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Microsoft's First Seinfeld Ad Airs: Shoe Circus

That was absolutely terrible. Who else has a feeling we will soon see this mocked in a new "I'm a Mac" ad?
 
interpretation

Chopper9 said:
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.
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yeah i love the "shoe store = apple store and shoes = os x and the walrus killed bill gates and or paul and jerry is a jesus figure see, and the people are latino because......"

****. that is so stupid i can't stand it!

the problem is that if they are trying to create a new funny hip image, they failed anyway. Jerry isn't funny (was he ever?) the ad isn't funny or hip, they are both slightly past middle aged morons running the same stupid gags that we all tired of a decade ago.

you can smell the epic fail of this ad from another country.

is there more? oh i am sure there is! it is a multimillion dollar rebranding! but if the first ad goes all viral (looks like it is) and the message is "wow, those guys are total @$$hats", the later commercials will only get laughed at as well. this may just turn out to be an even bigger blunder than Vista itself.

......get me some popcorn.
 
That was really pretty bad IMHO.

One of the most "un-hip" companies trying to be hip and trendy, bad idea.

I think I just lost a little respect for Seinfeld... not because it's Microsoft (I'm not a Microsoft basher) just because it wasn't funny.
 
is it that bad, so you have to watch the whole thing just to work out what its actually about?

never seen seinfeld, if its as bad as that then i never want to.

fail
 
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.
 
brilliant! for what?

burgen said:
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.
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yeah. the black death generated a lot of buzz too, and just about as positive, but people didn't really want it, ya know?

come to think of it a lot of people are talking about Dubya too. but it isn't really about how great his image is or how we wanna buy one. despite the stupid saying, some publicity really is bad.
 
Slooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Either I am high or they move like molasses in the clip. In the final segment they look like two old geezers dragging themselves towards the sunset. It was awful to watch how slow they were moving...

... OK, so I'm not high.


---
And just for the secondary thread within the thread: Limbaugh is one of the biggest Apple/Mac fans out there, so there!
 
Mother of God. 30+ pages in two days!! I'd say the ad was successful, and even more so based on many of the comments here:

"pointless, rediculous, I don't get it, absurd, pretentious, huh?, etc...." Crispin need only read one page of this thread to know they hit it out of the ballpark.

Typical Seinfeld "it's about nothing". I'm still trying to figure out the whole story or angles of this ad campaign and look forward to more of the commercials and seeing how this all plays out. So far I have to say of Crispin: they're good.
 
adiosjefe said:
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.
Click to expand...

Completely worthless post.

This ad sucked. Bill Gates acting is terrible. Seinfeld is capable of being much, MUCH funnier. There is potential here, but these ads are completely random and do nothing to combat the Mac/PC ads....which was supposed to be the intent of this. Combined with the "Project Mojave", its strike 2. They have to be able to do better than this.

For the record, their Zune ads have been quite creative. They can do better.
 
I'm old enough to remember Seinfeld when he was young and funny.

If Microsoft's goal was to create chatter on a Mac blog then the number of replies to this thread has set a record and they have been successful.

However, to be effective with this kind of "ad about nothing" they may have to run a new episode for nine seasons, and that's what the $10 mil is buying.
 
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:

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.
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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
 
I sincerely hope Larry David had NOTHING to do with this steamer.

Seinfeld%20Oop.jpg
 
...

Hey.. wasn't the Seinfeld show supposed to be "a show about nothing"? ...

and yes, the shoe store was obviously an Apple store located inside a mall. The "Conquistador" was obviously a Mac Pro or an iPhone or something. Don't try to say that it wasn't.

The thing about edible computers was obviously the whole "have your cake and eat it too" thing.

They OBVIOUSLY think that they are very very clever with this ad campaign.. but the whole thing just makes you role your eyes over and over again! 😀
 
The thought that the Apple ads are now also "about nothing" has already crossed my mind after seeing this new MS Seinfeld ad. Damn, Crispin did some serious headbanging at their office for this.
 
Microsoft's NON-Innovative Plans

I agree that the ad says nothing about what is upcoming and I agree that the last thing I do NOT want to see and hope I can get outta my head is Bill's butt wiggle.

Here is what innovative things Microsoft is apparently planning:

1. Copy iLife

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/possibilities/photos.aspx?vindex=0

Sharing Your Photos, Create a Panoramic Photo (maybe iLife will add this), create a DVD movie, share photos on your own free (maybe apple will make this free?).

2. Copy MobilMe

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/possibilities/work-anywhere.aspx

3. Copy iLife again (with a few new features)

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/possibilities/tv-on-the-go.aspx

4. Add Gaming to the mix

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/possibilities/games.aspx

How do you do all of the above? Supposedly you use Vista, Windows Live, and Windows Mobile - I have no idea how great this works since I am just barely starting to use Vista.

I also agree that this is a good thing (although you couldn't tell it from their add unless edible computers are coming next 😉 because competition even if it is NOT innovation is a good thing.
 
barr08 said:
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
Click to expand...

This ad is getting attention for all the wrong reasons. The story at No. 1 on Digg is titled "First Bill Gates + Jerry Seinfeld Microsof Ad Makes No Sense", not exactly glowing praise.

The advert is crap. It makes little sense, has no relevance to anything and (at the end of the day) does NOTHING for MS or Vista's image. Especially considering that this was meant to counter the Mac ads that are ripping Vista to shreds.

In fact, one could say that the ads show the difference between the companies, and why Apple is far superior. The Apple add is relevant, stylish and makes a point. The MS add is long winded, awkward and doesn't even do what it's meant to.
 
Peace said:
This is a "nice" commercial but pales in comparison to Apple's..
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I don't know. I find Apple's commercial way too "hypey", too black and white, too much adressing the café latte wannabe segment, and too arrogant and upbeat, especially considering how OS X works (or don't), how good (or not) the QC is and so forth. It would suit Apple to get real and not just act arrogant, but actually deliver.

This MS-commercial? Well, it was a bit long (too long?), but it's obvious it's the first in a series. What does one do when beginning a story? You introduce the characters and set a scene.
 
Ha... Reminds me too of the ALT Steve... Balmer said "I just don't get it, what are they trying to say?" about I'm a Mac and I'm a PC ads...

If he 'Gets' this, then I'm glad I don't. 😀
 
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