Some of you have probably seen some bits of information on the web over the last day about Microsoft canceling the Bill Gates/ Jerry Seinfeld ad campaign to focus on a “new” campaign. The new campaign was said to be less “ambiguous” and use a John Hodgman look-alike (the PC guy in the Get a Mac ads) to provide “to-the-point” messages to viewers about Windows Vista.
This might sound like a good plan for those of you who are still confused as to what’s going on with the Gates and Seinfeld ads, but in the big scheme of things it does not make sense. Why would Microsoft drop an ad campaign that they just started? As it turns out, Microsoft is not dropping the whole Gates and Seinfeld campaign, but there is some truth to the idea of using a John Hodgman look-alike.
Gizmodo got in contact with the Marketing firm heading-up the Microsoft campaign, Crispin Porter, and they found that the Gates/Seinfeld ads will continue to air. Along with those ads, they will be working on new “I’m a PC” advertisements. These ads will be what you could consider “anti-Mac” ads, something that Microsoft probably needs at this point, and will use the John Hodgman look-alike.
From our perspective, their slight shift in focus might help them get to where they need to be. While the ads that feature Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld are getting people talking, they are causing people so say “huh?” a little too much. More direct “I’m a PC” ads would probably suit their cause a little better.
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Tags: Software, Bill Gates, Get A Mac Campaign, Microsoft, Windows Vista
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i dont know but it looks fishy to me. Microsoft doesn’t do anything without thinking better, above all when they stop a new campaign loosing in this way a lot of money…maybe it is just a matter of ads and competition getting tougher…
Ouch. They scrapped the Seinfeld ads right when I started liking them…
The Seinfield/Gates ads were a total failure from the very beginning. There was no message, and an ad without a message is not an ad.
Finally the Redmond guys saw the light and will use “to the point” ads; they just discovered wet water.
“In Microsoft, I see a company that’s deathly afraid of Google and even more scared of being cornered out of the online space. And so in its desire to capture more search market share and gain a foothold in the advertising market, it forgot about Windows and more importantly, forgot about Apple.”
Now they’re trying to catch up desperately.
No good, the second ad was actually good. With a $300 million campaign, can’t they continue with the Gates / Seinfeld venture in the “real world” while they roll out more conventional ads?
There are plenty of companies that release ridiculous ads! (remember the sponge monkeys for Quiznos?) I love those ads and I hope there are many more. The “Buy a Mac” ones are getting old anyway.
They haven’t ditched them yet, they are just asking the marketing firm to focus more on the “I’m a PC” ads.
Really? I wasn’t, and still am not ready to call them a total failure. They definitely got people talking and while there was no direct message, an indirect message was there at the end when the little Vista orb popped up on the screen and they flashed the address for windows.com.
I still thinking Microsoft is heading somewhere with the ads, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Ahhh the monkeys!
As a side note, the Gates/Seinfeld ads remind me of movies like Napoleon Dynamite where there really isn’t a point to it, yet some people still love it and talk about it.
I know it’s hard to believe, but the point of an advertisement is not to get you talking about the advertisement, whether you like it or hate it. It is to get you talking about, thinking about, looking at, and finally buying the product. I am sure some of the enthusiasts here would gladly buy a copy of the two ads, but will they buy Vista?
You might think about how many copies of Vista they will have to sell to recover what they blew on these two bombs. Cutting their losses was a wonderful idea – even if it is a bit late.
They are not yet in the entertainment business with Vista. They were the wrong ads for the wrong product. Still, they seem to have learned, even if late. Time will tell.
Strange, it seems they can’t make their mind up. Mojave, Seinfeld, now ani-”get a mac.”
I think this is probably a better format when it comes to getting their message across than the Seinfeld ones, so I hope they really go thru w/ it.
Also, seeing those Mojave clips on the web, I really think it would be a a good idea to broadcast some of those as well. Heck, there wouldn’t even be a big production cost since they already made ‘em!
Anybody remember the E-Trade ad from a few Super Bowls ago with the dancing chimp? Now that was an advertisement.
“Well, we just wasted 2 million bucks.”
Awesome!