Reply to comment

It's here! It's here! The ultra-funny Seinfeld x Gates comedy ad!

Only thing is... People aren't laughing much. At least not in the way MS hoped.

Not that there's anything wrong with it...

Let's be fair and address some misguided criticisms of the ad. There's a huge bleating of "I don't see what it's about!", along with "It doesn't say anything about the products!" and "They paid Seinfeld $10 million for that?". All those seem to be intentionally missing the obvious: this is the first in what's going to be a line of commercials. And you can be certain that later installments will hawk MS products (like an ad should). Similarly, I think we can assume that Seinfeld's reported $10 million fee covers the line of commercials (and possibly connected print ads etc.), not just that single 90-second spot.

So the first ad may have no goal beyond opening the campaign, grabbing people's attention, and getting them talking. Really, there's nothing wrong with that. (And if you ask me, the jokes are good for a lazy smile or two as well. Jerry just makes me laugh that way; can't help it. He just needs to say "What's up with that?", and I laugh.)

But as it did with Vista, MS has succeeded in getting people talking – in a bad way. Early indications are that viewers find the commercial more confusing or annoying than funny. Take a look:

Seinfeld-Windows TV commercial premieres to a baffled audience

Seinfeld's First Microsoft Commercial: Not Funny
"Seinfeld's first commercial starring Bill Gates is out -- shot in a mall shoe store -- and it's not going to help Microsoft look any cooler:"

Microsoft Seinfeld Ad Not Exactly a Hit
"...it's just not funny... It's a matter of just plain annoying advertising."

Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Gates star in nonsensical new ad campaign
"The whole production says "quirky," not slick or cool, but then Windows Vista is full of maddening quirks."

Is Microsoft's Seinfeld spot the worst TV ad ever?
"... it's one of the worst, most pointless ads in history. If this is Microsoft's response to the "I'm a Mac" ads, it should fold up its tent and tell the world to switch to Apple... The ad isn't funny, has absolutely no point, and is about as boring a minute and a half as you'll ever spend...  If there's ever been a worse technology ad, I haven't seen it."

Microsoft begins big ad push
"Absolutely pathetic" and "really bad" were some of the phrases I saw on Twitter."

Seinfeld & Gates: Was this ad supposed to be funny?
"Maybe I’m off base here but I think if Microsoft is trying to engage people with this ad, it has failed miserably."

""If Crispin Porter + Bogusky [Microsoft's advertising agency] and Microsoft were going for the oddly creepy or the offputtingly nonsensical, then they've succeeded brilliantly"
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&...

Conversation?

Well, it's only the first in a line, so they've got plenty of chances to move beyond this awkward first step. (Keep an eye out for what the wags are calling the commercial's SP1.) Still, is there much hope for the pairing of a comedian who long moved out of the limelight and a software exec who's also stepped aside? 

MS itself says the ad "is designed to engage consumers and spark a new conversation about Windows". Hmm, that word "conversation" stands out; isn't it a word that Authority drags out when there's trouble? "Son, we need to have a conversation about your grades." "Jim, I want to have a conversation about your work performance."

It seems to me that consumers have been using the word in that way for a while now: "Microsoft, we need to have a conversation about Vista".

Unfortunately, the conversation MS wants to have is its Mojave Experiment monologue: "See? When we hold your hand for 10-minutes of Vista usage in carefully-controlled circumstances, it doesn't blow up on you, right? So the product's great, and you were all wrong!"

Stand-up comics have done to death the "women can't talk to men" bit. The more topical, sad joke is how MS insists on speaking an entirely different language from its suffering customers.