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What will be the funky move for the next advert?

My money is some body popping

or possibly doing the YMCA
 
You do not even have to watch it to know they (Micro$oft) is getting great press. Just here, there are over 400 posts, the commercials are causing people to talk about it. "Cute, funny, I don't get it, how does this relates to vista?, Gates has aged a lot, Gates still looks like a geek, Man did you see the haircut, how rude!"

Strong emotions and lots of people talking adds up to brand recognition and good will specially if funny.

It's not about Vista, it's about Microsoft. Windows 7 will be out by the end of the year. Microsoft wants to put vista as far behind them as they can. It was a total blunder.
 
See, there you go. Your hanging on Jobs' jock strap! I mean, your saying, "Steve wouldn't do that, because Steve is SOOO smart, and Bill Gates is a STUPID! NANANANA"

It's not Apple nor Microsoft that "make" these ads anyway

See, there you go: saying something obtuse and stupid.

Apple and Microsoft APPROVE these ads. They direct the creative focus of these ads. You live in a world where stuff just happens - billionaires have no connection to anything in their business and it just happens. POOF! An ad appears and they are helpless to do anything about it. It's al aimless luck.

Bill Gates, in your estimation and understanding, was haplessly forced to take place in, approve, and display this pile of steaming classic.

Ridiculous. Face it - Microsoft has an overall packaging and content problem which Apple has nailed down. Jobs is the guy that sets the tone, direction and mindset for his entire business by being involved, visionary and opinionated. It works, being pro-active and keen.
 
I work in, and have worked in, advertising for 20 years. Which, maybe that either means I know more or know less (from being too involved in the process) though still, I tune into the Superbowl for the ads, I read AdWeek, Ad Age, Creative Arts, and other publications that feature ads, usually the best of the best ads.

If this ad campaign gets featured in any of these publications for any other reason that the whole "WTF?!?" angle it will show that somebody paid off somebody. These ads, for the amount they've spent, means either M$ should fire their agency OR if they like it, proves all that is wrong with Microsuck goes beyond just poor management and crappy products. Wow, just ... wow.

As a Long Island boy myself, we'll be disowning Seinfeld now, someone else take him, we don't want him anymore and will be turning him away at the bridges. Sorry Jerry, you have been getting less and less funny over the years, we're going to have to let you go.

The fact that you refer to MS as "Microsuck" throws away your credibility and objectivity on this topic.
 
It's not about Vista, it's about Microsoft. Windows 7 will be out by the end of the year. Microsoft wants to put vista as far behind them as they can. It was a total blunder.

I never said it was about vista.
If you read my post you may notice I was quoting some of the comments people have. The fact that people are talking about the commercial, is what makes the commercial effective. What the commercials are about we will find out later, right now people are speculating which is also good for them since it causes more discussion which means M$ is in their mind.
 
I wish they made a tv show called "Jerry and Bill". I'd watch that :D

I love these commercials, but I don't understand what they're trying to do.
 
A vast improvement on the first, if only because it makes sense.

Whether it's decent advertising remains to be seen. Seems more like a bit of fun rather than anything with real bite or purpose.
 
Windows: It'll invite itself into your home, take over your lives, and make everything more complicated and inefficient. And when it's finally out the door, you'll all breath a sigh of relief. Meanwhile it's down the street, screwing with someone else's life.
 
Hidden messages

I think these ads are going to eventually work. There are a ton of hidden messages... like the whole stolen giraffe thing. That was a definite jab at Apple. Remember the whole stolen code thing going waaaayyy back to the origins of Microsoft windows.

Perhaps they are also admitting that their release of Windows Vista was premature and unorganized.

IMO, Microsoft is going to make a big move. They have been ousted by the way Apple does business... Apple focuses its time and energy on what the consumer wants and it looks like Microsoft is finally going to take that step. Perhaps they'll finally move away from the NT kernel (wouldn't that be a great move?).

The dinner scene was a total rip-off though.

Could all be good. Time will tell. The ad is funny.

-SweetSwirlingOnions
 
Lemme just say, I am NOT being an Apple Fan-Boy here, but these commercials just aren't funny... and I'm a fan of Jerry Seinfeld. There's a lot of bad acting in this as well... it pains me.
 
I think these ads are going to eventually work. There are a ton of hidden messages... like the whole stolen giraffe thing. That was a definite jab at Apple. Remember the whole stolen code thing going waaaayyy back to the origins of Microsoft windows.

Perhaps they are also admitting that their release of Windows Vista was premature and unorganized.

IMO, Microsoft is going to make a big move. They have been ousted by the way Apple does business... Apple focuses its time and energy on what the consumer wants and it looks like Microsoft is finally going to take that step. Perhaps they'll finally move away from the NT kernel (wouldn't that be a great move?).

The dinner scene was a total rip-off though.

Could all be good. Time will tell. The ad is funny.

-SweetSwirlingOnions

Was the dinner scene a rip off of "Better Off Dead" with John Cusack?
 
In the final analysis you have to ask what the purpose of these ads is, and what they are selling.

To me it sells a couple of dry, shabby, flabby middle-aged men.
Perhaps that is best, because their product isn't that great.

Through the ad they are less than helpful, creepy, and distasteful. In the final moments they just pack up and move on... great message for a computer company to broadcast - abandonment.

It's a very bad, long winded image for a company to display. So it has a desperate tone to it, as if it was a flailing effort to excuse some past product or behavior.
 
This is one of the most condescending ads I have ever seen. Period. I couldn't believe the ad could get any more stupid, and it did. They rag on a raft of dysfunctional family clichés, and they "connect" to the commoner about as well as Vista connects with most peripherals.

Having watched a smattering of Seinfeld episodes over the years, I can see where the interest factor comes from...no connection to reality (another "connection" faux pax?)...assinine pointless conversations...juxtaposition of irrelevant subjects...being "hip" just because you aren't normal...

The only "connection" to anything computer-wise is that they are wandering as aimlessly as Microsoft is wandering in the OS universe...just keep throwing ideas against the wall and hope something will stick (beyond the features they imitate from OS X that is). I've been a Microsoft user since DOS 2.x in 1986, all the way through Vista Ultimate 64bit, and 6 months with OS X on a simple MacBook is proof to me that the one thing Microsoft does not have is a road map.

Lesser Evets really hit the nail on the head...the walk down the street is the abandonment of Windows Vista..."Shane...Shane...don't come back!"

NO WINDOWS FOR YOU!
 
I really liked the ad for what it was.

A funny, lighthearted piece that is designed to make VERY SUBTLE jabs at the competition, and generally improve the company image, not any particular product.

In this, i think the series will be a success.
 
Woah... this is very trendy and avant-garde for a bunch of corporate old nerds like Microsoft. This is European style, 2-3 years ahead of time on the American market. Kinda makes Apple look like used car salesmen, with their low-brow "buy our stuff coz it's better than theirs" ads.
 
dinner rip-off

Was the dinner scene a rip off of "Better Off Dead" with John Cusack?

Remember the commercials about dinner being family time and they had the celebrities in it, like George Foreman, and Mr. T. I don't know, that's what it made me think of. They were all talking about stupid stuff. Seemed like a rip-off to me, but maybe not to others.

-SweetSwirlingOnions
 
It's not about Vista, it's about Microsoft. Windows 7 will be out by the end of the year. Microsoft wants to put vista as far behind them as they can. It was a total blunder.

from http://www.engadget.com:

Microsoft's been touting its "fastest annual revenue growth since 1999," which resulted in a princely $60.42 billion dollars in its last fiscal year, but the number that has us rapt? Vista licenses sold since launch about 18 months ago: 180m. Damn, not too shabby a clip -- especially considering that they moved 20m licenses moved in month one, 40m licenses moved after the first 100 days, and 140m licenses by last April. But at roughly 10m licenses per month, that means Vista's still a couple years out before it surpasses XP
 
Gad, how boring and unfunny

OMG, this is bad. The ad agency is laughing all the way to the bank.:eek:
 
Jobs = under a bucketload of stress (iPhone 3G bugs etc.)

Gates = retired.

Can't imagine why one would be more uptight ;)
Well... in all fairness, Jobs isn't well. You can't expect him to come across as a jovial and happy guy. Having said that... he's getting a little repetitive. I can't believe the way he still goes on about how thin Apple's products are. He does it yet again in the CNBC interview. This whole thinness thing has gone from cool design aspect to obsession to borderline insanity. If Jobs doesn't stop it with this thinness madness he's gonna end up like Howard Hughes with long beard and fingernails, wandering the streets aimlessly and mumbling to himself... "Thin! You've got a quarter? Thin! Thin! The way of the future... the way of the future... Thin! Q-U-A-R-A-N-T-I-N-E... Nano... THIN! Arf arf."
 
Condescending; from an inferiority complex

It's a failure image-wise. It puts these two on the level of Paris Hilton and
that other girl who did that TV show about this kind of thing (and probably where they got the idea for this). What is there to identify with, to understand? It creates the illusion of the 'great unwashed', that because you are wealthy and famous you live in and breathe rarefied air. One of the uglier traits of how some perceive what 'celebrity' means. That the rest of us should find entertainment that these 'great' people would stoop to spending time in a 'real' household? What on earth goes on in their homes that is so much different, or 'not real'? It's the 'Dynasty' myth, absurd as it is: that the wealthy and famous walk around in tuxedos and gowns and speak to each other only in theatrically dramatic context. Of course, you do see that behavior in some of the nouveau riche, lunatic models/rockstars who fall prey to their own marketing devices. And now it's happened to Microsoft, who for some reason have always seemed to have some kind of bizarre inferiority complex to Apple, of all companies. Why on earth would they care? It's Microsoft that reacts to what they perceive to be Apple's 'cool' factor. Personally, I don't see it. I do see how Microsoft makes an easy target of themselves. I just don't see why they feel that should be responding at all. It's like the dorky guy who insists that he's 'cool', but he's the one in the first place who has gone around saying who is 'cool'...does he say it because he sees himself as a dork? The people that he labels as 'cool' probably don't give it that much thought. I mean, Wozniak and Jobs were 'cool'? I guess Gates must've thought so at one time, but why? He falls prey to social parameters that really only exist in his own perceptions.
 
sheep

I agree with the other posters - you guys don't like the ad because it is cool to not like it...and not because it sucks.

MS should just stick with what they do best - mimic another commercial, roll it into the OS and crash all other advertising.

Maybe they could digitally add Gates into Seinfeld episodes and hide the mac in the background. THAT may be funny.
 
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