Comments on: Microsoft is pushing Seinfeld away too soon

Don Reisinger thinks Microsoft is pushing Jerry Seinfeld away before it should. Worse, he thinks Microsoft needs to abandon its current strategy before it's too late.

[schnack]

I seem to remember one of the Seinfeld episodes with Jerry using an Apple computer. If this is true and Gates wants to play hard ball, well, playing that clip will shoot a missile over his bow for sure.

[Anchelspain]

Ckurowic, I did offer a link with a full-blown article on Microsoft's campaign that dates back to May 2008. It is not just from any simple magazine, I'm talking about Fast Company, an important business publication, which should serve as more than a credible source. It is right in my previous comment.

As for the rest of the things I said, those are easy to check just by comparing the two OSs in different versions along time. But my point here wasn't about critizicing Mac OS X or Vista. I'm not interested in that, but in the current Microsoft campaign.

Now, you say that Microsoft is two years behind Apple in ads. I don't quite understand what you mean with this statement. Yes, Apple started their "Mac vs PC" ads in 2006. And they had other ads in 2005. And newer ones for the iPhone 3G in 2008. Microsoft has had ads in 2005 for Windows Live, ads in 2006 for Windows Vista and the Mojave ads in 2008. Maybe I didn't understand quite well what you were trying to say (sorry, my English is not the best, I'm from Spain).

[solitare_pax]

Just so you know -- Microsoft's PR products are made on a Mac.

[BearMate]

I always thought that Seinfeld had a "coolness" factor about him. I find some irony in the fact that during the cool years that his show was on television, in the background, there was always the latest Mac model sitting on his desk.

For me, it seems the cool has turned to a chill. LOL

[swiggins]

For the amount of money they threw at Sienfeld, which by the way has done absolutely nothing for them. (if ONE person bought a MS product because of his ads I'll eat a bag of nails)........

They could have put in HD-DVD drives in every xbox 360 and we would be looking at a whole different landscape right now. . . MS is smart, but their stupidity and lack of common sense is legendary.

Combo dvd's (one side dvd and one side HD-DVD was the perfect way to ease the world into HD with actually giving the consumer the option (by just flipping the dvd) of what format they could watch.
That momentary lapse of reason cost them the format war. .
They did the same thing by ignoring Apple all of these years, regarding them as small and insignificant.
Meanwhile Apple built up an incredibly LOYAL fanbase and start to chip away at big brother MS.
Now, they are panicking and are funding themselves with much less leverage then ever.
Apple is doing better than ever, SOny is on the verge of taking back their gaming crown (because of blu ray) and MS is scrambling to find an angle that will work...

By the way, I use Mac's for years, my favorite gaming console is the 360, but I own a PS3 for blu ray and that's the only reason. I have to admit MS is old and out of touch.

Here's an angle MS, . . . think ahead for a change, it's 2009 in a few months, and you guys hired the best comic of last century to pull you up. . . man, you just played right into Apple's hands and proved their point.

[ldtiry]

MACS ARE PC'S.....any questions

[zmonster]

SUGGESTION FOR MICROSOFT -- START PRODUCING PRODUCTS THAT PEOPLE ACTUALLY WANT TO BUY. MAYBE THAT WILL INCREASE YOUR BUSINESS. JUST A WILD GUESS.

[62Sparkplug]

You're expecting creative, classy ads from a company that gave us the expression of "squirting" your friend or a stranger in the Social?

[tedyost1970]

Mr Reisinger,

You don't get it. Hopefully you don't get paid for not getting it. Your interpretation of the ad campaign really takes a chapter out of bizarro world, including statements such as "Sure, I can see beating up on Linux and maybe even attacking Google"

Attacking Linux? Give me a break. This is far simpler than what you are making this out to be. M$ is a mature company in that phase of a business life cycle where it has to increase the amount of money spent to maintain market share and to distinguish itself from increasingly similar competitors... if not similar, definitely alternative or replacement competitors.

The dude understanding the ad campaign had it far clearer than you.

Besides... the Seinfeld approach is not really targeting the people who need to be targeted.

But oh well, I've got a life and am not going to waste any more time laughing at your bizarro article.

[spmalan]

Having your commercial not work on its first or second release? Do I see a pattern here? This is just
too funny, Seinfeid could not even write this!!!!!

[spmalan]

"Without walls" also means you will live without windows!!!!!!!!!!! I think I will hang out my shingle
for an ad agency. Then I can "just work", and have a 99% chance of doing a better job with 300
million dollars.

[Spanwite]

All the Money to push Vista, well does not work on me.
I heard, did read, to use Vista to it's fullest you need a powerfully Machine. I don't have, and can not buy right now.

My Laptop with desktop Pentium3 1000mhz runs on XP Pro just great (ME was first). So I have to skip the newest Windows creation, sorry Bill.
Maybe next one or any other OS on a new machine!

[Rik Diamond]

Ad or no Ad Vista Sucks really bad. I am Sick of the crashes every 2 to 3 months. Does anyone know what Microsoft Windows Vista Business / XP Professional downgrade mean? I am shopping for a new lap top and Sony is offering this with a lot of their new laptops. I used Vista Business on a lap top March 2007- Dec 2007 it crashed 10 times 100s and 100s of work hours lost I have been using a Desktop with Vista Home premium It has Crashed 7 times the latest was last week previous to that was June 7th . I can?t take it anymore. Drivers disappear for no reason. So as cute as their little ads go VISTA is a huge mistake!

[equalizertools]

You couldn't have said this any better. It's like you were reading my mind.

[Luxview]

Interesting article (though I'm a firm MAC fan and think of Microsoft PC's as shopping centers for programming conflicts, viruses, etc...)

I was very surprised that you wrote "But now is not the right time to do it: Microsoft didn't improve its image yet." You should have written, "But now is not the right time to do it: Microsoft hasn't improved its image yet." The word 'yet' requires the present perfect verb tense -- also surprising that this got by your grammar checkers and editors...

[David R Williams]

Well, People like you always give us such perpective that becomes lucrative and most beneficial.
Thanks for your observation


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[gsmiller88]

Shelving the Seinfeld ads this soon were obviously not planned. I mean, c'mon, the guy was paid $10,000,000 to do TWO ads! It'll make the average consumer scratch their heads even more now seeing that the new "I'm a PC" ads do not even tie into them, but Microsoft should have known better, the Seinfeld ads really didn't make any sense and were a waste of millions of dollars that could have been put toward a better ad campaign. Must be nice to be able to waste millions of dollars on a trial and error basis.

[Motomacher]

Don, you are right and you are wrong. The Apple ads are cool or funny to computer-centric people, but confusing to the non-computer-centric world. The Apple ads are snooty and elitist. Plus, in Red-State america they play off as glorifying a gay slacker from San Francisco versus a guy that goes to work and pays taxes.

The ads could be: "I am straight" and "I am Gay" ..."I have a job" and "I play around on chat rooms all day"..."I go to ESPN.com once a day" and "I go to protest blogs all day long".

I would hammer Apple on this and the fact that all Apple stuff, regardless of value, is sold for $30. A fire-wire cable for an ipod, $30 at the Apple store!

[magicman73]

I love all the responses of how Apple is so "user friendly" and such a "wonderful product". What a joke! First off, how "user friendly" can Apple be when they didn't even manage to hop on to the multi-button mouse bandwagon until a few years ago? As for being a "wonderful product" their hardware is homogenous and consistently fail to PC geared machines on benchmarks. The ONLY reason people are switching to Apple is not because they think Apple is so great but because Apple is perceived as the "cool" and "hip" product and also because they perceive the PC to be flawed. Perceived, not actually know. Shoppers are sheep and 9 times out of ten they will follow the herd. PC's were meant to be the ubiquitous office machine. How can you possibly place cool on that? The indelible fact is that, after 15 years of using both machines, I find the PC to be far more powerful, versatile and functional than any Apple product and at half the cost. Plus, I can build my own, knowing exactly what pieces are going into the machine. How many here have ever built a Mac to their own specifications? Beyond the concept of selecting from individual buckets filled with no-name products? The purpose of the Seinfeld-Gates ads was to improve public perception of MS and in that goal drive more sales.

[onlyauser]

IT'S NOT THE AD STUPID!..................It's the company.

Microsoft still, even at this late stage in the game think the consumer is stupid. BIG changes are required from Microsoft to earn the consumers back. Listen up Microsoft because Google has already cut your throat real good and you are lucky your head is still attached. The Office suite is now irrelevant with Google docs and the Windows OS is history also on several fronts. This is not a dream or a nightmare but reality for Microsoft. MICROSOFT it is time to make your consumer products OPEN!