Diana Wolf
What’s the Deal With Jerry Seinfeld’s Microsoft Ad?
by Diana Wolf - September 9, 2008 - 12:34 PM

gates-seinfeld.jpgThe ad world is all abuzz about the new Microsoft Windows commercial featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. It’s a bit hokey, rather long, and, well, it just doesn’t make any sense. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Ad Age calls it “a classic Crispin Porter oddity”—Crispin Porter + Bogusky is the ad agency that created the commercial, and is known for its creativity and its ability to resurrect brands with such ads as the King character for Burger King, embracing the “tiny” for Mini Cooper, and the “Truth” anti-smoking campaign.

Microsoft had to bring out the big guns, as over the past two years it has been single-handedly rebranded by Apple in their “Mac vs. PC” ads. Says Rob Enderle, an advisory analyst for tech companies, in the profile on Fast Company, “It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a major national campaign that disparages a competitor, and the competitor just sits back and takes it.”

Well Microsoft isn’t taking it any longer. But is the Seinfeld campaign working? Well, you may not think so after watching the commercial. But if you didn’t understand, rest assured—nobody did. It’s a “teaser ad,” the first commercial in a larger campaign, “designed mainly to attract attention, and [will be] followed by other ads that explain the true message of the marketing effort.”

Apparently, Microsoft may reinvent cool in the future commercials. Says Andrew Keller, Executive Creative Director at CP+B, about the ads to come, “To try to be cool is to not be cool. To chase cool, you’re chasing something that already exists, which means you’re always going to be on the wrong side of it, you’ll always be following.” Got it?

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Comments (30)

  1. Good teaser ad I suppose but the larger campaign has quite a bit of ground to make up to compete with the mac vs. PC campaign. I find it comical that Bill Gates is in the ultra cheap shoe store but the ‘computers made of cake’ joke just isn’t funny. I expect the future jokes from Seinfeld will get much better though.

    posted by J on 9-9-2008 at 12:59 pm

  2. Good teaser ad but the campaign has a ways to go to compete with the mac vs. PC commercials. I like that Gates is in the ultra cheap shoe store but the ‘computers made of cake’ joke just is not funny. I am a big Seinfeld fan and hope for a better effort in the future.

    posted by J on 9-9-2008 at 1:03 pm

  3. I think the ad is pretty straightforward. Bill Gates is cheap, he buys cheap shoes. He needs a computer that serves another purpose. Obviously Microsoft is making a cheap edible computer for Bill Gates.

    posted by Witty Nickname on 9-9-2008 at 1:08 pm

  4. I love the ad. I’m a huge Seinfeld fan, so to see him as part of a commercial as random as this one is great.

    It’s good to know that Microsoft is working on a new campaign. I always found those PC vs. MAC ads completely obnoxious, and I ended up hating MACS as a result.

    posted by Ashley on 9-9-2008 at 1:33 pm

  5. I still like Seinfeld. I’m still not convinced to move to Windows. I will never look at Bill Gates the same way again.

    posted by Stuart on 9-9-2008 at 1:48 pm

  6. Ugh. I hate this ad. I watched it once in confusion and it kept going on and on…

    The difference between this and the Mac vs. PC ads is that I turn the volume up when Mac vs. PC comes on and turn the TV off when this comes on. Not surprising–I hate the rebranded Burger King ads as well (television and radio), and find most of them to be less-than-subtle about their sexism. I seem to be the only one, though.

    posted by JenPo on 9-9-2008 at 2:01 pm

  7. This ad was no suprise to me. It’s not funny. But then again, Seinfeld isn’t funny. The man has NEVER been funny to me, not in the least.

    I’ve decided that his “humor” is a great way to divide up the nation. There are those of us who can’t stand the man, and those who think he’s hilarious. I avoid the latter like the plague

    Recaptch: Edmond Amendment

    posted by Alice on 9-9-2008 at 2:08 pm

  8. Amen Alice. I thought I was the only one who didn’t think Seinfeld was funny. I couldn’t stand to watch even a couple of minutes of the program – what a bunch of whiners.

    Guess I’ll have to change channels when the commercial comes on, I imagine it will be every bit as irritating.

    posted by Lyn on 9-9-2008 at 2:14 pm

  9. I love Seinfeld and love the ad.

    But i’m still a Mac fan and user.

    posted by WarTiger on 9-9-2008 at 2:35 pm

  10. “adjust your shorts” just wrong wrong wrong…ick.

    JenPo what do you think of the cingular/at&t ads? Those just irk me.

    reCAPTCHA unpleasant is

    posted by Julia on 9-9-2008 at 2:39 pm

  11. I was confused by the ad, but I was also intrigued. It didn’t make sense for Bill Gates to be buying crappy shoes. Was I supposed to think that the shoes were analogous to Microsoft products? So he’s cheap, okay – but he’s getting cheaply made shoes. He’s at a cut-rate shoe store. It would have made more sense if he was in a store that stressed value (return on investment) instead of just frugality. Why would MS want to be seen as low quality?

    posted by Dan on 9-9-2008 at 2:49 pm

  12. Dan: I agree!

    Julia: I think that At&t is an evil, soulless monopolizing vacuum of a company and refuse to have anything to do with it, including paying attention to the commercials. Well, except for the “wasting minutes” commercials. Those are clever.

    posted by JenPo on 9-9-2008 at 3:02 pm

  13. I always interpreted the shorts-adjusting sequence at the end of the clip as Bill Gates telling the viewing audience and, by extension, the world, to “Kiss my ass.”

    The rest of the ad seems to be consistent with the PC/Windows message: they’re cheap, they’re affordable, they’re probably unstylish because PC users don’t really care about fancy designer crap, they’re kind of socially awkward, they’re household names everywhere in the world, and some PC users are richer than God.

    posted by Paul on 9-9-2008 at 3:16 pm

  14. I think the commercial served it purpose. Whether it was a positive or negative reaction, it got people talking and thinking about Microsoft. Even just saying “What the hell was that?” means they got our attention.

    As for people analyzing the meaning of the commercial, I think they’re trying to read too deeply into something that isn’t there. Seinfeld’s show was called the show about nothing. I think it’s safe to say this commercial was the same.

    posted by Jason! on 9-9-2008 at 3:37 pm

  15. Awful commercial!
    The only mildly amusing thing in it is that they had Bill Gates’ mugshot as the photo on his card.

    And I loathe the Burger King commercials too! Some companies commercials are bad enough to call for a boycott, IMO: Carls Jr. & Quizno’s (does anyone remember the “sponge monkeys”? – ugh!)

    On the other hand, I actually like the Mac (Steve Jobs) VS PC (Bill Gates) ads.

    posted by Nerak on 9-9-2008 at 3:38 pm

  16. I think that people looking for hidden meaning and parallels in the add are over thinking things. It’s a teaser, just like this article says. When Bill Gates adjusts his shorts, I nearly died laughing and have since told many people about the add. However, Microsoft needs some substance in the later adds if they want to strike a real blow back at Apple. The PC/MAC adds are unbelievably effective.

    posted by ChrisB on 9-9-2008 at 3:51 pm

  17. I always wondered why Microsoft didn’t just take a page from YouTube and run ads where Windows was a successful businessman and Mac was a stoned, trust-fund slacker. Those were hilarious.

    posted by Joanna on 9-9-2008 at 4:02 pm

  18. Love the guys.

    The ad? Like the man says, if you aren’t it, you are just chasing it.

    Maybe early to say, but I think they are chasing it.

    posted by Tweed on 9-9-2008 at 4:05 pm

  19. Thank you Lyn and Alice. I’ve never thought Seinfeld was funny.

    I think Gates has a lot of ground to make up. I’ve loved those mac vs pc ads and just the other day thought that my next computer should be a mac. Thanks to the ads I now know more about a product that I was completely unfamiliar with and wouldn’t even consider buying previously.

    posted by Fran on 9-9-2008 at 4:11 pm

  20. the only thing this commercial made me do was comment to my friends about how seinfeld hasn’t been funny in anything since his show went off the air, and perhaps larry david was the real comedic genius in that partnership.

    then instead of watching the ad, we took turns remembering his failed attempts to get back on consumers’s good sides.

    posted by giles on 9-9-2008 at 4:15 pm

  21. giles, I think you are on to something. The ad should have been Larry David running into Gates.

    There is too much smugness and blissful naivete in the ad. Larry would fix that right away.

    posted by Tweed on 9-9-2008 at 4:21 pm

  22. i actually really like the ads… could be partly because i hate macs though. not that the pc/mac ads aren’t hilarious.

    i can’t wait for those edible computers!

    posted by tiffany on 9-9-2008 at 5:27 pm

  23. Conquistadors… they run tight.

    posted by Jason! on 9-9-2008 at 6:04 pm

  24. “And I’m free pizza…”

    posted by Pointy-Hatted Geek on 9-9-2008 at 7:47 pm

  25. Terrible ad.

    Terrible Company.

    LINUX!

    posted by Zoasterboy on 9-9-2008 at 8:32 pm

  26. I’ve always wondered why people hate Macs so much. I have both an iBook G4 and a Compaq, both are laptops, and I love them both.

    If would could just get a Lady Mac and a Man PC together, we would have a beautiful machine.

    reCaptcha: 300th Proclamation

    posted by Taryn on 9-10-2008 at 7:25 am

  27. Anyone (like me) who has had Vista crammed in the face, and suffered the horrible consequences resulting therefrom would have to agree with me that if this is a tease, it only convinces me that they have nothing to offer but cheap garbage. MY NEXT COMPUTER WILL BE A MAC.

    posted by Taun on 9-10-2008 at 8:13 am

  28. I’m glad to see Bill Gates using himself to schill Windows but couldn’t they have found someone genuinely funny to be “comic relief”? Even Bill’s joke where he shows his Shoe Circus Platinum Saver card is 100 times funnier than Seinfeld’s cake joke. Maybe MS could graduate to Chris Rock or Dane Cook or Daniel Tosh. Someone younger crowds can immediately recognize as more their speed.

    posted by Wes on 9-10-2008 at 10:15 am

  29. Sienfeld had a Mac in his appartment on his show. I think it changed to the 20th anniversary Mac when it came out. Sounds like a Mac fan to me.

    posted by brian on 9-10-2008 at 11:42 am

  30. I thought the commercial did what it set out to do – talk about nothing, just like Seinfeld the sitcom. I think the MAC vs PC commercials are hilarious but I still wouldn’t buy a MAC.

    Perhaps this just goes to show that not all commercials work on everyone.

    And why does everyone keep writing what their reCAPTCHA is? Stop it! =P

    posted by CK on 9-10-2008 at 12:43 pm

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