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Talk About Microsoft's Bizarro World
Gates Clowns Around With Seinfeld in Crispin's Ode to Cluelessness
Have you seen the new Microsoft spot from Crispin Porter & Bogusky, the one with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? It's got its funny moments, in a goofy Seinfeldian way, but otherwise constitutes one of the weirder chapters in advertising history.
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Title: Shoe Circus Marketer: Microsoft  Agency: Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Boulder, Colo. |
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| Even if this campaign is about persuading us we can trust Microsoft to lead us forward, this introductory spot aims to do so by asking us to re-imagine Bill Gates. And, as to that, mission accomplished. |
It's the leading edge of a $300 million campaign with what would seem to be the following brief: Thanks to Apple, TBWA/Media Arts Lab and actor John Hodgman, founder Bill Gates is perceived as a harmless but clueless dork. This image has been projected against the entire Microsoft brand. Fix that.
If we were Microsoft, would stand pat. Hodgman may well have cemented the image of cluelessness in Apple's brilliant "Mac vs. PC" campaign, but he's also cemented harmlessness -- which is far more than this company deserves. Not only does Microsoft have a long history of anticompetitive bullying around the world, it has inflicted a succession of bug-infested, insecure and unstable versions of Windows, infamous for freezing, spontaneously closing and spiking user blood pressure for two decades.
With that dossier, "adorably unhip" is not a bad label to be stuck with.
But the client and agency apparently see things differently and are determined to prove to us that Bill Gates "gets it." To this end, he plays along with the gag, which pretty hilariously has the world's richest tech robber baron appear as a "platinum" discount-cardholder at the Shoe Circus down at the mall. Gates gamely sits there delivering straight lines after Seinfeld -- alarmed by the billionaire's struggle to fit into a pair of cheap "Conquistador" oxfords -- barges into the store to perform a citizen's fitting.
In the midst of the absurdity, we wade through all sorts of classically Seinfeld throwaway gags. (Jerry: "Ever wear clothes in the shower, Bill?" Bill: "Never." Jerry: "You're dressed, and you're clean. Open the door, go about your business.") Mainly, Gates' role is to look confused about the oddity swirling all around him, but in equally classic Seinfeld fashion, he is himself slowly sucked into Bizarro World. By the end of the spot, he is sauntering out of the mall with his new best friend, enjoying a warm churro, entertaining Seinfeld's questions about our computing future.
Jerry: "You now, I imagine over the years you've mind-melded your magnum Jupiter brain to those other Saturn-ringed brains at Microsoft."
Bill: "I have."
Jerry: "Just wondering ... are they ever going to come out with something that will make our computers moist and chewy like cake so we can just eat 'em while we're working? If it's yes, give me a signal, with just your shorts."
Whereupon Gates shimmies his butt "yes" to the camera.
Decent hip action, by the way. Seinfeld exults, and then the onscreen super adds a simple coda: "The Future. Delicious."
Wow. Computer-as-shopping-mall-churro is a long way to go for "delicious future." In fact, we strongly suspect the tagline is beside the point. Even if this campaign is about persuading us we can trust Microsoft to lead us forward, this introductory spot aims to do so by asking us to re-imagine Bill Gates. And, as to that, mission accomplished. Anyone seeing this ad will find it difficult to dismiss Gates as a harmless, clueless dork.
No siree. This man is not clueless. This is a dork with volition.
He intentionally wears his trademark fourth-grader's haircut. He intentionally goofs about edible computers. He intentionally shakes his booty for the world -- raising the question: If Gates really does get it, and his company is still trying to force Vista down our throats, is he really wiggling his fat billionaire ass for us?
Or at us?
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Mike McDonald
Well...looks like Crispin's done it again. What the heck does this spot have to do with telling me why Microsoft OS (Vista or XP or the upcoming Windows 7) is a better OS/computer platform than Apple?
It's all so self-indulgent. The spot was boring...and there is an expectation that the viewer is going to hang out long enough to get the (muddled) message at the end.
And our industry has bestowed a "top creative" reputation on Crispen?? Pleeeze!!!
We're an industry that has lost its way. In moving away from clear, persuasive messaging that is creative but is still clear(!!!) and persuasive (!!!!!) - that of the Bernbachs and Ogilvys and others of the 60s and 70s - we've become less relevant.
"Truth well told" and other anthems would serve the industry well...
Hey, fellow creatives - ever think that if you did great advertising for your true audience - the consumer - then there would be enough money left over to pay copywriters and art directors more instead of the client spending millions (or in Microsoft's case, hundreds of millions) on media. Remember, creatives don't get a penny of that media buy...
This campaign is "zero stars" as Bingo says up above...and a waste of money. So sad...
For the moment it has created a lot of media attention, and that is not bad.
But for this budget, why didn't they get the Al Bundy guy for the shoe store?
Each brand (as I was taught in college only 2 years ago by my professor Stephen Hall) has its own card that is stored in our brain. Porshe=fast Lexus=Luxury KIA=affordable.
What Microsoft is doing is they are getting a clean slate. Wiping away the old and starting a new generation of advertising.
I agree with Mike from Atlanta; it sucks to pay 300 mil for the spot but hey they used to make computers that cost thousands and could barely run solitaire. (So they have come a long way and are still around)
The newest operating system 7 needs a clean platform to run on just like a political candidate. Sure people will drudge up things from the past. But this is the same party we are used you. Apple versus Microsoft. Msoft has finally decided to run using a goofy, image erasing and mind numbing ad to get us "the consumer" ready for a new age of ads and products.
It's a beautiful thing!
There, now it's just a piece of dog poop.
Seinfeld has wasted his remaining hip on Bill's hip-wiggle.
Hope it was worth the 3 mil or whatever he was paid.
I'll first disagree with your premise that Apple has re-positioned MS as "harmless." The flaws that Apple has so effectively targeted ultimately cost the consumer time, energy, and peace of mind. That's harm.
Microsoft's problems won't be solved by advertising. They should have taken that massive ad budget and instead invested it in creating something that serves a need. And if they were feeling that they must respond to Apple in this medium, their selection of this particular execution simply proves how clueless they really are.
This is advertising about advertising, self-indulgent and almost totally meaningless to those to whom it's meant to communicate.
Otherwise, I think the spot is pretty much a waste of MS money.
Their PAC is clearly on siesta.
Kingtenby
Don't know where the series will go but Vista
couldn't spin this as a positive in any regard.
Spots are okay.... but trying to convince
US that the next best thing is the Windows Vista... not so much.
http://lairigmarketing.typepad.com/lairig_marketing/2008/08/transcript-of-r.html
"Hey, fellow creatives - ever think that if you did great advertising for your true audience - the consumer - then there would be enough money left over to pay copywriters and art directors more instead of the client spending millions (or in Microsoft's case, hundreds of millions) on media. Remember, creatives don't get a penny of that media buy..."
Dear oh dear... Mr. Arnold, in case you have not noticed (perhaps your Commodore 64 has not been plugged in since you bought it), but since the mid 90's most agencies are now paid through fee's and not through media commission.
This mean that there is no linkage between the size of the media budget, the production budget, or the celebrity budget and the pay check for the creatives. And nor should there be.
In fact, the only fair way to pay creatives is relative to the value of her/his idea. And that value needs to be value to the business.
Mildly amusing sure, but Seinfeld's delivery is indistinguishable from his Amex commercial schtick so for me this execution is shackled by ad clutter and the fact that Bill Gates doesn't really have a "TV personae" we can really identify with.
For most Americans Bill Gates has been something of a reclusive multi-billionaire techno baron hanging out with Warren Buffet; suddenly he goes from his industry-related appearances and news interviews to this lovable-goofy geek?
Gates might've done better to host an episode of Saturday Night Live to take the mysterious/serious edge off his image (and him...) before they unleashed this campaign; looks like he's tranquilized in the commercial. For 300 million they could have come up with better creative than this.
http://www.consumertrap.com/?p=306
I've also been noticing a couple "Mojave" Vista spots recently that did not feature the gruesome twosome. Just users looking at a PC reacting in total astonishment. Shot very real and we, the viewer, never see the screens. I did a little digging and the spots ran back in July, so they must be a response to the poor response to the new Teaser.
If you haven't seem them the link is a long video of the entire piece. The spots run :30 and are of individuals or was it a :60 with different people just reacting positively? Obviously, I was blown away...
http://gizmodo.com/5030561/microsofts-mojave-bait+and+switch-vista-experiment-video
For a teaser, I think it works. Think fast: Which ads ran before/after this spot the first time you saw it? Can't remember? Neither can I. Good Job CP+B.
In the next episode Bill and Jerry will be eating whoppers when Bill will start dancing with the creepy Burger King and Jerry will say "Oh, this is a good idea" while ordering a side of "Apples" instead of fries from the guy at the drive through "WINDOW".
Oooo the mystery...I've got to go out and buy a Windows Device...right now!
B.L.Lindstrom
http://SoIWroteThisBook.com
Isn't it a little too early to slam the door shut of this creative effort to fend off Apple cool.
The Apple ads have been working their magic on the intended audience, and because Microsoft is sinking with its Vista nightmare they had to spend money. The first installment in cool had two billionaire actors who did well. I was glued to the screen and I still envision Gates in his showers wearing black shoes and socks.
The revenge of the Nerds, Jerry and Bill, is that they can do anything they want, and soon or later they'll get around to bridging the nonsense with a direct hit on Apple. How it is going to be done is the exciting part -- how to make Microsoft cooler than Apple. No easy task to be sure -- but when you think two obscure actors playing Apple Hip and Vista Dork have done -- it's obvious that two of the world's richest, and known men might fare even better. At least that must have been the logic.
Someone has decided it was worth a $300MM bet. And even you must admit, you were spellbound when watching the spot, and thinking about it days later.
As for the weird recall metrics, this must be off the charts -- but we need to see more than the teaser intro to see if we want to junk our Apples in favor of a Vista machine. And who knows, Microsoft might be dropping a new technology bomb at the end of this that will change the technology as we know it. I hope its voice. Keyboards are becoming so mundane, I want to talk to my computer like Star Trek's Scotty did - Computer, computer, do you hear me?
they should have spent the $$ on sending those of us who got screwed buying Vista a refund.