Comments on: The Digital Home Video: Microsoft still needs Seinfeld

Don Reisinger thinks Microsoft still needs Jerry Seinfeld. Find out why in his latest video.

[cporpheus]

It's not a blunder. Microsoft is answering the Apple ads directly by using an "I'm a PC" look-a-like. Wait until the new ads are out before you declare it a damaging act.

[dd13reis]

Doesn't it have to improve its image first? Who will listen if they don't like Microsoft? That's the problem I see.

-Don

[donald17]

The purpose of a solid marketing and advertising program is to move product. The Sienfeld ads were never going to move product because they are too abstract. Daimler-Chrysler tried an approach like the Microsoft-Seinfeld gambit and they failed because the average American television viewer didn't get the hang of what the ads were communicating.

There is a time for cute, and there is a time for getting directly down to business. Crispin-Bogusky has a Madison Ave reputation for coming up with strange crap that seldom gets the job done, and why clients continue to use C-B is beyond all of my 50 years in the advertising business to comprehend.

I can't wait to see what the next round of Microsoft ads are going to look and sound like. Don't try to read subtlety into current television advertising. There's no time for subtlety. Apple, by default of arrogance, sells reliable working hardware. Microsoft, who has always been suckered in by Apple, should remember that it sells software. Microsoft instead should present ads that show just how much of the world's businesses, educational and governmental institutions, homes, and mobile communications devices function using MS software are all tied together. A single commercial showing American soldiers in Iraq using mobile phones running on Microsoft software would go a lot farther in winning the hearts, minds and money of America.

[dd13reis]

The Seinfeld ads were designed to provide the framework for these next set of ads. Seinfeld ads were for image, these ads were for product. That's how marketing works when you're trying to repair image and that's what needs to be done.

These are coming too soon.

-Don

[MildApplause]

You're right - you explained the concept Microsoft was going for in the ads perfectly. But, in order for something to work, there has to be a solid concept, and then there has to be solid execution, and that's where this whole thing fell apart - the ad agency just didn't execute the concept.

When we see Seinfeld, we have certain expectations. We expect to laugh. And in these spots, the writing just wasn't funny. Had there been a few Seinfeld-quality payoffs in the spots that people would have been walking around saying to each other the next day in the vein of "No Soup For You" or "Yadda yadda" or "Festivus For The Rest Of Us," the ads would have been a home run. Just one in each spot would have been enough. Why didn't they pay some comedy writers or... get Larry David to help or... get some of Seinfeld's former writers to help? I hope they didn't rely on ad agency guys to write material for Jerry Seinfeld.

Another dimension to this: What? Ya say Microsoft spent $300 million dollars on a concept and then screwed up the execution? No way!! zomg...

[dd13reis]

That's an interesting point -- the value of being funny when it's Jerry Seinfeld. Great point.

Do you think these would have worked if they were funny? I'm guessing they would have been better. We need Larry David to write the commercials.

-Don

[tomsj2]

Who the hell are you, what do you think you know about marketing high-tech products, and why do you look like you're sitting in a dental chair? You hurt me just by virtue of the chair.

Seinfeld was overpriced at best, and the commercials were blase. The fact that MS cancelled them after only two weeks tells me that they have even less marketing acumen than I thought. This to combat Apple's Steve Jobs, who is a marketing genius.

Get a life, Don. Go back to writing code, because as a marketeer, you will never cut it.

[dd13reis]

Wow. Angry much? Your comment provides no value here and only aims at being "tough." Well, my friend, you swung and missed.

It sounds like you're just another Apple zealot that won't accept anything from Microsoft no matter what. You wouldn't even accept $10 million from Bill Gates himself, would you?

And as a correction -- the ads weren't necessarily canceled with Seinfeld. They were shelved.

-Don

[cloud9ine]

And I should be listening to someone who cannot read from a pre-written script without messing it up. Like the last guy said, Mr. Dentist, the ads were cool, and we loved to watch it, but guess what, they were not ads. Neither were they Seinfeld mini-episodes.

They never got to a point. They tried to work on a half-baked gag-chain of Mr. Gates doing something at the end of each commercial to show the people something is coming? MS got 5 years to make an OS, and they come out with Vista? Don't go apple fanboying on me, coz I have never used an Apple product. Ever. I am the biggest fan of Win XP. I recognize the good Microsoft has done for the industry by bringing up de facto, albeit proprietary standards for everything from app development to document exchange. But in the end, they messed up.

Back to the ads. Two things from the ads. In the first one, where Jerry talks about Gates having wired up the brains at Microsoft, Gates replies smugly, I have. In the second, the pizza guy says the two most accomplished people in their own fields.

You see, they expected us to laugh. But for the common people, those are pretty close to being taken for granted. And nothing is ever funny, when it is so close to being true.

As to your opinion, park it. At least with digital corders, you aren't wasting film.

[dd13reis]

First off, I don't read from a pre-written script. It's all off-the-cuff.

The point of those ads was to improve the mainstream's perception of Microsoft. Nothing more, nothing less. You obviously don't understand the idea of adding value to the brand before promoting products, but that's a key concept to note. Don't forget that.

-Don

[koehlerba]

Your defense of the PRINCIPAL behind the Seinfeld ads is justified; but the CONTENT they used failed MISERABLY! If MS has any marketing smarts, they will FIRE that AGENCY (except, of course, that they APPROVED the ads) - BUT it is not MS's expertise to decide/determine what WILL WORK in this situation; that's why they paid that hopeless agency millions (must have been a mother-in-law effect in there somewhere.

They need to cut their losses with these bozos, and find an agency with a RECENT TRACK RECORD of doing what they need to do (which, by the way, is not looking like a big jerk by tricking people with the Mojave project).

Santa Cruz Bruce

[dd13reis]

I think the content could have been better. As one commenter noted, maybe it should have been funnier. Maybe some better writing would help or like you say, maybe some better marketers. Either way, Microsoft needs to do something with its $300 million investment. I agree.

-Don

[JaylikeBird]

Deep breath.

What, if I may ask naively, is this PC vs Mac war all about? It is the most useless and unproductive thing I can imagine. serving no function other than to distance people in general from the technology and cultural niche we all want to promote. Different people and companies want to do that in different ways, yipee. So how did this stupid-business start? If I recall the 90's correctly Mac got a whopping amount of hate laid on it. This is before all that anti-trust business. So after getting a heap of dirt from MS users, Mac was fearing their brand would be damaged and set to define their it squarely against those who had been defining it for them. Okay. Maybe they went too far. Had enough yet?

Here's more rhetorical questions: Who's winning? Who cares? Do you think all this useless argument exists in a vacuum? What if there are unintended consequences to this spewing of virtual hatred? Why risk it when it is so unpleasant (and I take that word seriously) and draining? Why Bother?

We need to be promoting the indispensibility and function in the long term of what we've got to the world, in whatever way we can get it done. If you think this involves endless war, quit now with Fail. We all want to make things that let people have more and do more of what we want in a way that's good for life for all time. Am I mistaken in this?

I don't care if you run a successful small business and know that Mac couldn't offer half the value and use for what you get done using Microsoft's platform(s). I don't have half the computer you do! You know what you're doing and don't need anyone to give you a hard time! I don't care if you built your computer from spare parts of every manufacturer and wrote your own operating system, sort of like that Johnny Cash song. Great! I have no critique! I don't care if you buy into a cultural enforcement yuppie commune like Apple-- Hey! It's a nice place!

I will try to say this nicely:

Now shutup all of you get back to work.

-

Disclaimer: the free computer i got several years back was an Apple, therefore i use those boxes for my work, since (especially recently) they are more than adequate. If I would tell anyone that they have to be first to declare peace, it would be Apple users. Just stop it already, jerks. You're making my granny cry.

Double disclaimer: this is a second posting of my little rant, and I may post it one last time somewhere else, so I'm lying somewhat in the Note.

Note: If this strikes you as obvious and you like it, pass it on yourself. This whole platform war is so incredibly boring, and profit-sucking, I can't believe I took even the time to write this.

[dd13reis]

Great questions and comments all-around. It's true: who does care? The average mainstream person couldn't care less -- it's just us geeks that care about all this stuff.

But I think you miss one key point: Apple and MSFT shareholders care and that's the only reason why MSFT is doing this.

-Don

[Dalmatian28]

I can't believe Microsoft will respond to that stupid ad: " I am PC". That must me the stupidest add in 21st century. Every time I see that add it makes me think that it was probable created by couple seven year old kids! It is so lame that it actually ruins the image of Apple products. It is like watching Neanderthal interaction with Cro-Magnons. What happen to the taste of our society????? They spend millions in advertising for this junk commercials! Blahhh!

[dd13reis]

Ads don't have to be intelligent or great. They need to be effective, regardless of stupidity. The I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC ads may not offer a ton of logic, but they work because they're mildly entertaining and typically better than the rest of the crap we see on TV.

They work.

-Don

[cporpheus]

The new commercials are here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrmF-mPLybw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hhVjSbV_oQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj5UyZKo2iE

[MildApplause]

Wow.

OK... now... whoa. Thanks for those links to the new commercials, btw.

But, I have to ask...did it just get worse?

WHY are they responding to Apple??! If Apple is bashing you with comedic ads, pick a different road... pick a different approach.... do dramatic ads, or do informational ads like the old IBM Progress Report ads.

They are validating Apple's ads by responding to them! These make Microsoft look like Apple made Microsoft say "uncle!" and Microsoft is going, "please! Please stop making fun of us!! Waaaah!!"

And... if it was so important for M$ to respond to Apple's funny ads, why did it take them, what, two years to get around to it? Why are they answering these now?

[dd13reis]

I just don't know why MSFT wants to compete with Apple, the single company that can ruin it in the public perception sphere. Doesn't make sense to me.

-Don

[gergux]

LINUX FTW

[gergux]

LINUX FTW!

[dd13reis]

Meh. Linux is good and all, but there's a reason why it's not included in these commercials.

-Don

[dvdragon]

I disagree Don. The problem is not with Microsoft as a company. The problem is with their product: Vista. The outcry is not, "Microsoft is teh evil corp". The outcry is, "Why can a company with so much money and talented people make an OS that is bloated and buggy?".

or

"Why can such a huge company with billions of dollars not get together with hardware makers and make sure they have good driver compatibility with a new OS they are releasing?"

Most people are not in the computer enthusiast class and don't care about corporate politics. They do care when their programs and hardware that worked great on Windows XP does not work or has limited functionality on Windows Vista.

We don't need a more "human" Microsoft and more than we need a more "human" cable repairman. We do need the cable repairman to show up on time and fix our cable and not have to comeback and do it over and over again. We do need a software company that puts out a complete product that is ready for the market.

[dd13reis]

I think the outcry is actually both. People look at Bill Gates and MSFT and say, "Hey! Those guys are bullies and not like the rest of us!" The tech savvy person is looking at the problems with Vista and complaining. I think that's the difference.

But shareholders do come into play here and we can't forget that. They matter and that's why MSFT and Apple are doing all this.

-Don