First Microsoft ad with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld

Absurdist art or TV commercial? Either way, I like it.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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toxonix

I didn’t get it. Maybe Windows is like a wet leather clown man with uncomfortable boxers who feels awkward around Jews.
Takuan

fair
Dave367

Ruth said, “Maybe MS should focus on making a computer that WORKS instead of crashing, not insult their users with this garbage.”

Microsoft has been insulting their users with garbage for 30 years. Why do you think they will–or should–stop? It’s been a successful business model.
shoopylove

Was Soundgarden not available?

The thing I can’t get out of my mind was the fact that both of these guys were on top of the world 10-15 years ago. Today… not so much. Sure, they both still have tons of cash, but their not really leaders in their respective fields anymore. Their presence doesn’t have that relevance or zeitgeist that an ad for technology should have.

Talk about a couple of has-beens.
Falcon_Seven

I haven’t seen the ad, but from what I can gather from comments made on various sites, it was about a cake that Bill Gates rubbed his ass on while wearing sneakers in the shower.
Is that the gist of it?
grimc

@#7

One thing for sure, at 1:30 this isn’t a tv spot, although I’m sure there’ll be some made out of it.

It’s an advertisement in the sense that it’s trying to change people’s perceptions of Vista. Using the shoes as a metaphor they’re saying that even great products like the ‘Conquistador’ require the consumer to do stuff to make it work.

So I guess it’s advertising for people to lower their expectations.

But as a former boss once said, “You can’t polish a turd.”
snouty

See now this is the kind of advertising they should have head all along. Vista stick sucks all kinda balls, but the ad is AWESOME.
Falcon_Seven

@41 I will never be intimate with a churro. Ever.
gATO

Comedy merits aside, this was supposed to be an advertisement for what, exactly?
snouty

and fyi that’s what Bill’s really like, it’s just taken them until it’s too late to realise that Bill should have been part of the brand. More fool them. Apple have done this for years very successfully.
dbarak

@55 I will never be intimate with a burro. Ever.
bbonyx

Chalk up another voice in the “FAIL” column.

Draper would send them back to their respective offices to think about all the ways that advertising is supposed to reach into the psyche of the people and how this one simply didn’t.
Avram

Microsoft has always had pretty bad advertising. Remember the Windows ads with the Latin song about suffering the torments of Hell? Or the horrifying Zune ad with the eyeball-pooping monster? Or those terrible poster ads with people in dinosaur masks?

It doesn’t seem to have affected their bottom line. I sometimes wonder if they aren’t courting enterprise users by deliberately adopting an anti-hip ad vibe.
Falcon_Seven

@56 The real question is; would a burro ever be intimate with a churro? Possibly in Mexicali. Not that I’ve ever been there, so, like, I wouldn’t know.
gonzilla

@41 BillCunningham
Thank you sir. Of all the times I have been to the west coast, no one has offered me a churro. I now need to find one in the Bmore area. I have just been informed that it is like a state fair/carny funnel cake also. With that info, it has been listed on my “terrorfood” watch list. C’mon gimme a bite, I’ll walk 2 extra flights on Monday, c’mon!!!!!
Gregory Bloom

I spewed water on my keyboard – about 5 seconds after it had finished. Sort of an absurdist aftershock, I guess. But I can see where this is going. Apple is, and has always been, fashion electronics. When you buy an Apple, you’re buying a style and a tribal affiliation. With PCs, that style and affiliation hasn’t been sharply defined nor anything like hip/with it/edgy. Not that this ad competes in those terms – Apple already has that turf staked out. What this ad does is establish the Win/PC tribe as thoughtfully self-deprecating, almost exactly the opposite of Apple’s positioning as the brand for effete fashionista poseurs. By continuing to build this brand cultural identity, MS can bring greater cohesion to the PC masses while re-enforcing their derision of Applephiles.
AlphaQ

Absurd humor is up there with fart jokes. The thing about this type of humor too is that its been overdone and possesses no whit. Hard to appreciate it.
dbarak

“…MS can bring greater cohesion to the PC masses…”

I spewed water on my keyboard. ;)
Jim_Graham

If it was absurdist, shouldn’t it have had a fish in it?
Mista Spakuru

My wife thought it was a shoe commercial. She asked what it really was, when I told her it wasn’t for shoes. I was dumbstruck. It wasn’t funny. It felt like the rock oldies shows that PBS likes to air. Painful.

Even Shatner’s Priceline commercials are better. Seinfeld is like Mort Sahl,if Mort had worked for Nixon or Bush. Sad.
Takuan

no “whit” not even a wit’s worth?
apollino

Just a horrible ad. But it does have everybody talking so at least they have that going for them. The goal for them may have been to get everyone talking about this crappy ad and then hit them with the next ones. Either way, the ending on this version of it is much better!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSQMg3gc1r4
Takuan

what is the purpose of advertising?

(made ya look!)
EH

“What’s the deal with wearing clothes in the shower?”

I think the strategy here was to humanize Gates and to set Jerry up as a curious authority. I’ll be curious to see if Gates winds up being an occasional sidekick in this campaign while Jerry goes around to regular people and Vistafies them.
Phikus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgUWTquztGY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBRpW5sEvJk
arikol

I’m a Mac guy (is that a disclaimer?)
but I thought it was rather amusing, especially considering Seinfeld was in it.
I mean that I can well believe Bill Gates to have a weird sense of humour but we all know Seinfeld is not very good..
Even his show was held up mainly by the supporting cast. And that’s back when he was considered funny (and I had a bunch of hair. Oh, thick luscious hair, how I miss thee not one bit).

As a sketch, maybe 6-7 out of 10
as an advertisment 1-2 out of 10

And Apple. The I’m a Mac campaign has run it’s course. Please stop before it gets MS embarrassing.
Steve Among Steves

I think they seriously overplayed the churro joke.
petezombie

I notice a lot of people complaining that its not effective advertisement but when I watch tv I do it to be entertained, commercials pushing products can be so incredibly annoying and having an ad that puts more effort into entertaining me instead of pushing their product on me is very refreshing IMO.

And I thought it had some funny moments.
Chris L

I like the commercial. Of course, I’m one of those tasteless boors that still thinks Seinfeld is funny.

In any case its a hell of a lot more fun than that damn Microsoft Mojave commercial, which only confirms what we learned the Pepsi Challenge: things that are sweeter (or shinier or prettier) seem a lot better in small doses. Longer periods of exposure tend to make you sick.
calabanos

Seinfeld always had an old mac on his desk. I haven’t really watched the show for a while, but I do remember two things. They all liked to masturbate, and Jerry was a mac user.

Bill Gates looked better in “Weird Science”.
andyhavens

Somebody said above that the ad was “cool.” It is cool, specifically because it is incredibly and obviously anti-cool… which is what PCs are.

What the Mac ads have done is to set up the Mac-dude as super cool and hip, with John Hodgman as a wonderfully uncool foil. What somebody on the Microsoft ad account has realized is that most people who use PCs (myself included; though I use Macs, too), *HATE* that smug little Mac-boi and are much more in touch with our inner Hodgman.

The ad, like Seinfeld’s show, is about… nothing. The idea that two billionaires might bump into each other at a ridiculous, super-cheapo shoe circus is classic litotes. We know it’s not true… but it appeals to our sense of absurdity. Not in a dadaist negation of sense, but absurdity as a metaphor for what many of us experience in our relationship to media, our computers, etc.

My choice of Mac or PC is supposed to be a big deal, eh? I have to choose a Mac or I’m going to be uncool… right? Nope. It’s not a big deal. Just like where you buy your shoes isn’t a big deal. It’s a shoe. It’s a tool.

This ad is Microsoft’s way of telling all us 85% of the computer buying market that, “Hey… it’s cool to be uncool. Stop worrying about it.”
kmoser

The truly absurd (or is it ironic?) thing is that as soon as the video finished playing on my (Windows) PC, the Apple Software Update popped up and asked me to download and install Safari, iTunes and QuickTime. Yeah, seriously.

–K
Kyle Armbruster

Y’know, I loved Seinfeld, but now whenever I see Jerry Seinfeld, I’m like… “Are you still talking that way?”

In so many ways, his manner of speech defined the 90s. Now to hear it, he sounds hokey and outdated.

I just don’t get it. Why would they use Seinfeld?
cinemajay

This is actually really good. It’s cute, it gives Gates an air of charm–which I think most of us thought was impossible. And it associates Microsoft with innovation. (Also, previously thought to be impossible).

Whatever agency developed this has really done a great job.

/not a Vista fan
//been using it for a month now
///hate it, hate it, hate it
boingcat

So, windows is like showering with your clothes on while chewing on a keyboard?
jdollak

It works in the absurdist way.

I suspect that the goal is to stir more discussion because it will be polarizing. People who enjoy absurdist humor v people who don’t.
cinemajay

@#16,

But it IS a television spot. I saw the entire thing last night during the RNC coverage. You forget, a billion bucks in nothing to Microsoft.

That said, I’m sure they’ll cut/run shorter versions.
Keneke

Anyone who is confused as to how this is supposed to sell something doesn’t really understand how advertising works. It’s an unassuming comedic commercial, good for a chuckle or two (or more or less depending), but the mere presence of Bill Gates and the windows logo is enough to lodge brand recognition in your brain. That’s why sporting events have sponsorships – Chick-Fil-A isn’t too horribly concerned about the Peach Bowl, for example, but it is concerned over what kind of exposure sponsoring such a big event could net them.
Secret_Life_of_Plants

If that was supposed to be clever or funny then I guess I am not hip enough to get it.
Secret_Life_of_Plants

Also, it reminded me how depressing Malls are.
GeekDadCanada

If Jobbs did this, the iCult would fall in love with it. With Gates, I still thought it was very funny.
banjology

My thoughts about whether the commercial was good or not aside, I have to disagree with all those complaining that from a marketing standpoint this commercial was bad. Yes, its a long commercial in which they hardly even mention what is is they are advertising, but look at all the commotion and discussion about the commercial, both on this site and various other news sites. Funny, absurd, clever, or not, its definitely created a huge buzz. And THAT, makes a commercial successful.
Mr_Saikou

Agreed, I am not buying the product, but the spot is entertaining.
Mr_Saikou

Agreed, I am not buying the product, but the spot is entertaining.
MrsBug

Not having a dog in the Mac/PC fight (I use a PC, but it’s what work gave me. It’s totally functional for what I need), I thought this was highly amusing.
BillCunningham

@55, Don’t fear intimacy.
maturin

You really can’t say FAIL if you voluntarily clicked on a link to watch an advertisement.
They won before it started.
Elvis Pelt

@#49

Dude, take a pill.
darue

there’s discussion about the commercial because two insanely rich retired men bothered to be in it. Rest assured this is the last one I’ll be seeing. Look at all the people goggling at the two crazy rich guys through the store window, that’s supposed to be US folks. I wonder if bill’s paying himself to be in the spot?
minTphresh

macs even run wndows better than a p.c. plus you get the added benefit of mac o.s.! which totally rulez!
gonzilla

Please feel free to call me stupid, everyone else does. Its been a while since I have visited a mall food court. What were they munching on? Was it a pretzel or pastry? And I got the notion that Microsoft is getting into baked goods. Or its just me missing the taste of sugar.
jbang

So… these ads were developed to grab “mind share” not from Apple, but from Mac OS X. And reshape opinions of Vista – at least that’s what reports of Seinfeld’s involvement in ad were about.

Seems they neglect a few things: 1) a product and, well… that’s it. Even if it’s clearly about Microsoft, which I don’t think it is, it still isn’t telling people anything about much.

Any analogies between PC’s running Vista and good, sturdy shoes is absolutely lost in novelty of the ad.

This is going to confuse the hell out of consumers, or just entertain them with two massive beasts of redundancy – Seinfeld and Gates. What does that say about Microsofts operating systems?

It’s cool, but it’s the product of too much thought and simultaneously not enough.
Secret_Life_of_Plants

#34 posted by Keneke says,

“Anyone who is confused as to how this is supposed to sell something doesn’t really understand how advertising works…the mere presence of Bill Gates and the windows logo is enough to lodge brand recognition in your brain.”

It might be the case that, say, an 80s Guess Jeans ad featuring a young buxom pre-train-wreck Anna Nicole Smith, and a tiny “Guess” logo worked this way, but the problem for Microsoft (and Vista) is that they already have tons of brand recognition…

You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting some MS product. There are probably more discrete MS products in existence than there are Michael Jackson “Thriller” cassette tapes.

The problem is that the recognition is accompanied, by many people, by feelings of extreme distaste and memories of frustration and loss.

I fail to see how watching an unfunny short featuring 2 rich, famous old white guys in a mall shoe shop, showering in their clothes, and eating churros is supposed to undo all that.
slowpioson

I fail to see the humor in that. And I wonder why some people are calling it awesome. Somebody please explain!! Please!
darue

It’s anti-funny. Seinfeld’s got nothing without Larry David backing him up. It was Pathetic really. If you find that funny, it’s long past time you turn off the god damned TV.
Josh Cothran

On the “absurdist art” front, I definitely felt echoes of Miranda July’s You and Me and Everyone We Know. Beautiful/charming/touching/funny movie, trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNPPgP81EOI
Takuan

ccccann’t ggett upppppp….can’tttreachhh reemoteee..
PapayaSF

I think I can see what they are trying to do. Probably focus groups and surveys have found that people think of Microsoft as no fun, making products they are forced to use. So MS gives today’s equivalent of Mad Men a ton of money, and they decide to go for post-modern absurd humor, hiring Seinfeld because they can afford to and maybe subconsciously reminding people of MS’s glory days in the ’90s. Gates is in there doing silly “fun” things and to get more attention and to help humanize the company.

And like a lot of overly-clever self-referential humor, it’s only mildly amusing when it rises above uncomfortably flat.

And while MS’s rep has taken hits in recent years, of course the repositioning is just lipstick for a pig. But what ad agency is going to speak the truth? “No, don’t give us nine figures for a huge campaign, use the money to make your software better! The real reasons Apple and Linux are gaining on you isn’t because their brand images are superior.”
Akratic Behavior

@ #34: You made very good points. I agree wholeheartedly.

I have used a Mac for over 3 years now, but I can really appreciate this ad. Very tongue-in-cheek, very classy.

In fact, they had me at “chur-ro.”
The Unusual Suspect

Absurdist art or TV commercial? Either way, it’s Vista.
BillCunningham

@GONZILLA

They are munching on Churros. It’s like a donut, but in stick, rather than torus, form. Dough dipped in sugar. It’s a Mexican derived snack. Very delicious.

Most anyone in the Western Coastal or southwestern states will be intimate with the wonders of the Churro.
Thorzdad

This might’ve been funny when Jerry and Bill were, y’know, in their prime.
This ad had more the feeling of a couple of old dudes trying hard to be funny. Sort of like that uncle you have who tells the same damned old jokes over and over and over.
AudioTherapist

Wrong….. On so many levels. But mainly where Bill shakes his ass. No no no. I didn’t need to EVER see that. I’m a Linux and OSX convert but I don’t even want to see Steve Jobs move like that, as for Linus Torvalds….
meadhbh

if portal taught us anything, it taught us that cake is a lie.
ridingnowhere85

Notice on the ID that the photo is his mugshot from the time he was arrested in new mexico

http://www.geckoandfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/gates_mug_shot.jpg
grimc

Fail.
CopyrightMe

The ad, while entertaining until they even hint at the computer angle, is basically not doing anything for me. Especially since I already know the ultimate goal of the ad(s). If the ads had been unleased under complete secrecy, I would have been more intrigued. As it is, I know it’s a “stealth” approach to Vista and I’m not buying it.
Mista Spakuru

If this is an attempt at rebranding, it doesn’t work.

An example of rebranding that does work is Converse. Their ads actually made me like them again. With Microsoft, I just keep getting this feeling that they haven’t a clue about what’s cool. There’s no groove to get back. Never had it, did they? Even if Eno did compose the login music for Windows 95.
endotoxin

Saw this at the bar last night. Remarked to the owner that I recognised the ID that Bill held up as his mugshot when he was arrested in 77.

Good times!
Matt Sanderson

It’s amusing, in a “not terribly funny” sort of way. Charming, maybe? Oh, I don’t know. I didn’t hate it, though.
ashground

I was prepared to hate it, but I didn’t. I loved it. And I don’t know why.
jes

Meh. I don’t think it’s going to be as successful as the “I’m a PC, I’m a Mac” series, particularly in its appeal to young people. John Hodgman has it all over Jerry Seinfeld, imo.
Maddy

Maybe MS can hire #29 to go around and explain it for everyone. Of course!

As for people who claim “oh, this is how advertising works” — ah, jury’s out on that one. There’s a group of people who think you don’t really need to mention the product much, but by your ad’s awesome funniness (which your praying a movie producer notices) the product is sold with just the barest of product ID. Woe to the poor lil’ company representative who gets shamed into buying this kind of ad, because the ad guy has an office stocked with cute girls and he looks so rad sitting there in his ad culture costume.

Meanwhile, company rep comes back with the commercial for his boss, who says “But, this doesn’t sell our product.” The company guy tries to remember all the crap the ad maven swindled him with, but can only remember that those assistants were fuck-tastic and finds himself agreeing with his boss for a change.
Darran Edmundson

95% of the connected world doesn’t give a hoot about the underlying O/S. They want a computer that doesn’t crash, a functional web browser and an email client. OS X, XP and Vista, and Linux fulfill these needs (because I say so ;-).
GeekMan

Epic fail.

How is this an advertisement? I mean, yes it’s nice being entertained instead of advertised to, but why would any company spend their advertising budget to… y’know… NOT advertise? I’m no lover of “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC”, but this was just crazy.

There are plenty of things that Apple does which bug the hell out of me. But I don’t use Mac OS X because it’s HIP, I use it because I think its the best operating system out there. Take note, Mr. Gates.
dbarak

Probably edited with Final Cut Pro on a Mac…
ecobore

Hmm, moist and chewy like cake – mice like cakes! Shame it will all be eaten by viruses before the little squeekers get a bite!
nevermike

Wow – Microsoft really gets “it”. How visionary MS is to use such a cutting edge comedian and wow, the metaphor of cheep shoes to help us understand how Vista will make our lives better.

The only thing worse than the commercial is the insane amount of money that was spent on it. Can you believe a room full up supposedly smart adverting people would trot this claptrap out to the public?

Upon hearing a pitch like this Don Draper would take a drag off his cigaret that bitch slap the bunch of them.
gd23

MAAAAAAAAAC! PEEEEECCCEEEEEE!
BlackAndy

Although I usually try to be a member of the Johnson family, Ridingnowhere85 up there (at #2) seems to be an astroturfer. He/she/they/it left a very similar if not the same comment on the Ars Technica discussion of the ad (here, about 10 comments down), and another poster there called them on astroturfing.

Also, I didn’t get “absurdist” so much as I did “forced idiosyncratic”. (“Waiting for Godot” it is not.) So no, I didn’t really like it.
Hugh “Nomad” Hancock

I must admit, I rather liked it – and as a branding exercise, I think it’s a darn good one.

(I’m not sure they’re trying to do anything more complicated than make Microsoft appear human.)

Also – Bill Gates has rather good comic timing. Who knew?
microcars

remember the Infinity commercials back when?
they never showed the car, never really addressed what they were advertising.

who is the audience for this?

what is the product? a computer you can eat?

a computer that is uncomfortable when you buy it and you have to flex it and soak it in water to get to work right?
Ruth666

Maybe MS should focus on making a computer that WORKS instead of crashing, not insult their users with this garbage.

Is it just me or is this commercial telling you their product is horrible and ill-fitting, and that we’re idiots if we don’t embrace that?
Phikus

There is little I love more than good absurdist humor. I did not find this commercial funny in the least. If this is supposed to be absurdist, yer doin’ it wrong.
EvilTerran

I’d say this ad’s going for the market of the middle-managerial types who remember the days when Seinfeld was at his best. It’s like the WoW adverts with Shatner and Mr T – they’re going for a more mundane audience than the “cool, arty types” aimed at by Mac.

As others have said, it does a good job of humanising Gates, but more specifically, it makes him come across as “one of the guys at the golf course” or whatever. That would appeal to the “old, boring, and know it” market.

I say it’s quite cleverly done – this just isn’t the target audience.
chukdog

WORST. THING. EVER.

Dear Mr. Seinfeld,

Perhaps you once tickled America’s funny bone. Perhaps once you were sitting on top of the world. You certainly have our money.
Yet you still have this look in your eyes like you think you’re funny. The vulgar cross promotions you did for Bee Movie were as funny as colon cancer. This latest, lame-ass attempt at absurdist humor made me want to stab my eyes out, fill my ears with fast acting epoxy and huff gas to grant me merciful brain damage, and forget…forget…forget…

Yours,

C
Boba Fett Diop

No, Don Draper would send them back to their offices to think about what the fuck they are actually selling.
martha_macarthur

I think it’s funny.
darkbeanie

This one is obviously pretty polarizing.

For my part, I’m with Ashground — I avoided watching it until I saw it here, because I thought it was going to suck. I’m not really a Seinfeld fan, and I only use MS software where I’m forced, due to software availability. (Gentoo and Fedora everywhere else.)

But I actually thought this was pretty cool. It’s actually refreshing to see Gates depicted as a somewhat entertaining human being, instead of the mildly autistic tantrum-throwing weirdo CEO or the Borg-accessorized Slashdot icon. (Of course, who knows how many takes were required to get that “affable” thing right) :o)
GonzoMultiverse

Underwhelmed. Their chemistry was awkward. But I liked the Spanish-speaking family. The only time I chuckled.
antfarmer

Has-been overpaid semi-retired comic blows verbal diarrhea with has-been overpaid programmer who never had an original idea but just sucked off the innovations of others. Two people I don’t connect with or care about spouting uninteresting insignificant banter in a nondescript setting. The unpleasant ad is a good match for the bloated, nagging, soul-killing operating system. The perfect marriage of banality and mediocrity. A steaming stinking trouserful of modern superfluous drivel. You go Jerry! Your best work Bill! Now go away and leave us all alone.
Mythus

Viewing that as not a commercial and just something hilarious…that was hilarious.
Takuan

don’t be so easy on them