08/21/2008, 7:45am, EDT
Thursday, August 21stGates, Seinfeld to appear in MS Vista ads?
Microsoft is enlisting celebrity talent and its own co-founder to kick off a campaign to mend Windows Vista's reputation, the Wall Street Journal said Thursday. The newspaper claims to know insiders who say the company has paid Jerry Seinfeld $10 million to appear alongside Bill Gates in Microsoft's widely publicized "edgy" TV ad campaign and will allegedly stress the concept of "Windows not Walls," removing barriers to communication with the operating system.
The ads would start September 4th and would be part of "one of the largest" ad campaigns Microsoft has ever launched, the paper claims. Microsoft is known to be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to promote Vista and is again said to have rejected its long-time ad agency McCann Erickson in favor of Crispin Porter + Bogusky to take a different approach to its marketing.
Microsoft's TV campaign would take a non-confrontational approach but is widely seen as an attempt to counter Apple's "Get a Mac" ads, which the Windows developer has already said are hijacking Vista's perception in the public eye and pushing some customers to either use Macs or hold to Windows XP for fear of perceived flaws. Apple's computer sales jumped 41 percent year-over-year in the spring quarter and have led to particularly high sales in the US, where Apple's market share climbed from 6.2 percent in spring 2007 to an estimated 7.8 percent for the same season in 2008.
Neither Microsoft nor its ad partner have commented on the rumored nature of the campaign.
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Mac Background
Look at Seinfeld reruns.
There is a Mac setting on his desk in all of them. Anything for money. In addition, after nine years the show does not seem so hip or funny anymore.
yeah
hard to believe that such a long time mac user would switch. of course appearing in an add and getting couple of million doesn't mean he has to switch.
sheryl crow appeared in an hp add and she is/was a long time mac user as well.
a couple of mil has got to be mighty tempting.
Not so young
Unfortunately, while I was a huge fan of Jerry's show, I don't think college-aged people will see him the way Microsoft thinks they will. I may play into Apple's hands all the more making Vista seem old and past it's prime.
yup
well, if you think about it, Seinfeld is the perfect player for an MS ad..
it's a commercial about nothing :)
Second Thought
If they have Bill as the "Real PC " guy dumping on Jerry as the "Real Mac User" Guy, this thing could get ugly. Of course we could rip and with a little ilife editing have the dialog go the other way via Youtube. Looks like fun if this thing is hip enough.
Lloyd Braun
Maybe they should get George and Lloyd Braun selling Vista. They could even give away a free water pik!
how brilliant
Have Bill Gates appear in an ad where you want to show how cool PC users are. Huh??
The MS conundrum: How to appear hip without looking like a bunch of jerkoffs to their stuffy business users. My guess - this is not about trying to appear hip - just competent. Vista has put them in a situation where they have to mend, rather than innovate. Don't look for much other than a ton of money spent to repair their brand.
Doofuses.
Gates, Seinfeld MS Vista
If Gates and Seinfeld appear in Microsoft Vista advertising, please use the Apple iMac or Mac Book Pro/Air for Vista demonstration, since both machine use Intel base CPU and work faster.
Microsoft software and Apple hardware can both operate nicely.
WTF?
Dork and Dorkier?They need the guy who sells ShamWow on cable TV! He and Bill would make a great team.
Hi I'm Art Vandelay
When designing the new addition to the Guggenheim or helping an ailing beached whale there's nothing like using Windows Vista.
10 Million, like Mr. Burns just put it on the pile in the corner.
Should have used Newman!