That was absolutely terrible. Who else has a feeling we will soon see this mocked in a new "I'm a Mac" ad?
God... some (most) of you guys are so slow.
It's not a poke at anything.... its about Microsoft trying to create a new, funny, hip image of itself.
There's no subliminal stuff here... quit reading into it like the damn Kennedy assassination! It is what it is... a quirky, sorta funny commercial.
I though it was brilliant, look how much buzz it generated already. It gained a lot of attention and got a lot of people talking, mission accomplished.
There will be sequel and it will get better and more focused on Vista.
I guess most Mac users aren't very creative people since most of you claim to not "get" the add. Apparently Mac users need everything spelled out for them and for everything to make complete sense. As a Mac user and Windows user (at work) I thought the ad was entertaining.
Did anyone see the Levi's 501 ad last night? I thought it was pretty good. For you guys that need everything explained to you I'll try to explain it. See, Levi's 501's have a button fly instead of a zipper so if you leave the top button unbuttoned the rest of the buttons are still buttoned up so your pants won't fall down. It's a safety feature.
Really didn't get that. Never heard of the comedian either...
This was commercial 1.0, there will be other failures like commercial 95, 98 and me. Commercial XP will make the cut and will be loved by all, only to be pushed to the side by commercial vista ultimate edition - which everyone will hate.
I didn't read all 30-whatever pages of this thread, but from what I can tell (and guess), I'm going to say people around these parts do not like this ad. I apologize in advance in case any or all of this had been said already.
Personally, I have been watching it all day. I can't stop replaying the HQ version on microsoft.com. I consider myself to be a pretty big Apple fanboy, but this commercial hit me in a way that the Apple campaign with Justin Long and John Hodgman never did - I've always disliked that ad campaign, it's a little pretentious IMO.
I think the ad was not only a marketing success - look at all the buzz, its currently the top story on digg, etc. - but also genuinely funny. When Jerry asks about Bill's toe and Bill just says "Leather", and they sit nodding awkwardly at each other for a number of seconds, I nearly lost it in the middle of the office. I also loved when the hispanic family is looking through the glass and commenting about the Conquistador shoes in the same manner as Bill and Jerry. It kind of reminded me of Arrested Development. Bill does a great job acting as a character that is drastically different than his actual personality, and although I am not a huge fan of Jerry Seinfelds comedy, he plays a quirky and really likeable guy.
From an ordinary person's perspective, this commercial did a lot to soften the usually negative image of the company. These guys are just shopping for shoes and eating churros, just like anyone else. It makes the company seem more...human. That is a huge plus for Microsoft. I also liked how they didn't try to smear Apple like Apple does to Microsoft in their ads. It makes MS seem like the bigger man in a sense, and makes Apple seem bitter and overly-aggressive.
Finally, remember that this is the first in a series of related commercials with Bill and Jerry. This really sets the tone for the rest of the campaign, and I am sure that even though this primary commercial didn't talk about anything technical, the next ones will use the buzz from the first one and have tremendous success. As someone on digg said:
OK, that was a lot of typing for one commercial. Does anyone else here share my glowing opinion?
Edit: I totally forgot about his platinum card for the shoe store with his teenage mugshot as the picture. Awesome
This is a "nice" commercial but pales in comparison to Apple's..