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Microsoft To Announce Jerry Seinfeld Ads Cancelled
Posted by
samzenpus
on Thu Sep 18, 2008 04:02 AM
from the put-it-to-bed dept.
from the put-it-to-bed dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Valleywag says the Jerry Seinfeld ads are over — In a phone call, Frank Shaw confirms that Microsoft is not going on with Seinfeld, and echoes his underlings' spin that the move was planned. There is the 'potential to do other things' with Seinfeld, which Shaw says is still 'possible.' He adds: 'People would have been happier if everyone loved the ads, but this was not unexpected.'"
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Submission: Microsoft to announce Jerry Seinfeld ads cancelled by Anonymous Coward
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Microsoft Uses "I'm a PC" Character In New Ads 837 comments
arcticstoat writes to tell us that in the wake of their largely unsuccessful Jerry Seinfeld ad campaign Microsoft is setting their sights directly on recent Apple ads by featuring the "I'm a PC" character in their new advertising campaign. "He then follows this with another phrase, such as 'and I've been made into a stereotype' before the advert shifts to a range of people performing a diverse assortment of jobs, all of which also say they're a PC. Among those featured are astronaut Bernard Harris, as well as religious author Deepak Chopra and 'Desperate Housewives' actress Eva Longoria. The ad also features a wide range of anonymous people, including a shark diver, a teacher and a guy with a beard."
[+]
News: Maine To Skip Vista, Go Directly To Windows 7 242 comments
Preedit writes "The State of Maine is the latest organization to skip Windows Vista, which has been a near-disaster for Microsoft. An internal state document (dated September 15) uncovered by Infoweek reveals that Maine will not be upgrading its more than 11,000 personal computing devices from XP to Vista — ever. Instead, it's going to wait until Windows 7 ships in 2010 and hope for the best. The news is in line with a survey that shows only 4% of businesses in the UK have upgraded to Vista, the story notes. So much for that $300 million Seinfeld campaign." A commenter on the article makes the point that Maine's signing an enterprise software license with Microsoft means that Redmond doesn't really lose out on this deal; it simply allows the state to upgrade its equipment and software on its own time.
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Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/9/15/ [penny-arcade.com]
people would love the ads (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Interesting)
I've never got the Seinfeld thing. [...]
I'd have to say, don't bother. His show was based off his stand-up. Simply put, it's comedy by observation. He see's something odd and then mentions it. For example, He see's sky divers wearing helmets and asks: "What's the point? Is a helmet going to save your life when falling out of the sky? Really?" Then he turns that into an even funnier (by some people's tastes) simple comment. It's sort of a "funny because it's true" scenario.
Most of the TV show was based off this premise then expanded by the writing crew. Perhaps something you might find more interesting is not Jerry Seinfeld's comedy but how incredibly tough the guy has it and how he's become the victim of his own success. There's a great documentary showing this called Comedian [imdb.com]. You see Jerry get up on stage just after the end of his series and people laugh at every stupid thing he says (even when it's not a joke). Then you see him sweat bullets as he totally fails at remembering any of his jokes and the crowd just gets sort of shocked.
The documentary is a little dull (particularly considering when it's about comedians) but there are some pretty true parts in it.
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Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Insightful)
Glad the ads are dead. There's "cool" surreal. (See: Rutger Hauer Guinness commercials [youtube.com] in the late 80's and early 90's) Then there is utterly retarded. That was these.
I never got "Seinfeld" either. I saw a few episodes and it was okay I guess, but I never understood why it became so huge as it wasn't that funny. "No soup for you." Indeed.
Give me "Larry Sanders" any day over that.
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Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Insightful)
And the thing is....someone, probably multiple people in a committee...actually thought these commercials were a GOOD idea!! I mean, even a company with the assets MS has doesn't just throw millions of dollars around on ads without a lot of people approving this.
Was there not a single, normal person that saw these say said...WTF?
Someone in charge of marketing at MS really needs to be encouraged to find greener pastures at another company over this one....
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Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps Microsoft should stop hiring yes-men for those committees :P.
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Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Insightful)
And the thing is....someone, probably multiple people in a committee...actually thought these commercials were a GOOD idea!!
Probably the same committee that thought Vista was a good idea.
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Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Insightful)
And the thing is....someone, probably multiple people in a committee...actually thought these commercials were a GOOD idea!!
Actually I imagine the truth was simpler than that. There was probably a boardroom of people who were each unwilling to admit that they didn't understand these very esoteric ads. Each one outwardly proclaimed them "brilliant", while inwardly they had no idea what was going on. Nobody was willing to point out that the emperor had no clothes.
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Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Funny)
Kinda makes you wish the CEO's of the world would take the Evil Overlord Checklist to heart, especially the part of having all plans spot checked by a 5 year old child.
BILL: Timmy, is this funny?
TIMMY: This sucks! Can I watch Power Rangers now?
BILL: Sure, Timmy. Alice, get me Mr. Seinfeld's agent on the phone...
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Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Informative)
For God's sake, there is even an episode where George is pretending to be a Whale Biologist to get a woman and when they are wandering the beach they happen to come across a beached whale!
It's called "exaggeration".
The joke is an absurd extenstion of a guy pretending to be a doctor/movie producer/interested in Russian poetry/etc. to impress a girl and getting caught at it.
Although later seasons did become a bit tedious, seasons 3-5 were probably the best non-sketch comedy show at its prime, with season 4 being close to perfect. The show probably jumped the shark in season 6, when it did a 100th episode clip show.
I liked Seinfeld, but these commercials aren't even close to a bad episode, and I'm surprised they made it to TV.
Parent
Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Insightful)
I can think of two possibilities.
1. They're lying when they said this was expected. That's the "oh, you poor dumb saps" explanation.
2. Someone at their ad agency thought it would be a great idea, and by the time anyone realized what a train wreck it was going to be, it had gathered too much steam to stop. By the time they released it, probably most of the people involved thought, "well... look on the bright side! It might not suck too bad! It might even be 'so bad it's good'!"
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Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Funny)
what raging idiot at Microsoft green lighted this ad campaign?
DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!
Parent
People would have been happier? (Score:5, Insightful)
As if anyone understood the ad at all, let alone were happy about it.
Re:People would have been happier? (Score:5, Insightful)
And Microsoft has never been bad in marketing.
There's been a few disasters in Microsoft marketing in the past, but their track record is usually rather successful. These short series of ads were a failure, I've heard one person ask me "Is that supposed to be their rebuttal against Apple?", and she uses Windows!
Well, they're trying to get their "Windows Mojave" thing to succeed.... but I admit, I don't really see how they can repair damages of Windows Vista purely in marketing.
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Re:People would have been happier? (Score:5, Funny)
Truly, the Seinfeld ads were the MS Bob of marketing.
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Re:People would have been happier? (Score:5, Insightful)
Or having older folks come up to tech guys like me with questions like "Hey,did you see that Seinfeld commercial with that computer guy?" 'Bill Gates and yeah,what about it?' "Well,what does it mean?" like there was some hidden geek code in the thing that only tech guys would understand. Not a single person said anything about Microsoft,Windows,OR Vista.....they just wanted to know what the secret meaning to the ads were. I think because nobody could accept that anyone would spend that kind of money on ads that didn't actually SELL anything.
Me personally,I have to say that for me that have to take the cake as really stupid ads go. I mean,sure that one where the idiot girl raises her arms every 3 seconds to show you her pits is irritating as hell,but at least you knew what she was pushing,but with the Seinfeld ads they could have been for sneakers as far as anyone knew. So unless their goal was to have an entire country go WTF??? I'd say they were a failure. And to replace them with a ripoff of the "Mac VS PC" commercials is just sad. It'll just make them look a day late,a dollar short,and unable to do anything but rip off the Mac. Just sad. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV
Parent
Re:People would have been happier? (Score:5, Funny)
I tell them the secret meaning...
"Bill gates is so rich that he's simply showing off to the world that he pays Jerry to hang with him. It's basically a giant hey America you suck sign, as he rubs in your face that you are forced to give him money and there is nothing you can do about it.
He's goading you at the fact you dont have a choice and are forced to pay him money and you cant do anythign about it."
They usually stand their open mouthed and then say.... "you're right! you cant buy a pc without windows! OMG! OMG!!" and they run off to tell others.
I love their new advertising arm. they help me screw with people daily.
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I enjoyed them! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I enjoyed them! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:I enjoyed them! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:I enjoyed them! (Score:5, Insightful)
You watched it, you talk about it. That is what ad makers want you to do. All the rest is extra.
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Re:I enjoyed them! (Score:5, Insightful)
Not for Microsoft. I don't think product awareness is much of a need for Microsoft Windows. What they were trying to accomplish was to change their brand image, to make themselves appear "cool". They failed miserably. What a massive waste of money.
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Me too (Score:5, Funny)
I saw them too and I enjoyed them. Now give me some karma as well.
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The ads weren't that great. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The ads weren't that great. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:The ads weren't that great. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:The ads weren't that great. (Score:5, Insightful)
If it was supposed to compete with Apple's Mac vs. PC ads, which many people apparently find comical and true
Y'know I've never been a fan of negative ad campaigns. If the best thing you can say about your product is "we don't suck as much as the other guy" I'm probably not going to bother switching.
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Sadly expected (Score:5, Interesting)
I toldja - they shoulda gone with a real comedian. [today.com]
I was looking for them working their way back through the comedic genius of history ... perhaps W.C. Fields next. All the way back to Aristophanes.
Or, in a more famous joke:
"Vista's slow, it's fat, I can't get drivers, my network grinds to a crawl when I play an mp3! What do you call that?"
"... The Aristocrats!"
Re:Sadly expected (Score:5, Funny)
Person: "Then I forced the ethernet-cable in the slot, rebooted while tearing out my nosehairs and slapping my dick at the computer in a vain attempt to feel superior...(5 minutes later)...then I did a defragmentation of the hard-drive but the damn things IS STILL TOO DAMN SLOW!".
Talent-agent: " What do you call that?"
Person: "The Vistacrats".
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Just as I was getting into it! (Score:5, Funny)
Problem was that the sexual tension between those two guys was too intense - it would never have ended well.
Re:Just as I was getting into it! (Score:5, Funny)
Scariest application of Rule 34 ever.
Until Ballmer gets involved...
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Clearly I'm weird. (Score:5, Interesting)
I thought the first ad was limp, but I actually enjoyed the second one and was looking forward to more. Not that it would have made any difference to my OS-buying proclivities, but I thought they were at least interesting.
Microsoft's New Ads Revealed! (Score:5, Funny)
A Chair
VOICEOVER: Vista. Use it. Or Else.
FADE TO BLACK
We win, you lose! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:We win, you lose! (Score:5, Funny)
Surely Microsoft will just push for all marketing agencies to use Seinfeld in *ALL* TV ads so 'their way' becomes the defacto standard.
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Made sense to me .. (Score:5, Funny)
It was an advertisement about nothing.
Haven't you guys ever seen an episode of Seinfeld?
Larry David (Score:5, Insightful)
If they wanted to make commercials in the vein of Seinfeld, they should have hired Larry David. He seems to have been the real genius behind that series.
Parent
Spooked by the commentators... tsk tsk tsk (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll repeat that: Surely they would have known that this brand campaign would need TIME and COMMITMENT to have a payoff!
Maybe at least it's not too late...
Am I missing something? (Score:5, Interesting)
I must be missing something. Cancelled?
Cancelled is what happens when a contract is revoked. As far as I know, Microsoft is continuing with Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
Cancelled is what happens if they were planning to make more of the same vein. I see no indication of that, but of the expectant bloggers.
Microsoft had always said [techcrunch.com] that the Bill & Seinfield ads were not a campaign unto itself, but an icebreaker, or rather, "phase one". Indeed, it would not surprise me if Microsoft's announcement was all about the new ads [nytimes.com], and didn't mention Bill & Seinfield at all.
Me thinks Valleywag focused on what they wanted to hear, not what was actually said overall.
Mind Bogglingly Bad (Score:5, Insightful)
I saw the awful Gates & Seinfeld commercial last night where Gates does the Robot, and commented to my wife that Microsoft must have the lowest advertising ROI of all time. It's mind boggling that a company with that much money could do so poorly with their advertising campaigns. They can certainly afford to do better, so why don't they?
It's surprising that Crispin Porter is their agency, since they're about the highest rated in the advertising game. Perhaps it's something about Microsoft that exudes a lameness that overwhelms all else.
Seinfeld plays opposite losers (Score:5, Funny)
The symbolism seems sufficiently obvious. But it leaves me with a major set of questions. How did Steve Jobs manage to bribe the ad agency to come up with the idea? How did they manage to get Microsoft to fall for it? Does the Jobs reality distortion field really extend that far?
I guess, since a lot of creative ad people are still Mac fanboys, the first part might have been easy. But the second part must have been the pitch from hell. Perhaps it only worked because the Gates mansion is so vast that Gates has never found the TV room and so never seen the programme.
Did anyone actually *watch* Seinfeld? (Score:5, Insightful)
The show was not about "nothing", as joked about in some episodes, it was about four *extremely* *unlikeable* people *doing* nothing.
The last episode was the clue-by-four to the head for all those viewers who didn't get it; they bring back all the people whose lives had been casually wrecked by the main characters, and in the end (SPOILER ALERT, if you care), they end up all locked in a cell, the ultimate punishment that they have to spend their time together.
And from this Microsoft thought they could improve their branding? If anything, it's somehow appropriate, Microsoft is the company that casually wrecks your (digital) life.
Re:Gates and Seinfeld.... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:George Orwell and Grammar! (Score:5, Insightful)
"Not unexpected" isn't actually the same thing as "expected", though. The former is closer to "we saw that it could happen".
Put another way, on the scale from "unexpected", through "unsure" to "expected", the former includes everything but the left end, while the latter is only the right end.
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Re:The ads were perfect for Vista (Score:5, Funny)
(Damn Ubuntu fan boys always pointing out how much better they have it;-)
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Re:The Ads Sucked (Score:5, Insightful)
I must say this a hundred times a year.
The largest road in London (the M25 motorway that circles the entire city and has more cars on it than any other road in the UK) has a large warehouse by the side of it (Jct 27/28 if memory serves) which has, in twenty-foot-high letters:
Sericol. More than ink. Solutions.
written on it. What the hell do they sell? *Do* they in fact sell ink? Do they offer "ink solutions"? (whatever the hell they are) Do they sell printing? Do they process squid? I have no bloody idea. What if I just wanted ink? Sod it. It's easier to phone someone else.
About once a week, I'll see a building, advertisment or painted vehicle which is supposed to be drawing my attention to a company, product, or service and doesn't tell me what those products are. These are all examples that I've seen and which are complete copies of an advert, or sign on a van. Some of the product names have been changed because they were SO memorable that I can't remember the exact wording, website, logo etc.
Fred's Services Ltd. Call 0800XXXXXXX. (Services FOR WHAT? And they even paid to have a freefone number)
Adventis. www.adventis.com (I made up the name/website)
Patricks - Solutions for the modern world. (no services, no phone number, no website, nothing.)
(Funny logo) - Ring 08XXXXXXXXX for our full range of services. (no, you bloody print them on the advert, or at least give me a vague idea).
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