OK this is a case of flip-flopping on my part. I must admit I was a more than bit surprised to see that Seinfeld was chosen to be the front-man in the Microsoft Vista ads, purely because I just didn't see him connecting with the Web 3.0 audiences, but I must confess having seen them I have to say I found the utter pointlessness, mundane almost banal abstraction of Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld 'connecting' with ordinary people quite hilarious.
All credit to Crispin Porter & Bogusky the creative agency behind the 'computers without walls' campaign and to Microsoft for having the courage to take the risk to do something very un-Microsoft. I liked the casual dialogue between Bill and Jerry which implied a response to the 'I'm a PC and I'm a Mac' ads but they did it without actually taking the bait and communicate with a direct response.
What I liked about the 'teaser' ad with the Gates & Seinfeld duo was that it was beautifully awkward. The idea of the richest man in world, according to Forbes new annual poll, shopping in a discount shoe store was very amusing. The ads had a dry, quirky Napoleon Dynamite quality to them, but it appears that the commercials still missed as they have already made way for the beginning of the proper $300 million campaign. Perhaps the short run was a response to some negative feedback, perhaps the ads were too obtuse. If after all the ads appealed to me then they certainly weren't connecting with the new web 3.0 generation.
So what do Microsoft do? They replace it with something much more direct. Much more in your face. It is predictably super slick, fast paced in a Hollywood-blockbuster way. The new ad starts of with John Hodgman-look-a-like Microsoft product manager named Sean Siler (pictured) standing against the same stark white Mac background, Siler opens the first ad with the words, "Hello, I'm a PC and I've been made into a stereotype." and then proceeds as a segue to then depict a myriad of different examples of dynamic 'I'm a PC' users in a rapid succession. Everyone from teachers, to scientists, fashion designers even scuba divers in shark infested waters all proudly affirming their loyalty to the their beloved PC's.
The ad also moves away from just suburban, everyday people depicted in the two teasers and includes the star quality factor with Eva Longoria, from Desperate Housewives, the writer Deepak Chopra and singer Pharrell Williams, along with an obligatory cameo appearance by Microsoft founder, Bill Gates.
The problem with the campaign, in my humble opinion, is that by directly engaging and responding to Apple's ad, Microsoft is acknowledging Apple's threat. As dynamic as the ads are, Microsoft just look a bit desperate and I'm quite sure Apple will retain their cool ambivalence, no matter how many celebrities Bill has in his commercials. All the campaign is doing is recognizing that Apple is gaining ground. Everyone already knows that the PC is the most dominant platform in the world and parading everyone in a commercial doesn't change the fact that there are other products out there that are just better. Plain and simple. All this does for me is endorse Apple's 'I'm a Mac' ad.
Come back Jerry, all is forgiven.