In fact the technical term for this is a “reeker!”
As we should all know by now, Microsoft Corp. has tapped Jerry Seinfeld to anchor an advertising campaign for the company in hopes of counteracting the insulting “Mac vs. PC” ads, featuring comic John Hodgman (as PC) and actor Justin Long (Mac).
Based on Microsoft’s history in advertising, let me start with the logical premise that this advertising campaign will stink. Try to think of a memorable advertisement by this company, and you can’t do it.
So the question becomes not whether the campaign will stink, but how bad.I have come up with three possibilities. The kindest one would be “just stinks.” After that comes “stinks to high heaven,” followed by the frightful “What are they thinking!?
Seinfeld got a reported $10 million for this fine effort.
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Hey, the ad got you talking and blogging about it.
What’s the saying about “there’s no bad PR”?
I can just see the Microosft exec in the meetings. 100 people must have seen and approved these ads. They all thought it was fantastic enough to spen almost 1/3 BILLION dollars on. Can you see the boardroom now?
Guy #1 – “Wow! That was fantastic…let’s run with it!”
Guy #2 – “I couldn’t agree more. As an Ad agency you’ve knocked our socks off – kudos!”
Guy #3 – “This investment will bring in 4 times what it cost. Absolutely brilliant guys!”
I’m assuming the same great team said the same things about Vista when it was launched – so what do you expect when the same people keep doing the same things wrong expecting different results?
As a stockholder – I’m ashamed. What a waste of money. I’m sure glad Vista cost so much so they could waste MY money on vauge, non-product related ads rather than building great products with it and just having them sell themselves. Just like Mojave – got to trick people into buying our products.
I wonder if Bill Gates likes everyone talking about his cake-like buttocks. I’ll bet he’s wishing these ads were different already. I can’t imaging he’s proud. Eh, what does he care, right? He’s laughing all the way to the bank too.
I don’t think I’ll ever eat a churro again. A bit humorous and it will indeed get people talking – just not sure that acting like a looney company involved with circuses, shoes, and moist cake underwear is exactly what Microsoft wants people to be associating with their brand right now. I just want to get my work done, e-mail my friends, and play a few games. I don’t want to have to associate with middle-aged men wearing their shoes in the shower and understanding underwear code-speak to do so.
The next commercial better be a barn-burner – I mean, this ad agency better be friggin geniuses with where this is going and soon or this is going to flop – big time. I’ll have to wait until the next commercial, but wow – not good. Not good at all.
Just as an aside, until I pointed out that Jerry Seinfeld was with Bill Gates of MicroSoft, my wife though that this was a commercial for The Shoe Circus (and she saw this commercial at least a half dozen times!). Had me hurting on the floor.
I got the point of the commercial…the shoe was supposed to represent Vista.
It’s tight = Vista pushes your hardware to the brink of exhaustion (read that: runs slowly)
You have to wear them in the shower = Vista is different. You have to use it differently. (read that: a pain in the butt to use)
It takes some time for it to stretch out = Vista has updates that have been released for it (read that: still slow and buggy even though SP1 has been released)
You’re a ten = A PC user wants an OS that runs like a perfect 10 (read that: XP works perfectly fine, but Vista doesn’t)
At the end of the commercial, where Seinfeld asks Gates about “something delicious” means Windows 7.
This is just a bad commercial. I got the symbolism because I am a technician. Not everyone is a tech – most people know how to turn a computer on and type something into Word or send E-Mails. To the average person, using a computer is like driving a car. They are not sure exactly why it works, but it does.
I think this commercial would leave the average computer user scratching his or her head and asking why Microsoft is selling shoes. When compared to something smart, like say the Mac vs PC ads, this commercial leaves much to be desired.
I really like the Seinfeld ads. I think they are saturated with deep and profound meaning.