Forget Seinfeld, Microsoft, you want the two Coreys
Here at Crave, we occasionally like to crowd-source our humor.
Thursday, we learned that Jerry Seinfeld, one of the funniest men on the planet, will be the new spokesman in an ad campaign for Microsoft's Vista operating system. Can Seinfeld steal some of the marketing thunder from Apple's hipster Macintosh dude and the poor, shlubby Windows fella who clearly needs to get his suit tailored?
Well, as our readers have noted, there's a bit of irony to this, since many of us recall that Seinfeld was always using a Mac on his '90s sitcom. That got us thinking: Should Microsoft hire someone not so clearly playing both sides of the fence? Thankfully, our readers had some terrific ideas.
"Anyone from The Office would be more relevant to my internets," one reader said in pondering who the next Vista spokesman should be.
(Credit: NBC)• Our first commenter, "J-Hawaii," had a good suggestion, a Borg drone from Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, I'm not sure this is the best representative of Microsoft's business-first attitude. While we often think of the Borg as joyless automatons of a conformist culture, the best-known Borg, Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager, added new femininity to cyber-kinetic life forms. Even the creepy Borg Queen in the movie Star Trek: First Contact had a certain je ne sais quoi about her.
Could a Borg offer the first sex appeal to a Microsoft ad campaign since the Rolling Stones were singing Start Me Up for Windows 95?
• Commentator "Dirk VanNerden," along with many others, suggests Steve Carell and the rest of the cast of The Office. Makes sense; you've got vaguely unhappy office folk stuck in workplace purgatory in Scranton, Penn. (I grew up about 20 miles from Scranton, so trust me: "purgatory" is a nice way to put it.) Total Microsoft stereotype. Nails it.
However, a Microsoft fan might point out that the cast of a Carell movie, The 40-Year-Old Virgin could work just as well for Apple. You know, gadget heads stuck forever in some sort of adolescent, video-game-playing, pot-smoking purgatory.
Here at Crave, we also like to be platform neutral with our insults.
• Homer Simpson, Charlie Brown, Rodney Dangerfield, Jason Alexander (who played hapless "George" on Seinfeld), and other people doomed to never get it right (unless they do the opposite of what they'd normally do, like George did): Personally, I think the diabolical, nuclear-plant-owning "Mr. Burns" on The Simpsons might be a better stand-in for a company that throws out a profit of a few billion dollars every quarter, despite the Vista follies. But, hey, that's just me.
(Credit:
Fox)
• "Cafteach" suggests the great comedian and San Franciscan Robin Williams. Makes a lot of sense: Like Microsoft, Mork was at the height of his powers in the '90s, winning an Oscar for his performance in Good Will Hunting. And like Microsoft, he's laid some eggs in recent years. Did anyone even see RV? That said, he was still awfully funny as a penguin's voice in Happy Feet (or was that a puffin?)
• "Theoscnet" offers the cruelest cut of all: The two Coreys, "Corey Feldman and Corey Whoever..." It's Corey Haim, Theo. I looked it up for you. It's been a long time since we got the double-Corey treatment in '80s classics such as License to Drive and The Lost Boys. (But wasn't Keifer Sutherland really scary as a Jim Morrison-inspired vampire?)
The last we saw the two Coreys, they were puffy 30-somethings starring in The Two Coreys--"a look at the lives of former child stars Corey Feldman and Corey Haim living together as adults," as The Internet Movie Database puts it.
Microsoft...a metaphor for washed-up child stars? No way, but it's fair to say the company is starting to look a little puffy and out of fashion in its middle age, as our readers are quick to point out.
Jim Kerstetter has been writing about the high-tech industry for more than 13 years, as a senior editor at PC Week, a Silicon Valley correspondent at BusinessWeek, and now an executive editor at CNET News. He moved back to Boston because he missed the Red Sox. E-mail Jim. 
What's with that dudes?
Now back to the topic at hand. I am actually quite interested in Jerry Seinfeld, Yet I don't think it will be much of game changing move. I do think Microsoft is trying to tailor to a specific audience in this campaign, and I do not think that audience is people that already own a mac, or those who already plan on buying a mac. I think this may be targeted at older users of windows xp, reinforcing that they should go ahead and move to Vista as quickly as possible (windows 7 is around the corner for pete sake).
Its not so much to pit Seinfeld versus Justin long, as it is to substitute for John Hodgman.
With a name like Vista, they should also go with someone like George Lopez for a pitch to the Hispanic market.
I can picture the one-liners already.
I finally get the chance for Windows with a Vista and my own Office, and Steve Jobs think I want to go pick Apples? He must be crazy.
What's with the Ieverything? I'll tell you what it is, the sound you make when you see the price tag. Aye!
You know why I like Microsoft, because everything from Apple only comes in Black, white or silver. Does Apple have some kind of problem with beige? Mira, my whole family is beige!
Now back to the topic at hand. I am actually quite interested in Jerry Seinfeld, Yet I don't think it will be much of game changing move. I do think Microsoft is trying to tailor to a specific audience in this campaign, and I do not think that audience is people that already own a mac, or those who already plan on buying a mac. I think this may be targeted at older users of windows xp, reinforcing that they should go ahead and move to Vista as quickly as possible (windows 7 is around the corner for pete sake).
Its not so much to pit Seinfeld versus Justin long, as it is to substitute for John Hodgman.
GOOGLE IT for the TWO WORD ENDING!
TTFN, TA TA FOR NOW!
So, Apple is just (copying a page from Microsoft's playbook?) spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt -- but precious little truth, with their ads.
Of course, that doesn't mean that Microsoft -- famously bad at marketing -- won't find a way to flub the marketing campaign.
Vista fans are funny because they are so blind to reality. Enjoy the bloat, DRM, and spyware.
I think you have a type-o there The_Decider... You miss-typed "MS" when you really meant "The_Decider".
Hmm... That might not work either, seeing as one of the biggest arguments over PC vs Mac is the availability of games.
The Microsoft lemmings can't have it both ways.
G-d help us.
You can see a lot of the same humor in HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm"
As such, I am going to Curb my Enthusiasm with for these upcoming ads. They would have been better picking someone from the CURRENT NBC Thursday Night Comedy lineup.
I agree with an earlier poster- this isn't about trying to outsmart Apple ads, but provide an alternative to John Hodgeman.
You can see a lot of the same humor in HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm"
As such, I am going to Curb my Enthusiasm with for these upcoming ads. They would have been better picking someone from the CURRENT NBC Thursday Night Comedy lineup.
I agree with an earlier poster- this isn't about trying to outsmart Apple ads, but provide an alternative to John Hodgeman.
- by kmtkr August 23, 2008 12:44 PM PDT
- I've seen Robin Williams at more than one Mac World show in SF - I doubt he would stick his neck out for MS :)
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