Yesterday, Valleywag wrote that Microsoft was canning its $300 million ad campaign featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld after only two commercials. Today, it turns out the ads won't be pulled, just reformulated. Microsoft's campaign drew a mix of condemnation and praise for its odd approach to bolstering its image by ignoring the mud Apple and critics are slinging at Vista: Some found the new ads too confusing, while others — including us here at DVICE — were curious to see where its was all going.
While ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky has finished another spot featuring Gates and Seinfeld, it looks like we won't be enjoying their company for much longer — at least not with a Microsoft logo tacked on. Looks like the software giant wants the ad firm to concentrate on answering Mac's ongoing "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" ad war in a similar style, but with a twist. Microsoft will showcase 60 of its own real employees and tell its own story, a bit like how the Democratic National Convention had a "real Americans talking" segment, and ExxonMobile is running commercials featuring employees. Bill Gates and other celebrities may still be used, though no word on if Seinfeld will continue to show up.
To add an air of authenticity to the commercials, all of Microsoft's employees will also be accompanied by their respective email addresses. So now the question is: Will the pride and joy of real computer technicians curry the favor of the crowd against Apple's polished snark?
UPDATE: The new Microsoft ads are online. Check them out.
Via Valleywag, Gizmodo and the New York Times
editor@dvice.com
By dick at 7:29 PM ON 09/18/08
macs rock .. pc's are in the past
vista is a failure ...
apple's phone will take over ..
By David Gerard at 7:58 PM ON 09/18/08
He just didn't want to do the next ad in the series:
"Vista's slow, it's fat, my software doesn't work, I can't get drivers, the User Access Control's a pain in the ass and my network grinds to a crawl when I play an mp3! What do you call that?"
"... The Aristocrats!"
By The Dude at 8:20 PM ON 09/18/08
The first one was very meh and very stupid, though I liked the shoe line. The second one, the extended five minute something version, was excellent and awesome. I'm sad they're canning it here. It was a unique Microsoft thing reminiscent of their 1990's convention things.
Even when Microsoft gets something right, they get it wrong. They're hopeless. Too bad I hate Apple with a passion. If only Linux would catch on with gamers...
By wil at 9:54 PM ON 09/18/08
Everybody keeps saying vista is cr@p but I love my Vista computer and it works way better than XP computer did. It is way easier to use (after some tweaks but XP was that way too). Some people just don't like change. The change was welcome for me. A change I could believe in I guess ;)
By Kubiak at 10:17 PM ON 09/18/08
Vista has its issues just like any other piece of software, including Apple's software, they all have bugs. If you are intelligent you acclimate yourself to the product and go in knowledgable of the bugs you face with any of them and work around it.
By newguy at 1:00 AM ON 09/19/08
Perhaps it's time for a new software company to take the world by "storm"...stand by for future transmissions.
By Bob at 3:01 AM ON 09/19/08
The spots are stupid and Vista sucks. The end.
By Anonymous at 6:17 AM ON 09/19/08
If you like pretty pictures and fancy adds get a mac.
If you want to use a computer get a PC.
By budgethero at 11:20 AM ON 09/19/08
mac and apple sux
now you see what i just did there was make a very general, simple statement that any windows fan/defender could easily say. wat i didnt do is *support* the claim with facts and evidence (dont worry david, you did. i'm not talking about you.) and looking at it from a more opinionated stance, such statements aren't very creative.
By nicholasjh at 11:24 AM ON 09/19/08
Really for content and bugs and everything, only one thing really makes vista suck. It's slow... yes you can run it with the most recent processors, but why would I want to use my extra power to run the OS? It's not like it's more powerful, the OS is slow because of the security checks. it's stupid.
By JR at 8:14 PM ON 09/19/08
You know what I say to the employees of a company which makes OSs and software so full of problems I've wanted to buy a shotgun off the black market (when I was still a minor) and blast every PC I've ever used or have ever been in the position to try to fix to kingdom come? People who earn a living causing misery for millions of people worldwide?
Eat caca and die!
P.S. No, I did not buy a gun before I turned 21, and no, I'm not going to take down all their e-mail addresses and tell them that. I'm too busy lavishing in OSX heaven.
By Another Guy at 6:12 PM ON 09/21/08
It's odd to see the amount of flame that Vista gets to take; the Mojave experiment was awful, but in retrospect it makes perfect sense.
OSX heaven? Vista sucks? Slow because of security checks? You people really need to formulate some proper arguments (and do fact checks) before catching the next bandwagon train.
I think the newest MS ad was a rather clever approach to Apple's seriously skewered but kind of fun ad campaign. It was, at least, less ostentatious if anything.
Well, I like parts of MacOs X. But if there's an OS concept I'm behind, it's Linux/Gnu. I just like to play games, that's all.
By coonass at 8:42 AM ON 09/25/08
My wife's office uses Macs, exclusively. They just went over to the new ones, the ones with system enclosures the size of cardboard drink boxes. Guess what - they had a system failure that lasted a WEEK, corrupted their files both on the LAN and on each of their desktop systems...
which gave me an idea for the NEXT Microsoft ad:
"Hi, I'm a Mac... I look great and everything, and if you think I look great, just watch the way I wo- " (pull focus wide to show Mac guy falling on floor, urinating on himself, emulating a full-on epileptic seizure, then dying... )
This post was made from a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop running Windows Vista Home Premium. I have NO complaints with my system, compared to what my wife says about her system at work. I'm running SP1 and it has answered all of the early Vista issues; regarding the people who have a problem with User Access Control, yeah, it's clunky, but if the Macs at my wife's office had had it, the malware that smoked their LAN might not have had a chance to do its thing.