New Family - Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates

[BajiRav]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBWPf1BWtkw

I must admit, I am kind of liking this now :D

from All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com by Mary Jo FoleyIf you liked the first Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ad for Microsoft, you?ll probably love the second. If you didn?t, there?s hope: A more Windows-centric one will air in a matter of days, according to Microsoft officials.

On September 11, ad No. 2 in the new Microsoft series aired on ?Big Brother? reality show on CBS. (Microsoft provided me with access to the ad early, under embargo, so I had a chance to see it before it debuted on prime-time TV.)

The good news about the second ad designed for Microsoft by agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky: It?s no less esoteric than the first ? but at least we now know the start of Microsoft?s campaign to rebrand and reposition Windows among consumers is ?about nothing.? So it doesn?t matter that there are no hidden clues or subliminal anti-Apple messages in the new, 90-second spot. You get to see Seinfeld clipping his toenails. Enough said.

The bad news about the ad: Like the first Seinfeld-Gates ad, which aired a week ago, the latest Microsoft consumer-focused ad does little, if anything, to endear Microsoft or Windows to consumers.

?Very shortly, we will move into another phase of the campaign that will be about Windows,? a Microsoft spokesman told me this evening. And ?Windows,? in this case, means desktop, laptop and mobile. ?We?re talking days,? not longer, the spokesman said.

Microsoft paid somewhere shy of $300 million to create a new marketing/ad campaign aimed at improving the company?s brand among consumers. Part of that money went for TV ads, and part went toward hiring 150-plus ?Windows gurus? to help retail customers better understand how Windows-branded products should and could work.

Microsoft is expected to use the new ad campaign to help it cement the message that Windows is ?without walls.? Exactly what that means and what form the messaging will take is still unknown. But Microsoft is trying to emphasize that Windows Vista, Windows Mobile and Windows Live are all part of the same family?.

Microsoft?s public line is that the new consumer ad campaign is doing what the company intended: Getting people talking (even if negatively) about Microsoft and Windows. Officials are touting that the first ad saw more than 3 million views on YouTube. I?m not quite so sure than any publicity is good publicity, in this case.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

They better not be putting 4.5 minute commercials into my Star Trek/Adult Swim programming!!!

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

These are getting to be as annoying as the GEICO Caveman ads.

[Ci7]

funny ;P

[Marshalus Veteran]

https://www.neowin.net/news/main/08/09/12/a...ft-hits-the-web

[Cormier6083]

https://www.neowin.net/news/main/08/09/12/a...ft-hits-the-web

Put it was funny, at some parts. Hopefully ads that actually sell a product will appear.

Or else this might be a cool 300mil down the drain.

[Express]

I only laughed at the firewall joke.

Rest was too boring.

[Hurmoth]

Seriously? This is what Microsoft is coming up with.

[Tuffgong4]

these are outstanding, and I don't even have a "thing" for microsoft!!

[bloodrain]

that was... odd...

[C++]

Haha that's great...

[obiwong]

hahaha

Bill's robot sold me

[ViperAFK]

I honestly thought it was funny, in an odd sorta way. People just love to hate on ms every chance they get.

[Admodieus]

That one actually had some funny parts, unlike the first one. The firewall and "secret" computer game were two of my favorites :)

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

Seriously? This is what Microsoft is coming up with.

Apple's sales will increase with every viewing. :)

[bobbytomorow]

Borrrrriiiiinngggg

[BajiRav]

Seriously? This is what Microsoft is coming up with.

If you expect them to imitate apple and start badmouthing competition, I think you will be disappointed. I agree that this doesn't "sell" Vista but the campaign is not about Vista. It is about Windows (and Microsoft?) in general. I was left WTF after the first one but this makes me feel interested again.

And to me this is certainly better than recent crap coming out here

[peterish]

It's actually pretty watchable. More so than the mac ads anyway.

[KeR]

I thought it was charming, and somewhat funny :D

[WhoTheF]

Improvement from the first one, but too long.

[splicer707]

The only thing even slightly entertaining in those Ad's is Bill Gates doing the 'robot'.

Please, Dear God, don't let these Ad's come to Australia.

[Green_Eye]

I liked this one a lot more then the first but hell if that came on during a tv show id be inclined to kick them both in the face!

[Pupik]

So far, I enjoyed both of the commercials.

And both, made me look differently at Microsoft (as in a more warm company).

[ProiektHat]

Yes, too long but quite funny...

I am enjoying this approach...

[+Mystic MVC]

"I love a condiment with booze in it." :p

I really think they are laying the groundwork for a huge Windows 7 campaign which is a great idea if you ask me.