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Microsoft's First Seinfeld Ad Airs: Shoe Circus

holly crap! is it something to do with freaking vista or just shoe AD? why AD makes me confused? totally wrong. it will never make public impression. never.... I think that the whole MS ad is really sucks.
 
When I first saw the commercial, I thought, wow...that was pointless. Then I came here and it all clicked...the ad is a success. Over 300 posts...they definitely got people to talk about microsoft, myself included. Dammit!
 
MacRumors said:
The goal of the ads are to revamp Microsoft's image.
Click to expand...

Which is why I'm so confused as to why they used a has-been in their campaign.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved Seinfeld back in the 90's, and I have every season on DVD. But Jerry Seinfeld is very much old news.

Typical Microsoft. They try to be "hip and cool", but fail miserably.
 
While I'm not a fan of Seinfeld, I will say I laughed pretty hard at this commercial. It was just so random!

Helluva lot funnier than the "I'm a Mac" "I'm a PC" ads.
 
macjiro said:
So, Seinfeld received 10mil for the commercials for MS.
I was just thinking out there...., when you get alot of money like that, what bank or place do you deposit such a large amount? BoA/Wells Fargo, etc only insure 100K.
Click to expand...

Hmm...Chemical Bank?

ivan123 said:
Seinfeld i think is meant to be the "Mac Guy" and Bill the "PC Guy" in microsofts version of the PC/Mac Guy ads Seinfeld is the idiot and Bill is the practical smart guy eg. i cant remember it word for word but - "Have you tried taking a shower in your clothes, you can just get in take a shower then go off to work without having to put your clothes back on", PC Guy says "umm??, No" The Mac guy(Seinfeld) in the ad thinks he's smart because it's simple but he's practically stupid, i mean come on if you take a shower your clothes will get wet and you'll look like an idiot. Also Seinfled "Is that your foot", Bill "No it's leather" - Bill is being a smart ass

In this ad:
Mac Guy - Simple Minded, Idiotic, looks up to the PC Guy as a hero/god
PC Guy - Highly Intelligent, Practically Minded
Click to expand...

Hmm...you must work for CP+B, because this sounds like something that was crystal clear in a brainstorming session but didn't quite translate to the viewing public.
 
Anyone else want to take a risk on Sony Vaio's fire hazard videos than this? I think they'd prove more useful. Seinfeld looks old and broken down. I know this no longer 1998, but, dang... this really is no longer 1998! :(

Basically, enjoy your "Seinfeld" reruns for an infinite loop, because those were the glory days and they're gone now.
 
evilgEEk said:
Which is why I'm so confused as to why they used a has-been in their campaign.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved Seinfeld back in the 90's, and I have every season on DVD. But Jerry Seinfeld is very much old news.

Typical Microsoft. They try to be "hip and cool", but fail miserably.
Click to expand...

if Seinfeld = very much old news, and, Seinfeld = Mac Guy
then, Mac guy = very much old news
 
Never under-estimate the competition.

This is a build up campaign. Everyone talking about it - so it's working.

You maybe saying "WTF" but you know who and know why.

Middle aged guys sell single glazing and shoes ...... reminds me of Married with Children - except that was funny.
 
I can only imagine what the average viewer on TV is going to think.
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I think the ad IS targeted at the average TV viewer and not for a typical member of this forum. We tend to over think these things.

A decade or so back, there used to be perfume ads which were quite wacky. Does anyone remember those? I do not know how successful those were. Personally, I found them annoying.
 
So.... MSFT is leaving the software business to sell shoes? What exactly were they smoking?

Story arcs belong in TV series, not advertisements. An effective ad should be somewhat relevant to the product, memorable and work on it's own without have to see previous "episodes".

Whomever came up with that idea for the ad should be fired.
 
scottintosh said:
I thought it was decent, but it doesn't say anything about Vista. If I just randomly saw that on TV, I think that I would be confused by it.
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oh my gawd. they totally look and sound like idiots. if this is what Microsoft thinks is going to win folks over, forget it.

clearly they are trying to parody the whole 'get a mac' ad, but they just make themselves look stupid.

now excuse me for a moment, I need to clean up the soda I snorked onto my keyboard (thank the gods for iskin)
 
ivan123 said:
if Seinfeld = very much old news, and, Seinfeld = Mac Guy
then, Mac guy = very much old news
Click to expand...

I see where you're going with that, but I don't see Seinfeld as being the "Mac Guy".

Who knows, maybe that was the intent, but if so I would say they failed there too. Heh.

I felt they were trying too hard to be random. It felt forced and awkward.

Now Seinfeld's American Express ads with an animated Superman. Those were classic. :D
 
Almost everyone here has gotten it wrong. They keep thinking that the ad should be trying to sell a product. No. That is not it's purpose. Microsoft is a near monopoly. Does your local electric utility need to sell their product? No. You are going to buy it anyway even if you hate them. Microsoft is wit these ads trying to get it's own customers to hate Microsoft just a little less

Remember Bill Gates got rich by making one observation: There are a lot more people who know nothing about computers then people who do. Let's sell to the larger group. He's smart. He knows you do not appeal to the typical computer buyer with logic and specifications.
 
I don't understand inglish too much

My English is not good. I'm living in India.

Does this advertisement meant. That Micrsoft will be selling shoes?
What style do they have? :D

Very good, Will they build shoe factory in Delhi. GOOD more money for me and my family. :D

I'm growin :apple:s already in my garden, no need to go to shop ;)
 
Don't judge the chess match by where someone moves their pawn.

This is the perfect first step in your "association of brand with a particular tone".

What do we expect from M$? An ad that portrays them as we know them to be: not fun, focused only on their cheesy declarations of "we're great".

This ad, as the first shot in an opening salvo, was the OPPOSITE of what we expected. Not confrontational to Apple or Linux, not spewing "where do you want to go today"; in short, not behaving as we know they are.

While the ad really didn't go anywhere, it was only passively confusing, in a relaxing, random Seinfeldian kind of way. Intentionally just non-MS. It wasn't confusing in a "cleaning out your Windows registry" clutter way.

Those that say "WTF, I'm confused" aren't getting it - this is not an attempt to kill by throwing rocks over a wall, this is the killer smiling and "aw-shucks"-ing his way into your living room. Attacking Apple directly, for example, would only get them destroyed in public opinion.

Showing Bill Gates old geeky picture (on the ID) and engaging in the "casual banter" is designed to, over many, many ads, shift people's perception from "MS are predatory makers of garbage" to "hey, MS are just casual geeky guys trying to make the world a better place".

I'm not falling for it, but this is probably one of the ways I would run this campaign, if I sold my soul (or for $10 mil - :-D)
 
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