Second Gates/Seinfeld commercial airs

I thought this advert was just brilliant. (As a Mac and Windows user.) It's a very positive campaign which doesn't come across as yet as snarky, negative or pompous. The Get a Mac ads just look somewhat immature in comparison. It was also very funny. In trying to 'soften' up the perception of Microsoft and giving it a personable side, I like these ads so far. And I think the girls hiding the giraffe, a metaphor for Apple setting up Microsoft? Who knows. All I know is I can't wait for the next ad and hope Apple will take something from this rather than its rather tired jabbing in the Get a Mac campaign.

Wow. Just not feeling the purpose of these ads. I found the giraffe bit amusing, but I really don't think Microsoft hit the mark with this ad strategy. I showed a couple of non techie friends the ads, and they didn't see the point, or understand what Microsoft was trying to achieve. I suspect that is the common view outside of tech circles. To Microsoft's credit though, they certainly have generated some publicity and "cooler talk" among tech folk. Most I've talked to feel the ads show how out of touch the company has become though.

This was funny. I think the point of these ads is that there is no point. It was just a teaser, like the first ad. Good job!

I thought it was funny as heck, mostly because of the situation with two wealthy guys with this average family and their everyday problems. While really funny, I did not really see anything that made me feel one way or the other about Microsoft, or Vista on anything even related to technology other than the small part when the kid was playing a game on his PC. I sure hope they are able to deliver on this buildup everyone is talking about, or the ad campaign will be a flop. I don't watch much TV so the chance of me seeing this ever is slim to none. Did this almost 5min commercial really run its full length? I thought long commercials were a bad thing, people loose interest or whatever?

I thought it was good. For those that don't think it talks about Vista, well, you are right. But it does talk about MS in general, just not directly. The 1 billion reference thrown in there and the bit about PC standing for perpetually connected. It does tie in the "big, bad, evil" guy just hanging with regular people, which is all about the softening of the image. shark, you are right in your assessment. Some will dislike it no matter what, and MS knows that. What I find weird is that many say that they should have attacked Apple head on. Does anyone feel that would have been a good idea? Of course, they would have been blasted for doing that, probably by those same people that say they should be making attack ads. Now watch for the false outrage about the iCabal term from John in 3...2...1

Major Apple Supporter & Marketing Specialist: The ads are excellent. They're putting a positive face on Microsoft that is more approachable and less cold/sterile. At the same time, they render the Apple ads ineffective, and seemingly "aggressive" relative to how they seemed before. I think depending on how the next ads develop, this could be a very successful campaign. If for no other reason, it will get Apple to stop their current very highly successful campaign. I don't care what anybody says about Jerry, I love that guy!

Dipsh "[...] many say that they should have attacked Apple head on." Consider the year... Leopard install problems SnowLeopard announced as just a bug fix The MobileMe disaster including losing user data The huge problems with iPhone 3G iPhone 2.01 not fixing the problems iPhone 2.02 not fixing the problems The "F'ing NDA" embarassment for developers The arbitrary rules on which apps will be distributed insult to their developer partners The "we'll get your bug fix out eventually, stop asking" insult to their developer partners The "no way to distribute demos" insult to their developer partners "Safari's an update to QuickTime" "MobileMe's an update to QuickTime" Throw out all your nano accessories because we were just kidding about the "fat nano" form factor Throw out your nano because we're now nano-chromatic The "$20 license fee on a $5 cable" lock in scandal The whole iTunes 8 fiasco that we're still seeing It's probably fair to say that Apple's been doing a good enough job of "attacking Apple head on".

I am glad Apple is not mentioned or attacked. Because for me personally, the Apple commercials look tacky and childish (yet still funny). This most recent commercial appeals to the entire family and to me makes MS seem like a company for the whole family. As for the teaser at the end, "perpetually connected", it really got me excited about Live Mesh and how all of these products (OS, Home Server, Media Center and Extenders, Windows Mobile) will all be able to talk to each other.

@shark do you some narcissistic urge to argue with people? Why start cr@p already? To clarify something from a few days ago, I asked if it ran in your family, not that your family actually was. I also asked if it was just having your panties in a knot. Clearly its one of the other, since you must continue down this path. All of which started when you said that my socialist friends would like my post. Again if you cant take it, dont start it. Or better yet grow up. I see that ads as teasers, they are funny. They are building to something better/ a real point that hopefully they can deliver on. Delivering = Average User gets it and gets it with out much effort. We can as IT/Geeks post analyze this all day long and try to infer what we think they are trying to convey, which is all fine and dandy. The "Average User" will give it 5 seconds of thought all focused on what are they trying to say. If it takes 6 seconds forget it the message is lost. Like them or not (I dont care for them) the Apple adds, in each add have a simple quick message that the Average User gets in that 5 second period.

"To clarify something from a few days ago, I asked if it ran in your family, not that your family actually was." OK. Does stupidity run in your family? Idiocy? Lunacy? What about retardation? That's not offensive? All of those things mean that in addition to you, some of your family members may be one of those things? So, stop giving me this crap about me having to grow up. As if it's not bad enough to insult people when you disagree with them, you insult their family too. Here's a thought. Instead of me having to "grow up", why don't you actually learn to speak/write English so that you at least understand the meaning of the words that you write. And before you go on another offensive, I didn't mean any of these things. I was only trying to prove a point. All right. That's it from me on this topic. I expected an apology from you and now I know instead of apologizing, you're only attacking me further. I apologize to everyone for my rant. Hope this post doesn't get locked because of that.

"Hope this post doesn't get locked because of that." *Thread* Jobs behaves during interviews. He will attack the ads the next time he is on stage for a keynote in front of a fanatical user base and the fawning media.

Ocean - I would too..... I think this latest ad will make everyone want to buy Vista. will this ad really air? it is awfully long for a commercial.

MS hired Crispin and (whatever) to do something iconic. This has a very, very good chance of doing that. As someone said, its a teaser that makes you look forward to whats next. I never in a million years would have imagined Bill Gates could have done something like this. I don't think it cancels out the Apple ads, but it does 'put a face' on MS, and a good one. That makea Apples ad efforts a bit more difficult. But Apple has always done well with ads, and so I look forward to 6 months to a year from now to see how they've adjusted. OT: I asked for a recent MS book recommendation recently. 'Breaking Windows' seems to have been highly recommended...

"I'm afraid the marketers are seriously over estimating the attention span of the public" I could not agree more. In our time of Tivo/DVR/PVR, commercials are viewed less and less. When they are viewed, they need to get the message across fast.

Once again, Bill's performance outshines Seinfeld. A laughed a few times... though far too few to warrant a 4:30 minute viewing. Best line "I got nothin...". Bill is pretty awesome and clearly takes better direction than Seinfeld, whose performance is what it is... and got stale long ago. If this campaign doesn't lead to some kind of brand idea, though, it will be quite a big, expensive, reel-building exercise for the director and not much else. Clearly it's built on the premise that Gates' personal brand and the brand of the Microsoft corporation are one-and-the-same. That sure may be true. It's true for Jobs, obviously. I wonder though. Much was made of the "departure" of Bill Gates from Microsoft this year. That PR campaign undercuts this Gate-brand-is-Microsoft-brand link somewhat. Or maybe not. Brand isn't about what a company says or does. It's about what the consumer feels or thinks about when considering the company. Seinfeld is feeling a bit washed up in these spots, I must admit. This is pretty experimental stuff. It's certainly open to broad range of interpretation and I think it's going to be very hard to determine the effectiveness of the campaign. Our business has a hard enough time as it is drawing convincing cause-and-effect links between advertising and product sales or brand perception. If a year from now, Microsoft's brand surveys aren't any different, will this be considered a failure? Who knows. I strongly doubt this campaign will move more product. I don't think that is it's intent, so that's fine. Microsoft is moving plenty of product without any advertising. So this is all about brand perception. As for Paul's nutty (and oh so predictable) "iCabal" slam.. huh? Seriously. I put more honest thought and reflection in this post than you did into yours. This campaign doesn't (yet) have anything to do with Apple. And if you think that something this unique and experimental doesn't have legitimate room for differing opinions and reactions, well, we already know your deal. Anyone that doesn't see the world through Paul's eyes is a bad human being in a secret society. Scornful, bitter and biased. How super.

@johnpapola: Bravo. Well put all the way around.

@Shark, Thanks on the compliment. We are in agreement. Here's my question for you. This is "the supersite for windows", right? This is the launch of a big campaign for Microsoft. It makes no mention of Apple in it so far. So... what does Paul have to say about this here? "THE ICABAL IS AT IT AGAIN!!!". As if that's news. As if that matters. As if diehard partisans being partisan is somehow worth pointing out each and every time he posts. As I said, he could (and should) have spent the time to, I don't know, consider the campaign. Right? Maybe he's done that elsewhere. If so, fine. Link to that. I'm not a fan of dishonesty on either side. But Paul feigns umbrage with every damn post that's even slightly related to Apple (or not in this case). Come on, man. We get it. There are some people that will slam anything Microsoft does. There are also, obviously, plenty that do the exact same thing to Apple... and Sony, and Nintendo and every other strong branded company. The sun rises. The sun sets. Maybe there's blog cataloging that daily event. It may read allot like this one regarding Apple. Pointing this out continuously doesn't make Paul a "counterbalance" or even a critic. It makes him obsessed. And since he rarely points to specifically egregious commentary, his iCabal is nothing but a bigoted strawman. A fake construct whose use has been applied so broadly by Paul (remember that Pau said anyone with .mac was in the iCabal) that it is truly bigoted. Paul's obviously deeply biased against Apple, it's employees and it's users and obsessed with "proving" his biases correct. (why else would he call Apple the "bad guys" in their negotiations with NBC without knowing the details). Well, anyone with an opinion seeking confirmation can easily find it. it's called the confirmation bias. Luckily, the brilliant philosopher and skeptic Karl Popper gives us (though he didn't invent it) an easy tool for tearing this approach apart. It's called "falsification". Here's how it works. Paul clearly defines the iCabal as a monocultural, sycophantic collection of drones that ask "how high" whenever Apple says "jump". He treats the vast membership of his iCabal as if everyone in it holds the same opinion and acts in unison. That's how he uses the term here and in every post. That's the whole point of his rants. He also clearly considers someone like John Gruber a key member of the iCabal. The problem, of course, is that John Gruber is very highly critical of Apple all the time. This single example falsifies the homogeneity of the "iCabal", rendering it a meaningly term. Now, I'm taking things to a silly extreme in one sense, calling on philosophy and thinking and all. But as a writer and director, I take words seriously. I take their use seriously. We all should. Paul certainly should as a writer. Since the iCabal is demonstrably a bigoted strawman, it's a term worth of my scorn. I don't lose sleep over it, so don't worry. This long post isn't proof that I need to "chill out". I could care less. I'm just trying to very precisely articulate why Paul's biased and bigoted rhetoric, which clearly is meant to demean the criticism of people like myself, irks me. This is why. Now, off to a meeting that got delayed, leaving me the time to write this silly post. Enjoy it or not. I'm happy either way.

A post from that microsoft blog..... "If you keep having to expain yourselves and defend the ad's intent (which you've already had to do with the media to no end), then doesn't that tell you right there the state of things? People just aren't getting it. You are being either too clever or too esoteric. Let me ask you this, what other ad campaign did the company have to come out and try to explain (twice now) and was successful? The next ad better be screaming BRILLIANT that's all I can say because it's bordering on idiocy at the moment." We shall see.

bettieblu Just to clarify, what you quoted was not a post on the Windows Vista blog, it was a comment by a reader. While I'll admit that "post" versus "comment" may seem obscure, it really should be made clear even with explicit explanation in the same way as if someone cited one of Ocean's or Lindy's or your comments here as "a post on Paul Thurrott's blog" otherwise people think that the quote was from something the blog author wrote.

@mike, sounds fine by me, comment it is.

"Didn't we have this yesterday?!" "....put some cheese on it." Mac OS X. To. A. Tee.

I will admit to being a Dvorak-style curmudgeon, though I try not to let that come out in my writing. My reaction to this is the same as my reaction to the first one. The commercial is funny and I would *love* to watch the TV show, but I think it's a terrible computer commercial.

I dont see why it is hard to see that MSFT is not looking to copy the MAC vs PC ads. The switcher adds are great even if they are a bit childish and overbearing. MSFT says they are launching a campaign to combat the switcher ads and just because they don't stand Jerry Seinfeld in a white room with some Mac Nerd so he can embarrass him with hit witty banter people say MSFT's new ads have no point. Maybe MSFT doesn't want to get into a mud slinging contest here. Maybe they are after something else. Its like commercials for laundry detergent. Every one you watch, no matter which company makes it talks about how their brand is the best and outperforms the competition. It is so repetitive that the meaning is lost and in the end no one remembers which was which or cares which one they get because they have head so much positive and negative about both that they all seem the same. By differentiating their approach for marketing MSFT is also setting its brand apart from the Mac. While the Mac commercials try to beat it into your head how ignorant you are for not switching by insulting the PC guy all day long, the new MSFT adds are trying to just show the positives of their own platform by equating real life situations to your OS decisions. Its weird, hard to follow, but funny, different and exactly what they needed to do.

bettieblu: yeah, but picking just one comment from a blog post is cherry pickin. ;) There are equally as many supportive ones too. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, all I'm saying is that it's not like Microsoft is being opaque about the intent. These commercials are 'buzz' creators at the moment, and nothing more. Microsoft freely seems to admit that they will not sell product or change misconceptions. You like em, you like em, you don't, you don't. Worse case you gave about 4:30 of your life, which I'm sure is a little less long than most of us have given to reading and posting on Paul's blog. *laughs*

@JP - I still have yet to see where Paul claims to be non-partisan. Keep in mind...I totally agree with you that Paul has lost his marbles with his all out attack on Apple...and I have to continue to wonder if he is a part of the $300Million onslaught that they have began. If so...that is fine...I plan to get my real tech info elsewhere from here on out, anyway. --tayme