Comments on: Microsoft: Shift away from Seinfeld-Gates planned

Microsoft's massive ad campaign is shifting away from the Microsoft chairman and comedian's dual act, but the company insists it's part of a planned shift to focusing on the products.

[The_happy_switcher]

In my best Nelson Munce voice: HA HUH!

[ralfthedog]

Its not Microsoft's falt that we don't understand the adds. It is our fault. It is not the job of the advertiser to create a product the viewer wants to see or understand. It is the job of the viewer to make the advertiser the center of their universe.

People who don't like these adds are the same people who think they have the right to use the computers they own any way they want. Get a life people. If Microsoft tells you to double the ammount of ram in your system so you can have a stupid tranparent bar that takes up space on your desktop you thinik you need, you had better do it. Who are you to think you can run your own life.

[Kwasiowusu]

This waste of shareholders money, on the most stupid ad ever made, at a time when the financial markets are collapsing, and money is tight, is positvely criminal.
Steve Ballmer and the Microsoft top brass have proved yet again, that they are totally out of touch with reality. How any of these guys could actually even believe that any consumer who saw that ad, would go out and buy Vista of a Vista PC, is beyond me.
What planet are the Microsoft execs living on? Pluto?
Someone should lose their jobs for this monstrosity. This ad has taken crass stupidity to a whole new level, and shows how little Microssoft execs care about how they squander shareholders money.

[tundraboy]

How dare you criticize Steve Ballmer! How dare you question his competence and qualifications to be CEO of thw world's largest software company! Don't you know he was Bill Gates' college buddy?

[magicmaster]

I planned not to watch your AD.
I am planning not to watch your AD.
I will not plan to watch your AD.
I have not planned to watch your AD.

[saffroncapital]

Hmmm... two dorks talk about nothing (one is a specialist at talking about nothing and the other is an expert at delivering nothing)....

And now phase 2... where... there are no dorks and its still about nothing!

[toosday]

I, too, thought the response from the ad campaign was negative, but according to the analysts in the New York Times story, the response has been mostly positive. I suppose it shouldn't shock me; I usually think only inside of my little tech bubble. (Heck, I actually liked them.)

Here's the quote:
"On Sept. 4, when the teaser ads started, the ?buzz? about Microsoft was 25 percent positive and 13 percent negative, Mr. Marzilli (of YouGovPolimetrix, a research company) said, and by Tuesday it was 28 percent positive and 8 percent negative."

"Another research company, Zeta Interactive, using what it calls its Relevant Noise tool to mine places online like blogs and message boards for brand conversations, found what was described as overwhelmingly positive buzz surrounding Microsoft from Sept. 3 through Monday."

Here's the story:
http://tinyurl.com/3znkvz

[Way2GoJerry]

So Seinfeld got $10,000,000 for two commercials!?!? Way to go Jerry!!!

[Mr. Dee]

The second one wasn't so bad, I actually enjoyed it. Then again, all the bad press in the world could not destroy Vista, its on over 200 million systems and growing. Its not a block buster like XP for logical reasons, XP longer market span, Vista development fiasco, too long to reach market, marketted bad and has become irrelevant with the advent of new technologies on the net.

[VanishingHope]

I think Microsoft could've had this planned from the start. Why not? They knew the Apple commercials were crushing Vista's image, not the PC's. You can't just come out swinging, bashing the company that outplayed you in any ad that Microsoft's put out before.

I liked the commercials so far. I think they were more of a distraction from the barrage of negative press/public opinion for Vista. I could definitely see Microsoft doing this to lighten the air a bit, with a corny set of ads, and then to slowly work their way back into a better light.

I don?t always believe in what the stats say that X% is positive or negative, it truly depends on the sample size and demographic that was surveyed. I see everyone here commenting on both ends, once again talking about the good and bad. Microsoft can use both sides in their commercials, commenting on the things they?ve corrected (for bad comments) and what they?ve done and where they?re going for the good comments.

May-be it?s too early to say whether the commercials have worked or not. I?m sure most people here, whether they hated the commercials or not, are waiting to see Microsoft?s next step. They?ve got your attention, and mine? so overall, I think they have worked.

[Penguinisto]

Well, folks - don't say I didn't tell you.

The purpose of an advertisement is to get attention _and_ sell your product. There was only one ad run that I'm aware of that managed to pull off the plot/sub-plot routine in the history of television... it was for some coffee brand in the 1980's. That ad series actually had a compelling storyline (basically a man and a woman meeting and flirting with each other) that got most women (and not just a few men) to watch it, if only to see what happened next.

But - even that ad series was careful to feature the product prominently (Taster's Choice I think?) - Microsoft failed to do even that much.

All the polling and "buzz" in the world won't ameliorate the fact that the ads flopped (hint: cherry-picking stats is a MSFT specialty). It also did pretty much nothing to remove the overwhelmingly negative comments that one typically hears when the word "Vista" comes up - even among non-techies.

/P

[VanishingHope]

I agree a little.

While ads are meant to garner interest and to sell a product, I don't think Microsoft had enough (good) interest in Vista to just come out with an ad that pushes the product on people. These ads served one of the purposes, to garner interest. The next planned step, according to Microsoft, is to shift away from Gates/Seinfeld commercials. I think they'll push for a more balanced ad, trying to gain interest and sell products.

If a very large percentage of people has the opinion that your product is bad, starting off on a light-hearted and corny (to the point it's a little funny/strange) advertisement doesn't mean they've flopped. Microsoft has to gain the trust of the people again for the mistakes they've made, especially with Vista. These ads are serving just that.

I think that all of the "buzz" for these ads means they've worked. No, people won't run out and buy Vista. But they're now curious what the commercials meant. They're talking about what they think Microsoft will do next, good and bad. At least Microsoft has a commercial now. It's better to start slow out of the gate and build up than to come out fighting, when people don't have your back just yet.

[setgo]

Their ads sucked that's why they are doing it. And I think that it speaks volumes about their insecurity and Apple's rise. It you think about any marketing campaign, the leaders of a particular industry never respond to the attacks from those below. When have you seen McDonald's take a shot at Subway? When have you seen Honda or Toyota compare their cars to Mazda or Hyundai? Microsoft is scared, plain and simple.

[VanishingHope]

I don't believe this is a response to Apple. In fact, I don't think Microsoft thinks Apple is such a threat. Until Apple decides or is forced to remove the "Apple hardware only" clause in the EULA for installing the OS, Apple won't be such a big threat to Microsoft. They'll take little bites out of Microsoft's OS market share, but not be a true threat.

I think this is a response to the damage Microsoft has done with Vista. They just assumed that people would buy Vista because most people had XP, no matter what Vista was like. I recall seeing only 1 ad for Vista on TV. While there may have been more, I don't think Microsoft was worried about pushing ads.

As for the McDonald's and Subway comparison... Microsoft hasn't "taken a shot" at Apple with these ads. It's a bad allusion. According to your argument, you're suggesting that Microsoft's ads are a shot against Apple. Meanwhile, I heard no reference of Apple itself? McDonald's still put out ads promoting healthier choices, would that not be a comparison against Subway then? Same with Toyota/Honda vs Mazda/Hyuandai... they promote better performance over other vehicles of the same class, right? Toyota must be scared then, plain and simple, because they're saying their vehicle has better MPG on the highway than Mazda.

[setgo]

Vanishing Hope, read the article before replying to a post. It said that Microsoft would be targeting Apple in their next commercial. You wrote all that for nothing.

[The_Decider]

If MS can tell that its stupid ads were failing and actually dump it, why can't they see that Vista is a failure and dump that too?

[tundraboy]

Isn't this just so like Microsoft? Make grand plans, make even grander announcements about your plans, then totally fumble the execution of what was already a fatally lame, unhip concept.

And they should just stop trying to be so cool and with it. They're like that kid in high school who is trying so desperately to be cool but doesn't realize that the most uncool thing to do is to be seen trying so desperately to be cool.

I would feel sorry for Microsoft if not for the fact that they were allowed to keep the fruits of the criminal acts that they were convicted of a few years ago. Crime did pay for them.

[Dragon_Myr]

I saw this coming from miles and miles away. Even I could have effortlessly constructed a superior commercial. Jerry and Bill aren't the problem in the commercials. The problem is the writing and the whole message (or lack thereof) these commercials attempt to convey!! In both cases, it had nothing to do with Windows nor Microsoft. In both cases the performers were taken out of their element and put into awkward situations that are not believable to the average consumer. The whole purpose was to help Vista, but both ads ended up having about 3 seconds to do with Vista. Very very poor. I'm glad the ads are done with and Microsoft finally wants a course correction, but I repeat that Jerry and Bill weren't the problem.

[Earl Benzar]

As a sitcom it has potential, but it still needs Kramer, Elaine, Newman, and George. As an advert campaign, epic fail.

[hounddoglgs]

Good ol' M$, just blindly throw money at the problem.

[jandler]

Even this author said in another article (for some reason failed to mention in the current one) that the shift was planned.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10045384-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Either you guys are blind or totally disconnected.

[sojo1]

Thank you Microsoft for removing the Seinfeld-Gates ads. I felt badly for Bill these ads where so disrespectful to a man of such amazing skill and power. Who ever in your ad agency came up with these ads should have there position slashed and sent back to school for a refresher course in marketing! What was the target of the ads and who was it targeting except to make a great man look like a fool and no not Seinfeld. Jerry would have been funnier in his Bee outfit from the Cannes.

I'm a dye hard Mac loyalist and one time PC user by work only! Sorry for cheating on you Mac nothing personal. But really Microsoft before you release your next round of ads I suggest performing a couple ?Focus Groups?

I also believe your DAGMAR TOTALLY FAILED

[Sysquatch]

The Mac ads work because they're hip, low-key, and to the point. Trying to counter that with baffling vignettes of two middle-aged (or older; Gates looked ghastly in the second ad) men bumbling around is just further evidence of how incredibly out of touch Microsoft is. They're even more out of touch to think that we'll believe that the shift away from this stinker of an ad campaign was "planned all along".

And how did this cost $300 million (!!) to make? Isn't that as much as a feature film??! Instead of pouring $300 million into cementing the vision of Windows as inept, stodgy, and old, how about putting that money into making Windows a better product?

All behemoths in the computer world eventually fall, despite how "invincible" they may seem at one time. It's only a matter of time before Microsoft joins the ranks of IBM, WordPerfect, Novell, and others. Yes, all are still around--but shadows of their former selves or sold out to others (IBM to Lenovo, WordPerfect to Corel). They all made the mistake of thinking that they couldn't be defeated--and so laid the grounds for their defeat.

Listen up, Microsoft. It's not ads that are going to save you (especially not these!), it's delivering a better product, and more than anything RESPECTING YOUR CUSTOMERS and not treating them like commodities or lemmings.

[BALTHOR1]

They probably each wanted a million dollars a spot.