{"id":159,"date":"2008-09-15T00:01:24","date_gmt":"2008-09-15T07:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=159"},"modified":"2008-09-15T09:12:15","modified_gmt":"2008-09-15T16:12:15","slug":"the-new-seinfeld-ads-stink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=159","title":{"rendered":"Seinfeld Ads Verdict: Meh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you seen them? The new ads for Windows that feature comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? Funny? Yes, in a Seinfeld way. But for the life of me I cannot figure out what the heck they’re trying to sell.
\n
\nThe ads have been universally panned. I don’t know anyone who is claiming that they’re stunningly effective. Absolutely no one is saying that the new Microsoft ads will somehow be able to crack the charm and marketing power of Apple’s Mac guy and PC guy ads. That’s because Microsoft’s $300 million ad campaign can’t touch those guys.<\/p>\n

\"pc<\/p>\n

The Apple ads are genius<\/em>. They defy normal advertising, where one of the cardinal rules is that you don’t mention the other guy’s product. Yet in the Apple Switch ads, exactly that happens: The PC guy touts the PC and Windows platform and the Mac guy, for most of the ads, just stands there. Sometimes he says a pleasant word or two about the Mac, but mostly he just reacts to the oafish PC guy.<\/p>\n

The Mac guy creates a personna that most computer users would like to have: casual, comfortable, relaxed, at-ease with his technology. The PC oaf comes off as confused, frustrated, desperate, and angry. Who uses a PC and cannot identify with that? It’s brilliant! Home run, Apple!<\/p>\n

Now look at one of the new Seinfeld\/Gates ads<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I admit that it’s funny. Humor is a plus in advertising. But what resonates with me is when the family tells Bill and Jerry that they’re clueless<\/em>. Indeed. How is watching a funny episode of the Bill & Jerry Show going to convince me to buy (or even enjoy) Windows? It’s a huge question that the commercial, second in the series, doesn’t even touch.<\/p>\n

You would think that Microsoft would have learned from American Express. What? You don’t remember? Back in 2004, when the Mac guy\/PC guy campaign was just two years old, Jerry Seinfeld did a marketing campaign for American Express featuring Superman<\/a>. It went nowhere<\/em>. Funny, yes, but it didn’t work. Microsoft obviously doesn’t study history.<\/p>\n

I’m only mildly interested in watching further episodes of the Bill & Jerry Show. Unless the story goes somewhere and goes there quickly, I’m tuning out. That’s not<\/em> brilliant advertising, and not a prudent investment of $300 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you seen them? The new ads for Windows that feature comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? Funny? Yes, in a Seinfeld way. But for the life of me I cannot figure out what the heck they’re trying to sell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}