Nobody Will Buy a Warm and Fuzzy Bill Gates

[toadeater]

Nobody Will Buy a Warm and Fuzzy Bill Gates

The first Microsoft ad with Jerry Seinfeld is out, and it's baffling, even sad. The clip has Seinfeld finding Microsoft founder Bill Gates in a discount shoe store. A bit of silly (not funny) patter follows. The ad ends with the only mention of computers and a shake of Gates's butt. I'm not kidding. As MG Siegler notes at VentureBeat:

The tagline for this one: "The future. Delicious." I think this is more "yuck" than "yum."

It's hard to find anyone applauding the ad, except the occasional Microsoft employee. The bit is merely the first in a $300 million image campaign, explains a Microsoft exec (via Michael Arrington at TechCrunch:

The first phase of this campaign is designed to engage consumers and spark a new conversation about Windows?a conversation that will evolve as the campaign progresses but will always be marked by humor and humanity.

The ad's only purpose that I can see is to humanize Gates. He's done a great job already at improving his image with his charitable foundation. But he is not warm and fuzzy. Gates, like archrival Apple CEO Steve Jobs, is a driven, tough competitor who's known for a huge temper and for taking joy in the vanquishing of any company that gets in his way.

Apple, in its popular Mac vs. PC ads, has made no effort to rehab Jobs's image.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/daves-download...bill-gates.html

[wellofsouls]

well, I don't mind a "normal everyday guy" image of Bill Gates, he's already quite known for it anyway. but the ad so far doesn't make much sense IMHO.

[+Mystic MVC]

I saw this earlier today and had to have a little chuckle. I don't think this was supposed to be "groundbreaking" rather a first in a series of ads just to get people interested. That is the first step really, get people ask questions (even if they are dumb questions :p).

[NEVER85]

Still better than the stupid Mac ads.

[bryonhowley]

Still better than the stupid Mac ads.

+1 When the Mac ads first came out there were cute funny but now there are pathetic and sad and full of BS. Yet Microsoft did not put any company down to make there ad witch I think is a big plus for Microsoft.

[splicer707]

Still better than the stupid Mac ads.

This Microsoft Ad is a completely different type of Ad.

I find the Apple Ad's far more entertaining and 'fun'. They make me chuckle.

The Microsoft / Gates / Seinfeld Ad is best best described in emots: :blink: :huh: :s :ermm: :dontgetit: :geek:

[Reacon]

I think its cute. Didn't make much sense, but I guess the tactics in it are to get people's attention as if it were not just another commercial, and then flash the Microsoft logos at the end when everyone is looking. Risky but may work.

[+Tantawi Subscriber²]

Lame article (N), loved the ad (Y).

[MasterC]

Lame article (N), loved the ad (Y).

I think you have it backwards. Loved the article, lame ad.

[bobbytomorow]

Microsoft is forever out of touch with whats hip. Why pay so much to get a 50 year old comedian whose popularity peaked 10 years ago to market your products in an attempt to shake the dork image?

If they were smart they would have got someone like Sarah Silverman or Dave Chappelle. You may not like their humour but at least they are relevant and hip to the times.

[what]

Still better than the stupid Mac ads.

At least the Mac ads make points.

[Minimoose]

At least the Mac ads make points.

Even though they show a lot of them in an extremely biased way, I liked the mac ads at first, but they just got silly after a while.

[gigapixels Veteran]

I must say, the more I watch this ad the more I love it. It's a subtle situational comedy, but it makes me laugh out loud every time.

I hope they keep them in the same vein from here on out (Y)

[megamanXplosion]

I agree, Gigapixels.

[tiagosilva29]

They used his mugshot picture.

[MightyJordan]

Still better than the stupid Mac ads.

Agreed. Doesn't try to ridicule the competition, and there's actually a funny moment in the ad when Bill shows his member card! :D

[wst50]

They used his mugshot picture.

That floral shirt is epic fail.

[Rob2687]

The whole ad was about nothing.

[rpsgc]

It made me chuckle :rofl:

[bigmehdi]

I can only reach one conclusion from this ad:

Microsoft is DEVIL ! yes, it's striking :whistle: :rolleyes:

[ProiektHat]

The whole ad was about nothing.

Like it was Seinfeld on TV ...I think the ad is pretty clever above all.

[Cormier6083]

But what is this ad selling? Shoes? A new image for Microsoft? A new image for Vista?

I'm sorry, the Mac ads do attack Vista, but at least it makes people consider buying a Mac in 30 seconds.

[+Tantawi Subscriber²]

But what is this ad selling? Shoes? A new image for Microsoft? A new image for Vista?

I'm sorry, the Mac ads do attack Vista, but at least it makes people consider buying a Mac in 30 seconds.

And the rest lose the respect for Apple in the same 30 seconds.

[carmatic]

does anyone know anywhere which hosts this video as a downloadable file? like not streaming... im using a gsm connection (=56k speed) through some crappy assed wireless carrier and it seems to redirect me to this error page every megabyte or so, so i absolutely need to be able to resume downloads to be able to watch this ad....

[Quillz]

The ad doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but at least it's better than the tasteless Apple ads. Mac users and the whole "Mac image" is one of the reasons I'm moving back to PCs after using Macs for about a year and a half.