Comments on: Gates outacts Seinfeld in 'Back to the Future'

The new Microsoft campaign is the work of brave people who may not have been aware of just how much Jerry Seinfeld has slipped over the years

[walterskinner]

Shipping out Vista would be the Microsoft equivalent of Ford shipping out vehicles missing a transmission and saying "Don't worry...well send you one once we can fix the problem."


Interesting that MS has thrown in the towel in Vista.... We should go back to MS BOB.

[Sekhar-Ravinutala]

I think Microsoft's image problem is more of being uncool and (for some people) incompetent. No problem of being human - Gates (who is = Microsoft for image purposes) is one of very few corporate leaders who's spent serious time/money on humanitarian issues, and people know that.

The ads should IMO acknowledge one way or the other the issues folks are having on the competency side (without admitting directly) and portray some killer/brilliant thing they're doing. Then follow up with actual updates/fixes to Vista, to put that behind them.

[Penguinisto]

It's the latter (incompetence). I don't give a damn about "cool" (most folks don't) - I just want the machinery to work.

[Hugmup]

You can tell that the head of Microsoft is a salesman. They think they can fix Vista with an advertising campaign. What they should do is withdraw Vista from the market, tweak it a bit, and rerelease it under a different name.

Tandy had a bad run of their first computer. After that, their computers were fine, but the Trash 80 image was fixed, and their computer line was doomed. With Vista, Microsoft has had its Trash 80 moment, the tech equivalent of jumping the shark. There is no recovery.

[lorax2]

I have heard the expression that rich men thumb their noses at the ordinary folk. But was it my imagination that Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, wiggled his ass in the face of millions of viewers? That can't be good, can it, for an ad campaign that promotes the product this rich man makes? Its a funny commercial in the sense that he's laughing at us.

[edgarr767]

The title has it right: Back to the future.
Seinfeld has been over for a decade.
May have worked for Windows 98.
The only way Microsoft could have won my loyalty was a solid product and real service.
Gates is a predatory, whiny (from those who know him) geek who ought to have turned his foundation money over to his customers, whose time he consumed with half-baked products while he drove out innovative competition.
Too bad Henny Youngman is gone. "We take Bill Gates everywhere, but he keeps finding his way back."

[gyrocyclist]

The author of this article should be sent back to Junior High
School. I say that not because I agree or disagree with anything
he said, but because the article is bad prose.

It starts in the middle, without introducing the characters.
It continues in that vein. My impression was that the article/
opinions/sentiments might make sense if one had read
all previous posts or related news stories, or was following the
drama on daytime TV.

[Pambie36]

Who cares?

I bought a Mac 2 years ago and, believe you me, will NEVER go back to Windows. Now my time on the computer is PRODUCTIVE, rather than trying to repair glitches or rebooting or installing malware or adware or virus protection or .... TWO YEARS later and still as fast and seamless as ever.

Imagine the productivity if OFFICES switched to Macs!

[Imalittleteapot]

So what. I've the done the same with PCs for a lot longer than two years. So you're not a moron who screws up their computers. Do you want a cookie?

[compudoc318]

exactly, you probably need boot camp too to use xp or vista for what a mac wont do...lol. try buying software, look at all the choices for apple...lol. or the price for a mac...lol.

[Pat1--2008]

Good God, can no one spell? I mean, come on: "alot"? "chewey"? "follow suite"? and..."Kernel Sanders"? Really?! "KERNEL"???!!

Maybe our biggest problem is something other than which OS we choose.

[JonB.]

Here! Here!

[Norseman]

It's interesting how Microsoft and Apple ad campaigns are similar to their respective software products.

Microsoft ads:
Complicated, convoluted
Bloated (90 sec.)
Need to read "Microsoft Ads for Dummies" to understand

Apple ads:
Simple, straightforward
Compact (30 sec.)
Just work

[chaos06]

this ad campaign is about the past, the present, and the future. eating while working was the hint to let the world know that they are trying to tell all of us something, but none of you are even close to knowing............ except for me :)

[bcas400e]

the commercial says it all. MS has no idea what to do or how to do it to get people to trust them. With the Vista issues and the 360's RROD I don't think I'd spend my money with them. And this ad won't convince anyone else to.

On a side note - watch the FORD tv ads for SYNC, the ones with the person that designed the SYNC interface.They showed it 5 times during the NFL games yesterday.

Look for the point where his workstation is shown. the laptop he is working on is running XP.

That, my friends, says it all...

[inachu]

Many chat rooms ban the word nazi and even ban the accounts when using the two words SOUP NAZI.

I had one world of warcraft account banned for having a guild named after the soup nazi.

Really sad to see it being used here no matter in any regard.

[Thomas, David]

The rather ambiguous statement that some people hate it, and some people love it is entirely misleading. Most really don't like the ad because it is entirely not clear. It makes no sense. If I were to debate on the side of it, there MUST be some context to which it's message is tied to.

Bottom-line, it's a terrible ad.

[Michichael]

Eh. The ad seemed pointless but, much like the Nintendo Wii's name change from the Revolution, it's eliciting an onslaught of online commentary. People are talking. Step one complete.

Now then, as to the value of the product... Vista isn't designed for, nor does it play well, with old hardware. I hand built my last machine and it works perfectly fine with Vista x64, and every bit of hardware I've plugged into it. It's faster than XP, and once you get used to it, even more effecient. It's got a deeper level of control and fine-grained security features that I like and can't be found in XP. Now if you get stuck without ultimate or 32 bit with the bare minimums, you're gonna have a bad experience, just like if you tried running XP home on the bare minimum of 128MB of RAM. It'll suck.

If you don't like a product, then provide some specifics as to why, not just blanket, ambiguous statements. I mean come on, Microsoft isn't known for it's backwards compatibility, but what it does offer is pretty damned good if it works - and I personally haven't seen a lot that a bit of tinkering wouldn't make it work with.

[Lucazio]

At least the ad is generating this much discussion. You don't see (well I don't) huge walls of comments on write-ups about mac ad's. People just laugh, and move on to the next advertisement. it's a win-win situation for Microsoft: Either people hate it, but still generate discussion, or they love it.

[Lucazio]

BTW Surface looks cooler than a mac anyday.

[chanuschak]

Bill doesn't make the switch to his new shoes (new version of Windows) and wears the old, familiar ones home instead. The new shoes (a new version of Windows) are tight, stiff, unforgiving and inflexible.

Bill doesn't get delicious, moist cake either, instead settling for a cheap mall-bought churro...filling yet devoid of real substance.

So....Windows is like old shoes and junk food?

[Imalittleteapot]

"However, it is really aimed at everyone out there whose warm feelings about Microsoft are only challenged by their warm feelings towards holding their breath till they suffocate."

Wait, are you saying that this ad is aimed at people that would rather suffocate themselves rather then use Microsoft products? Wow. That first ad might not have been that good, but watch out for that second one cause it's going to be the best darn ad anyone has ever seen!! Unless of course that's not what you meant??

"Naturally, those in the techie bubble think the work is aimed at them."
Wait, it's not aimed at the techies? It's aimed at the regular joes? The people that just end up with Windows anyway whether they like it or not? The folks that just keep what Dell sticks on there for them? Aren't those people like a waste of ad money? Hasn't that sale already been made?

If not then the only one left is the people thinking of switching to Apple. That means all the Apple fan boys have to say is, hey if you want to use Windows go right ahead. Buy a mac anyway though because you can just dual boot a pirated copy of Windows on it. After all the fastest Vista notebooks are actually macs! Then they insert this link.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/136649-3/in_pictures_the_most_notable_notebooks_of_2007.html

Which is exactly what has already been going on, and while it doesn't work on everybody, it makes a pretty good argument to people that are already thinking of switching. It pretty much sets it in stone for anybody that already has. So, still don't know where this ad is trying to do.

[crabshell3]

Don't know what all the Apple fanboys are complaining about??
Fix what? Vista works fine for me. I got 2 laptops and 1 workstations running Vista SP1 perfectly.
Fix OS X instead. It can't do anything until you load Vista with bootcamp.

You Apple fanboys are bunch of morrons - Steve Jobs give you a shinny toaster and you call it a computer. Stop making stupid biased comments.

[Imalittleteapot]

YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!! VISTA WORKS WELL FOR YOU!!!!. Aren't like fireworks suppose to start shooting off or something now????

[saffroncapital]

2 dorks discuss shoes.... and this relates to anything how??

If you want to see a great ad about nothing then click on this link....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo

And yes, it did drive brand recognition and sales way up when it was launched just over 12 months ago in the UK...

Can't see two dorks in a shoe store doing the same thing though... where is Al Bundy when you need him most??