Seinfeld-Windows TV Ad Anything But 'Delicious' 893
CWmike writes "Microsoft's $300-million ad campaign for Windows starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld launched Thursday with a long TV commercial almost entirely devoid of any talk of Windows, Microsoft or anything, really. With co-star Bill Gates, the scene is set in a shopping mall. Seinfeld, who did most of the talking, helps Gates buy a pair of shoes called the Conquistador. The commercial ends with Seinfeld asking Gates if Microsoft will "come out with something that makes our computers moist and chewy like cake so we can just eat them while we're working." Gates wiggles his rear to answer in the affirmative. The commercial ends (see video inside the story) with the Windows logo and the phrase 'Delicious.' Preston Gralla writes, 'I just saw Microsoft's much ballyhooed Jerry Seinfeld ad, and can say without equivocation 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."
What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)
Seinfeld-Windows TV Ad Anything But 'Delicious'
Are you crazy? I found that ad effective & informative.
... starring a Microsoft shill & a racist.
I can't wait to get down to my local shoe store to try out a pair of "The Conquistador" although everyone knows they 'run tight.' I can't wait to finally have shoes I can wear in my shower!
Well, there goes my ability to watch any reruns of Seinfeld
I caught this ad on TV with my non-technical retail employed roommate. And, acknowledging my predisposition to the big evil, I turned and atonally inquired what he thought of the commercial. "What?" he replied, "I don't think when I watch commercials, I just watch them." My god, it's worse than I thought, normal people just might digest this!
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)
I think it is actually an ad for churros. I anticipate huge churro sales spike following this campaign.
Mug shot (Score:5, Funny)
The Goggles (Score:1, Funny)
"Gates wiggles his rear." (Score:5, Funny)
WHAT THE FUCK? (Score:3, Funny)
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=seinfeld%20windows&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wv# [google.com]
I'm... I don't know... um... WHAT THE FUCK? Intelligent response in maybe 15 minutes when I've recovered.
Worked for me! (Score:3, Funny)
I now want a delicious churro. Clearly they're coming out with Microsoft Churros. It's a logical step up from the X-Box... who doesn't snack while they play?
What? That wasn't the point of the ad? I can't imagine what else it would be.
Re:I thought... (Score:5, Funny)
... that it was kind of hilarious in a post-modern "we're Microsoft, what the fuck are we gonna do?" sort of way.
You mean, "Where do we want to go today?" sort of way?
Sounds like Microsoft with Alzheimer's.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Let me be one of the first to say (Score:5, Funny)
I want my damn minute back!
I get it! (Score:5, Funny)
It's an "Ad about Nothing"!
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:2, Funny)
It's far worse than you think, or fear even.
'normal' people (are there really such creatures?) will see that it is from MICROSOFT, and think "it must be good, all their stuff is really technical, and they know what they are doing ... if it wasn't for Microsoft, we'd not have any computers or Intarwebtubes or anything"
http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-12558-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=44459&messageID=820843&start=0 [zdnet.com]
You only need look as far as what passes for entertainment on television in the USA to figure out that you should be considered special if you have an 8th grade education! http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp [snopes.com]
Disclaimer: I have yet to watch any episode of Seinfeld. I wasn't impressed with him before Gates conned him into this.
cake (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Comment (Score:4, Funny)
What the fuck...I've got karma out the ass.
What's the difference between a Mac and PC besides the operating system?
The price.
And my impression was... I thought that... (Score:5, Funny)
I thought that Seinfeld was acting like he just smoked a whole bag full of weed and Gates was just annoyed with him.
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)
dammit now im hungry. thanks ass.
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Gates wiggles his rear." (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Its Marketing ... no information required (Score:3, Funny)
I am so much stupider thanks to that ad, maybe that is the secret purpose.
Of course that is the ad's secret purpose. Would anyone in their right mind purchase anything from Microsoft?
I just have to figure out how Vista can be associated with the word "delicious". A delicious view? Doesn't compute.
What? (Score:4, Funny)
What's the message? "Vista is hard, let's go shopping!"
I toldja, they shoulda gone with a tried and tested comedic genius. http://tinyurl.com/5c3r6y [tinyurl.com]
Re:It did exactly what it was supposed to do. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Shamelessly crossposed from my journal (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh Please.... (Score:3, Funny)
Too late. You should have checked that "Post Anonymously" mark if you care for... what remains of your tattered reputation.
Re:Its Marketing ... no information required (Score:3, Funny)
No, advertising is NOT like your company buying you lunch every Friday. This is like your company showing you a picture of a nice lunch every Friday, then showing you a picture of their logo, and expecting that, since you like lunch, you will associate the positive feelings you get from seeing a picture of lunch with positive feelings towards your employer.
If, instead of using money for marketing, companies actually bought you stuff, or lowered the price of the product, THAT would be similar to your analogy.
A better analogy for marketing would be, every Friday your boss comes into your office, hits you over the head with a frying pan, jerks off into your eyes, and steals your wallet.
P.S. If you are in marketing or advertising, I'm sorry. Sorry you chose the most useless, dishonest career legally available. Take Bill Hicks advice and kill yourself. You'd be doing the whole world a favor.
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)
> If it's not reruns of old stuff from the US, It's knock-offs...
I know, it's unbelievable how many American shows were stolen by the Brits! The Office, Coupling, The Weakest Link (they even stole the host), Whose Line is it Anyway?, and on and on.
Like you mentioned, they even stole American Idol and called it Pop Idol! In fact, they took a bunch of American shows and just changed the names so we wouldn't know. Instead of Three's Company, they called it Man About the House. And when they made a spin-off of Three's Company (Three's a Crowd), they copied that too (Robin's Nest).
Is nothing they do original?
Re:And my impression was... I thought that... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I thought... (Score:4, Funny)
I saw an ad recently with Ballmer's face, and it scared the hell out of me. I realized that Microsoft gained its fame because Bill Gates looks to average people as a trustworthy geek who might help them with their modem or spreadsheets. Ballmer, however, looks like someone who might scream at you for making his coffee wrong or not doing your spreadsheets correctly.
Re:It did exactly what it was supposed to do. (Score:3, Funny)
Ahhh. Viral advertising, yes? That makes sense. I'm definitely feeling nauseous and disoriented after having watched the ad.
Re:Its Marketing ... no information required (Score:5, Funny)
Back in the last century some ad people at a business school did an experiment that indicated that thirty seconds of the name of the product being repeated in a loud, obnoxious voice was just as effective as an entertaining ad.
I've got something to apply directly to your forehead for bringing back that memory.
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)
Clippy: "It looks like you are about to eat a churro. Can I help you with that?"
Re:I get it! (Score:5, Funny)
It's deeper than that. The original show was about characters with no redeeming value and that didn't care about anyone but themselves. That appears to be tailor-made for a Vista ad.
Brett
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)
At the moment, parent is modded +1, Informative.
I'm hereby modding the moderator -1, Moron, and -2, No Detectable Sense of Humor.
Re:Comment (Score:3, Funny)
THe defacto naming convention, thats what. While technically you are right, common usage in this context has altered the meaning a bit. What most people call Linux is really GNu/Hurd.
What? Hurd has not been heard (haha) from for over a decade. Linux is the kernel, and gnu/linux is the way debian folk identify one another. Distros take linux (debian folks: that's gnu/linux), bundle it with gnome||kde||xkcd and firefox||iceweasel||plasmapussy, then send it out the door with no acpi support and call it a day.
Sheesh.
Coke - It's The Real Thing (Score:5, Funny)
I will have you know that TV programming in Japan is quite different than anything you will find in the US, since I think that they give all the people who come up with the shows drugs for inspiration.
I was going to say they do that with US TV too. Except in that case the drug is cocaine and the only thing it inspires is crap TV as a means to get more money to get more cocaine...
Re:I thought... (Score:3, Funny)
T- Hello, I'm a Toyota. [Looks cool]
H- And I'm a Honda. [Doesn't]
T- Boy, you sure do suck Honda.
H- Yep, I sure do!
[Toyota logo appears]
Computer/software TV ads always suck. Especially the dumbed-down ones. Remember the "rebate" ad starring Bill Cosby?
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I thought... (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, quite fitting for Vista...
Re:Its Marketing ... no information required (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I thought... (Score:5, Funny)
People... at a bar... watching a football game... applauded a commercial? About software?
So, what part of the Microsoft campus is this bar located at?
Re:WHAT THE FUCK? (Score:3, Funny)
It is taking longer than I estimated. Check back tomorrow.
Re:I thought... (Score:5, Funny)
The add made little sense.
Agreed. I think it will divide the audience at best, and in the worst case will subtract from the value of their product.
Mac's counter-ad . . . (Score:3, Funny)
The cake is a lie.
FestivOS - the OS for the Rest of Us! (Score:3, Funny)
Yep - a boring, middle of the road public figure shilling for a boring, middle of the road, operating system. It's an OS about - nothing!
I'm much more interested in seeing what OS Larry David or Frank Costanza would shill for.
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:3, Funny)
so are shoes analogy to Windows... it doesn't quite fit but if you bend it up long enough you can squeeze your feet into it?
Their next Windows campaign: The Procrustean Bed [wikipedia.org] of Operating Systems
"he had an iron bed into which he invited every passerby to lie down. If the guest proved too tall, he would amputate the excess length; victims who were too short were stretched on the rack until they were long enough."
and the kicker? .... "Nobody ever fit in the bed because it was secretly adjustable: Procrustes would stretch or shrink it upon sizing his victims from afar."
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)
You have been modded +5 by people who have never lived in Japan and think you are joking.
I don't know whether to pity them for never witnessing the wonder that is Japanese television, or envy them for never witnessing the horror that is Japanese television...
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)
The sight of Gates wiggling his butt followed by the tagline "Delicious" is...well,... I want to gouge my eyes out, scrape my brain out with a spork, pray for self spontaneous combustion.
Those words and images should never be even on the same page much less in such conjunction.
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)
"YOU ARE NOT BEYONCE!"
Well, maybe after a few beers.
He's right - Jerry Seinfeld is a known... (Score:5, Funny)
Tooth-talker, in scientific terms: (Score:4, Funny)
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)
Tooth-talker: A TV-magic-queer with a lisp so fake even gay people want to choke him.
It's like a human version of Sylvester the cat, only gay and pretentious.
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:1, Funny)
Not to mention stealing the American colonies awhile back...
Reminds Me of BASF (Score:4, Funny)
Re:FestivOS - the OS for the Rest of Us! (Score:4, Funny)
Microsoft approached Jerry and said 'We'll give you a huge pile of money if you do an ad for us.' Jerry said 'you know I use a Mac, right?' Microsoft's person said 'Did I mention the really big pile of money?' Jerry said 'I'll do it if I can write the script' Microsoft's guy said 'We get your writing talent and your performing talent? Ideal!' Jerry thought 'Now, how do I make Microsoft look really bad without them noticing and not paying me. I know, Bill Gates! They'll love anything with Bill Gates in it, even if it's really terrible!'
In fact, it just reminds me of this comic [geekculture.com].
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)
I remember when Top Gear was a vaudeville act. That James May can sure dance.
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:1, Funny)
Yes, except they're going to use non-standard cinnamon that may cause stains if you use non-Microsoft napkins. It will be touted as being better regular cinnamon in some way, but the difference won't really be noticeable except for the 30% of the time where it turns red and tastes like tuna fish (a phenomenon that will be dubbed "The Red Cinnamon of Death" or "RCoD" for short by Microsoft's critics.)
Re:Comment (Score:3, Funny)
Simple:
One's a young "cool" alpha male who wonders at times about his counterpart.
The other is an older, larger gentleman in a business suit with glasses who is insecure about his lack of popularity and features.
I don't understand you though. What does the x86 architecture have to do with computers?
Re:It's a good ad, actually. (Score:5, Funny)
"The point of the ad is to put a human face on the company."
And the commercial succeeded in putting a human ass on the company. How like Microsoft.
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:3, Funny)
In the words of Cartman:
"No Clippy it's my chicken pot pie!! ^W^W^W churro!"
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:2, Funny)
i guess that means that windows RG was actually just a preview of Windows 7.
i cant wait to get the error message: "Windows 7 has performed an illegal operation: murdered a churro vending paperclip, and will now be arrested"
Re:And my impression was... I thought that... (Score:1, Funny)
the cake is a lie
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:It's a good ad, actually. (Score:5, Funny)
Not as much as they hate basketball though.
Re:It's a good ad, actually. (Score:3, Funny)
And the commercial succeeded in putting a human ass on the company.
C'mon! Give them points for truth in advertising at least! ;-)
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)
*shudders* stupid sexy Gates!
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:3, Funny)
I'm sure "America's Next Top Model" was a hit on radio... I can see why they knocked it off for television.
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It's a good ad, actually. (Score:5, Funny)
Isn't it amazing what they can do with computer graphics nowadays? Even if it cost a few million to edit his Borg eye away, it really looks as if it was never there.
Re:What Are You Talking About? (Score:5, Funny)