Bizarre advert

[David Harrison]

Hah, I have no idea how this is an advert for Microsoft, but I find it funny as hell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxZWBWUCpQM

[Jick]

I saw that on the tube yesterday. Not really sure what to make of it. A little funny. Sort of stupid too. I'm just left with an odd feeling after watching it. :p

[Stephen Philbin]

It "...has been removed due to terms of use violation."

:(

[sexylips]

damn, I wanted to see it! :(

[Fang]

Quick, it's here: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9114138

[drhowarddrfine]

Someone was finally able to interpret that commercial. (http://www.extremeink.com/awtk/2008/09/explaining-seinfeld-gates-microsoft-ad.html)

In other news, I'm told the next one will have our two pals, Jerry and Bill, buying apple puree from the Soup Nazi.

[Fang]

The story continues ... http://www.break.com/break-best-videos/microsoft-new-family.html

[JPnyc]

Obviously it's brilliant, because we're all talking about it. I can't remember the last time there was a post here about a television ad. The fact that they made it so obtuse is precisely why it's brilliant, and precisely why we're talking about it.

[David Harrison]

Any company can release a random advert that doesn't make sense. It doesn't make it brilliant, it just makes it random.

I don't feel compelled to go out and buy more Microsoft products, nor has it changed my opinion of the company.

Additionally, being talked about isn't neccessarily a positive thing, especially if people are only saying bad things.

[JPnyc]

That may be the ultimate goal, but it's not the immediate goal of an advert. The immediate goal is to get you thinking and talking about it, and yes it is necessarily a positive thing. That's all they can hope to do. Some people are not going to buy their product no matter what, but if they can get your attention, they've succeeded, even if it's negative attention.. The first and most immediate goal is to get noticed.

[NogDog]

From a few people I've talked to in the advertising business, they've said that the number one goal of commercials is establishing brand and product recognition. No question they also want to associate something positive with it, too, but that positive thing does not necessarily have to do with anything specific about the actual product. You know: sex appeal for car sales, a catchy song for a soft drink, etc.

Now, whether the particular commercial being discussed here actually succeeds in linking any positive connotation to the product, or for that matter even establishes the desired name recognition, is still completely open to debate. (As for me, not being particularly a fan of Seinfeld and even less of Bill Gates, they're not off to a rousing start as far as I'm concerned. ;) )

[KDLA]

I LOVE the commercials.

I'm sure this is part of the "Microsoft wants to be your approachable friend" type of thing. Perhaps to decrease the corporate stigma, especially in an economic downturn.

[JPnyc]

Microsoft established brand and product recognition thousands of years ago. That's the last thing they need to worry about.

[David Harrison]

The 360 is a decent console that's selling well (albeit with some reliability issues), their peripheral hardware is above average (though you'd have to pry me away from Logitech with a crowbar before I'd buy any), and their OS comes bundled on almost all new PCs.

The average Joe Retard doesn't know of a world beyond microsoft, and the average Joe is where all the money is. Millions upon millions of Joes. Case in point, Vista was a disaster in terms of security, audio, gaming, drivers and DRM, but it still flew off the shelves, 20 million copies in the first month alone.

When you're that far ahead of the competition, I guess you can afford to blow money on adverts that don't make any sense.

[drhowarddrfine]

I guess you all know by now that MS dropped Jerry and going with a new campaign starting tonight.

[Sunny G]

I saw this. I think they're trying to keep up with Apple in their ad campaigns.
I've never seen a Microsoft ad on TV until their "Mojave Experiment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mojave_Experiment)" fling. Meh.

[drhowarddrfine]

Microsoft is in a time warp. (http://www.newsweek.com/id/160064)

Unrelated, Newsweek says Apple's consumer market share is now 11%. It was just 5% a year or two ago.