final Cut pro to make the Microsoft ad.
 
The funny thing is if you go and watch every episode of Jerry's show...he's always got the newest and update to Macintosh on his desk by the window in his apartment. He's admitted to using Macs. He just wants money, which hey...can't blame him.
 
What MS should do is have two phones.
One running Windows Mobile 6.1 and the 3G iPhone.

I'm a phone running Windows Mobile and I'm a 3G iPhone and I can't see your screen because I can't run Flash or Java.

Anyone here look at the latest offering of Windows Mobile.

Apple, get with the game. You've got a great browser but in the Mobile Market MS is giving the end users what they want. By the way, copy and paste are there as well.

Apple, I'm losing faith quickly.
 
I cannot understand these films.

I have just downloaded the 2 films from YouTube and could not understand anything. No mention of computers or operating systems. The first one seemed to be about shoes, and the second one seemed to be about Bill Gates' lack of table manners.

As a Scotsman who lives in Bulgaria, I guess I'm totally out of the loop: but the complete vagueness of those ads would turn me off Windows from the word 'GO'.
 
NAG said:
“Hello, I’m a PC,” the engineer says, echoing Mr. Hodgman’s recurring line, “and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”

...

You have got to be kidding me. This is even stupider than their commercials about nothing.

A commercial overly simplifying an idea? No way!
Click to expand...

How original of MS? I'm a PeeCee................

The spot then goes on to have other people say that, they too are PCs, including an Obama blogger, a McCain broadcaster, [make sure we cover all bases here] actress Eva Longoria, a school teacher, and a fish salesman, among others. (My favorite is a guy standing near cows saying "I turn No. 2 into energy.")

Being that Eva Longoria, as well as Jerry Seinfeld, both happen to be bona fide Mac users, MS seems to be having a difficulty recruiting celebrities who are not.

"I turn Vista into energy," says the farmer...... great reference, btw.
 
BRLawyer said:
What a sad attempt...it almost made me cry to see the horizon of "Windows-powered" choices...NOT.

Or as Gandhi said once:

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."

Actually you can say that Apple has ALREADY WON...but the MS corpse keeps on fighting, of course... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

This site sometimes... jeez. Until apple sells as many machines as microsoft has OS seats they haven't won.

The VAST majority of windows users aren't complaining. They are busy using windows. The ones that are complaining are known as a "vocal minority." People who aren't part of that "vocal minority" aren't swayed by their complaints because the "vocal minority" is seen as "geeks and nerds" and regular people don't care what "geeks and nerds" have to say.

Besides vista bashing is about as passe as Bush bashing nowadays. I tune out when I see someone bashing either (and I'm a die hard mac user and democrat)
 
sapota said:
If Microsoft marketed Ipods. Old one...but very relevant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUXnJraKM3k
Click to expand...

Brilliant ad for illustrating the process of MS marketing.

GutBomb said:
This site sometimes... jeez. Until apple sells as many machines as microsoft has OS seats they haven't won.
Click to expand...

If only 80% of those MS seats had been filled by people who actually chose Windows as a platform, instead of having it served to them at their places of employment, perhaps MS would have little to be concerned about. Apple's share of the market, which is based entirely on consumers going out of their way to make a choice, seems to be growing at a faster rate than MS would like to see. This is evident when regarding the enormous success of the Apple retail stores, which has only been fueled further by Vista's luke-cold reception. MS now has the task of convincing "the ordinary masses" that the Windows experience is not as bad as it seems - this reeks of damage control, at the very least.
 
This is failure of absolutely spectacular proportions.

They pay Seinfeld ten million, and they only get two lousy ads out of him? Neither of which mentions the product?

Wow. This will go down in history as one of the most expensive ad failures of all time.
 
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