Farewell, Jerry, we barely knew ye

When I think Seinfeld,I think of the old Mac he ALWAYS had in his apartment, somehow having a Mac was more trendy than having the clunky PC equivalent at the time (ie ugly box, many cables) . . . perhaps he isn't the right person to persuade me to buy PC's!! . . anyway I've finally ditched PC's with all the bloatware and security patch after security patch, and loving the Mac experience . . I now have 3 . . iMac, MacMini, MacBook. . .one h/w, o/s, s/w support contract, one number to fix any problem, I just haven't needed to call them yet!!!. . maybe I was still thinking 'PC' when I bought the support!

they get one thing right then they TAKE IT AWAY!!!


They'll regret this

Nothing says FAIL more than starting a new ad campaign and abandoning it at the first sign of trouble. Perhaps Microsoft should try to actually STAND FOR SOMETHING. Create a focus and a message and then push that message in their commercials.

Instead, Microsoft chases trends and runs commercials out of fear. Ending the Seinfeld commercials shows that Microsoft doesn't have anyone in charge who knows what they are doing and makes them look indecisive and foolish.

If Microsoft can't control the quality of their commercial message, how can they control the quality of their products?

Seinfeld was probably the only thing about those ads that was even remotely entertaining. Bill Gates has the personality of a block of tofu, and can't deliver even a solidly-written line to save his ass (which, coincidentally, is kind of the point of these commercials, eh?)

As many have pointed out, bringing in a John Hodgman lookalike is just going to fuel the "MS copies Apple!" fire, and on top of that, the odds of MS finding a Hodgman lookalike that is actually *as funny as* John Hodgman are infinitesimally small.

You know, I think I'd feel a lot better about buying a Microsoft product if I knew that they were spending their money on R&D, and not dumping $300m into beating a dead horse.

Vista's ship has sailed, Bill, and it turns out that it was the Titanic. Oops. Accept it, move on, and build a better ship.

These ads, if they'd been allowed to run, could and should have been among the most anticpated new episodes in TV history - instead MS have caved in to some focus group report rather than stand by the courage of their convictions and see it through.

The last time TV had a series "about nothing" it gradually grew to become a nine season blockbuster, possibly one of the largest shows of all time.

Good luck with the stupid Apple parody.

I find it hilarious that microsoft can't do any better than to copy apple with their newest ads. copy apple. copy apple. that's all they've ever done. and funnier still, those "i'm a PC" ads they're doing were made on a mac. ask anyone who's ever worked at crispin porter, it's an all-mac office.

Focus groups said that the commercials were more pretentious than the Apple ads. It is all very symbolic of the general Windows experience; hokey, confusing and convoluted.

well, them saying "this was our plan from the beginning" is pure advertising-speak. it's the equivalent of saying "i *meant* to do that" when wiping out on your bike in front of the other kids.

honestly, as much as i disdain microsloth i really liked the ads... (that being said i've seen every seinfeld episode about a gazillion times, so maybe that's why...)

but seriously, i dug 'em to the point that i was worried they might actually be serving their purpose and making ms appear warm and fuzzy... unsurprisingly they failed as usual ;)

and new ads copying apple? wow, edge of my seat...
*yawn*

These commercials were bad...so bad I devoted an entire blog post to them as a case study in what not to do when advertising your product/service/company!

Matt
http://smallbizbee.com