The first of a series of Microsoft ads featuring comedian Jerry Seinfeld debuted Thursday night during the opening game of the NFL Season. The highly anticipated ad featured Seinfeld and Bill Gates running into each other while shopping. The two proceed to banter back and forth about the shoes Gates is buying at the Shoe Circus, a fictional shoe discounter. In my opinion, the humor in the 1 minute and 30 second ad seemed force and uncomfortable. While I’m not really sure what the ad was about, I don’t think it was about “nothing.” View Commercial.
Seinfeld repeated scored with television audiences who watched his hit comedy Seinfeld, which was about “nothing.” I’m not sure Seinfeld tried to tap into the “nothingness,” but either way he failed to connect.
According to reports, Seinfeld was paid $10 million to star in the series of ads for Microsoft. Microsoft plans to spend over $300 million for this ad campaign, which is designed to be more “hip” and help Microsoft connect with its audience-undoubtedly, to combat the effective Apple “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” ads. Microsoft also has received its share of bad press following the well-documents problems with the Vista OS, and the lackluster sales of the Zune digital music player.
Is Seinfeld the right guy to help stodgy-old Microsoft appear “more cool”? Maybe 10 or 15 years ago…who is their target audience? Gates seems awkward in the ad. Only a few company leaders have been able to pull it off in the past. Frank Perdue, Dave Thomas, and Lee Iacocca come to mind. The first ad out of the box was disappointing at best. Three hundred million dollars buys a ton of TV time, hopefully the future ads will hit their mark-or at least be more witty and entertaining.
