Microsoft’s first commercial in a campaign intended to reinvigorate the public’s perception of its Windows operating system debuted Thursday night. In it comedian Jerry Seinfeld helps recently retired Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates pick out a pair of shoes at a discount shoe store in an ordinary mall.
Don’t you feel better about using Windows now?
Apparently a belated answer to Apple’s two-year “Get a Mac” campaign starring John Hodgman (PC) and Justin Long (Mac), the Seinfeld-Gates ad left many viewers scratching their heads.
Reaction from both the tech and ad worlds ranged from bewilderment to outright ridicule.
Unabashed, Microsoft claimed the campaign’s first ad achieved its goal. Bill Veghte, senior vice president of Microsoft's Windows and online services business, told the Wall Street Journal on Friday the ad is merely a "conversation starter, an ice breaker.”
Another Microsoft spokesman also spun the widespread negative reaction to the ad as part of the plan, telling the Journal its intent was to “drive buzz.”
Both promised more substantive ads in the future. No doubt future ads will be better; one almost couldn’t do any worse.
A press release even references the “classic Seinfeld sense of the word” nothing in describing the ad.
As a huge fan of Seinfeld’s TV show, I was shocked at how flat and unfunny Seinfeld was. And Gates, who has shown he can poke fun at himself successfully, looked too self-conscious.
There’s zero chemistry between the two men. That doesn’t bode well for subsequent installments.
Microsoft isn’t talking specifics about future ads in this campaign, but a press release it issued Thursday offered a mind-numbing overview:
“The new campaign will highlight how Windows has become an indispensible part of the lives of a billion people around the globe -- not only on PCs but also now online and via mobile devices. It will illustrate how Windows integrates consumer experiences across PCs, online and on mobile phones through Windows Vista, Windows Live and Windows Mobile. “
Did that whet your appetite for what future ads might bring? Try reading the entire release, which manages to inflate a few thin paragraphs of information into a three-page screed. It appears the operating system isn't the only thing at Microsoft that suffers from bloat. Must be company policy.
From the hints Microsoft is giving, future ads will give consumers few if any concrete reasons to prefer Windows. Each of Apple’s ads, on the other hand, portrays a specific reason why consumers should choose a Mac over a Windows PC. That’s why they’ve worked so well.
And that’s why Microsoft can’t get too specific. What sort of advantages could they talk about with Vista?
Despite six years of development, Vista brought few compelling new features. But its steep system requirements and early troubles with driver incompatibilities persuaded many Windows users to stick with XP.
This campaign shows Microsoft is looking over its shoulder, even though Apple’s share of the U.S. computer market is just in the 8 percent range. But that share grows every year, and shows no signs of slowing.
Microsoft’s history reveals it as the sort of company that takes all competition seriously, and hates to lose even a tiny portion of market share (remember its attacks on Linux a few years ago?)
Think about it: Even with Vista’s launch more than 18 months behind us, and the next version (tentatively Windows 7) at least two years away, Microsoft felt the need to blow $300 million on an ad campaign to shore up consumer confidence in an operating system that runs 95 percent of world’s PCs.
source: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/appleaday/blog/2008/09/truth_in_advertising_new_micro.html
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