New Microsoft ad featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld

You aren't missing it, Microsoft is. They have a $300 million or so (from memory) budget planned for a branding campaign to counter the Mac vs. PC ads and to get that youthful cool branding going they inexplicably picked an old comedian who hasn't been on TV while the latest generation has been watching.

They are right to not let Mac outbrand them while they do nothing, but this is a particularly poor way to kick off their multi-million dollar branding campaign by using a comic who hasn't been on the "cool" scene for years.

i guess it's sorta funny... self-depracating humor never gets old...

Microsoft should have hired me. This is the idea I came up with:

Commercial opens up to an American Idol stage with William Hung singing "She Bangs" in that horrible engrish singing voice of his. He is wearing Apple clothes from head to toe. Hat, shirt, the whole deal. You hear the audience boo-ing in the background. Then when he is finished, you see the three judges, all decked out in microsoft clothes. They each say a few quick words about how horrible the performance was. The commercial ends with a close up of Hung showing his Apple hat and shirt, with a sad look on his face. You hear Simon saying something like "Horrible. Just Horrible". Then maybe you could fade to black with a message that says something like "Microsoft. Not just some dumb fad"

So what do you think? Better then the Jerry Seinfeld thing? I do. Give me my 300 million!

They don't even need to get William Hung, they can just use an existing Apple fanboy like...

I laughed. I cried. I vomited in my mouth a little bit.

I... well just take a look:

I don't get it either. Microsoft should give up SAYING they are going to do something brilliant, and really DO something brilliant.

Here's the long version of their second ad:

Bill Gates seems to be as stiff and humorless as his software, and the commercials are just plain dumb. Let's face it, Apple is innovative and
hip. Can you imagine that a Bill Gates could have ever come up with an iPhone?
Never, never, never!

Apple has a great design and marketing team, as evidenced by your enthusiasm.

Why is Bill wasting his time doing these skits with Jerry. They have nothing to do with selling any Microsoft products. Maybe he just likes Jerry. Or maybe he's having a fight with is wife. Maybe being a billionaire isn't all it's cracked up to be and he's bored. That would be really depressing.

I 'd have to disagree with that one. Not saying he is a comedic genious by any means, but I'd say he has a great sense of humor. I'd much rather hang around with him for a day then I would Steve Jobs.

Hm Nick, I don't know - I guess I am more in tune with Apple.
Those clips were rather boring in my view.

I'm still not sure what to think about the ads. I like the second one better then the first. Bill reading about programming design patterns to the kid was good. And they reference the first video when bill is stretching out his shoes like Jerry showed him in the first.

They ads haven't done anything to bring me to Microsoft yet, but they have gotten my attention. I was fast-forwarding through commercials the other day (as I watch everthing DVR'd) and saw this ad. I rewound and watch it, which is pretty rare for me to do. The only other ads I can think of I've done this for is new sonic commercials. I love 'em.

And I can respect that. Apple puts out great products. In fact, I am counting down the days until my Sprint contract is up so I can switch to AT&T and get an IPhone.

I wasn't talking about the products, or even the companies though. I was just talking about the character and personality of Gates and Jobs. Jobs seems to be an egotistical A-hole, while Gates seems more of an inspired dreamer who wants to change the world. Gates has left Microsoft, as it is no longer his passion. He has decided he would rather put his time and energy into philanthropy, spending billions of dollars to try and solve the worlds problems.

Apple has released some fantastic products, and I think that they will continue to grow and innovate. However I can't respect Jobs like I do Gates.

We're corporate with Verizon and I can't get the iPhone, but I bought
the LG Dare and it's similar and pretty good.

I agree with you Nick, on a personal level Bill Gates is definitely more sympatico,
and he's done great work towards his philanthropic causes, whereas Steve Jobs
and Apple for that matter was named one of the least philanthropic companies
in the U.S.

BusinessWeek had a good article on Steve Jobs recently
Here

Penny arcade did a comic on the ads:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/9/15/consensus/

Well apparently they are ending the Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ads. I actually wish that wasn't the case. I still don't quite know what to think of them, but I was curious to see what would happen next.

At any rate, the new ads are going to feature a John Hodgeman (Hi, I'm a PC) look-alike. I don't know if I like the idea of competing with Apple using the same character that Apple has built its advertising on... but we'll see.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/17/microsofts-new-ads-seinfeld-and-gates-out-hodgman-lookalike-i/

Hah! It's kind of funny, isn't it? Microsoft playing copycat to Apple.