Maybe they are not ads at all but pilot episodes for a new sitcom.
Gates seems to enjoy his new video hobby.

nocar

@chumleyex: It has nothing to do with Windows.. Ballmer has already has already made a comment about the lack of any MS product being featured in the ads.

They're there to create a buzz; to preach to the MS fanboys, and the common folk alike. I really like the ads. I'd bet that someone, somewhere, is thinking of pitching a scripted-reality show to Bill in the future. I'd watch it.

tamoko

@OMG! Ponies!: An accurate assessment, and for those other products certainly it makes sense to have the kind of "feel good about our brand" general ads, and then a more targeted approach for the individual sub-brands (xbox, zune)

Windows branding, however, is just a big gaping hole of suck. Vista kind of reminds me of dubya bush in that respect, in that it seems like even microsoft wants to distance itself from even the name vista and focus on the future, i.e. Mojave experiment, windows 7, yadda yadda...

lpranal

Someone leaked the script for Microsoft's new "I'm a PC" ad:
[www.irider.com]

ifstone

The ads just proved to me that MS is out of touch trying to use a washed up comedian to invigorate their brand. FAIL. Just like those old Fruity Pebbles ads where Fred and Barney do a rap song wearing 'shades' and rope chains - money can't buy hipness.
And didn't the second ad, where they assimilate with the 'regular family' (po' folk), seem a bit condescending?

kahri

Brilliant, subdued, and funny... exactly how I like to think of Gates. That Seinfeld guy is amusing too.

tamoko

I'm sorry, I meant "it brings about a good feeling inside" not avoid.

Randy87

I actually think that these "ads" are quite brilliant. They're more like shorts, and they make you think. A lot of people find them entertaining, which brings about avoid feeling inside. You then associate that good feeling with the people in the commercial--including Bill Gates. And what do you also associate with Bill Gates already? Windows. It's a way of persuasion. These ads aren't meant to have a hard sell technique. They are trying to put a positive message association in your head, because as Mojave "kind of" demonstrated, there are people who had a negative association with vista for no real reason.

I think it's a very smart move. Look how much it has everyone talking about it afterall....

Randy87

Nice! I liked them.

Drummer_Boy

"WHO WERE THE AD WIZARDS THAT CAME UP WITH THAT ONE?"

half-beast

The reason why these commercials fail is because they're trying to imitate the Seinfeld show without the writers of the show, which is what made the show great.

Seinfeld is an above average comic, average actor and the rest of the cast were average actors. What made Seinfeld great was the writing staff.

I wish these commercials were canceled. Obviously the exec's that green lighted this shouldn't have the positions they have.

1.21Gigawatts

Yay?

Crash Override 777

I kind of like them. "Nifty" is the word that comes to mind. To all those saying that the ads don't talk about Windows, it's not really an ad for a product. It's an ad for a brand - Microsoft.

That said - the Zune ads are a little more attention-getting, the XBox 360 ads are a little more compelling, and the Microsoft animation overlay ads are a little better put together.

OMG! Ponies!

Oh that was a Microsoft commercial I thought Steve jobs must have paid a lot of money to get bill gates in their new Mac spots

Juggrnott

Well, where the hell is my conquistador footwear?
Because that's all I've seen for sale

wanago

I, for one, am very happy to hear this news. While being a little weird and perhaps not the best way to get the word out about Vista or whatever, I think at the very least they're pretty entertaining.

ezman

Microsoft's message: we don't know what we're doing with *anything* we do, so just hold on for a second...

jwm1314

I have a question.. What the heck do these commercials have to do with Windows? Maybe I am not catching something said or done, to me, it's just 2 people doing weird stuff.

chumleyex

Good! I had a feeling that they wouldn't just get rid of these spots.

ALT

@Ssscorpion: he amusing just not that funny. Never a big fan of the show

wanago

Crispin Porter? I'd like to see Crispin Glover make some Microsoft ads!

Torley

Psst, Bill. Can you loan me a few $100Mill? I'm good for it...

SigmundTheSeaMonster

Awesome. I love these. I mean, they're not much in terms of ads, but I think they're pretty funny.

Platypus Man

Ah, thank God they did not pull these ads. These are doing more for Mac sales than anything Apple could do me thinks.

If you want to know what's wrong with Microsoft and their OS, all you have to do is look at one of these ads to know they are clueless, with tons of money and no idea what the consumer wants to do with a computer.

Shenzhov

I like the Seinfeld/Gates commercials, I think they are very funny. Even my gf who knows nothing about computers finds them funny.

gqcarrick

Seinfeld is no comedic genius and he never was. He was an average - not great - stand-up who got lucky and fell into a hit series.

You all know that, right?

Ssscorpion

@dcmidnight:

Your article appears to be 11 hours old.

Carry on.

Drummer_Boy

The "anti-Mac ads"? I haven't seen one yet, but these seem more like rebuttals to anti-PC ads by Apple than attacks.

XanderCrews

The blogosphere jumping the gun? Nah. Couldn't happen.

Of course if anyone had actually read any of the previous articles on the subject and/or knew a thing about major ad campaigns they'd know that this is a phased plan with multiple elements that will be going on simultaneously over a long period of time. A lot of major companies run multiple campaign elements at the same time these days. Geico with the lizard, cavemen, celebrity spokesperson, etc. Apple with the PC/Mac spots, dancing iPod silhouttes, and iPhone speed exaggeration spots. Beer companies with pretty much everything they do. It's common practice.

Ron-Mexico

CNBC reports the ads ARE canceled and this has been confirmed by a Microsoft spokesperson:

[www.cnbc.com]

======

A blog or two speculated tonight that Microsoft would announce the end of those ads tomorrow. I've just spoken to a Microsoft source who confirms the ads will cease, that Microsoft is canceling them after only a few weeks and will be making that announcement tomorrow.

Confirmed.

dcmidnight

@ifstone: I feel dumber for having read that.

I enjoy the commercials. I look forward to having them all out and then available on Youtube as a single long skit.

smartboydan hates college

I would think that MS would get that just because people don't understand what something means doesn't mean it has no impact on their understanding.

(And if they didn't, I would think the AdMen have the "research" to explain it to them.)

92BuickLeSabre

@HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak:
Well since the CrunchGear has this morning's report from the NYT as an update I think we can deduce that it's not as current as Giz's info.

Drummer_Boy

Funny... CrunchGear's saying the exact opposite.

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak

The worlds best advertising is making a product that actually works. If you build it, they will come.

Curves

Two old farts try to prove they're hip by being seen alongside the profoundly non-hip. And failing.

russdanger

I hope this all leads to Windows 7 being renamed "Conquistador."

JackHoliday

@HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak:

Perhaps, however Giz's original article, Valleywag's article, CNBC's and CrunchGear's all fall within the same very narrow timeframe. This latest article seems to be the most current position.

But yeah, I take your point.

Drummer_Boy

@Curves:> "The worlds best advertising is making a product that actually works. If you build it, they will come."

Like Windows having 90% of the computer market?

@phoomp:> About as much as the Mac vs. PC commercials have to do with Mac.

Exactly. I love how the Mac commercials mention Vista more than OSX. Well, Apple is the underdog in that respect.

MichaelScrip

These ads are pretty clever, I think. Tighter than Wes Anderson's stuff, and I like his stuff.

irv

@Drummer_Boy: "Newer" doesn't mean "more correct" (unfortunately, this is a fallacy that both the mainstream media and the blogosphere have fallen to). CrunchGear hasn't repealed their story, and neither has CNBC. And all three (Gizmodo, CrunchGear, and CNBC) are citing "insider sources".

All I'm saying is that all these "confirmations" and "rumor smashings" are not worth the paper they're not printed on. Everything's still a bit up in the air on this.

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak

@chumleyex:
About as much as the Mac vs. PC commercials have to do with Mac.

phoomp

@HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak:

A few points to note:

1) The downgrade clause only aplies after June 30, before that you could choose to have XP or Vista. After this date I'm going to bet that the number of individual users requesting an XP downgrade is going to be tiny and the steady increase in Vista's OS share seems to back this up.
2) Corporate buyers almost certainly downgraded a fair number of the new units they purchased to XP because hardware refreshes don't always match software refreshes as we saw when we moved from NT to XP. That said, a recent survey showed that about two-thirds of corporate PCs bought with Vista still have Vista on them. The remainder will reuse the licence.
3) I think Microsoft need to be a hell of a lot more careful about product launches in future. In the past when coverage on the net wasn't so pervasive they kind of got away with releasing Beta versions, clealry this is no longer the case.

For those of us old enough to remember the launch of XP, can you imagine how much of a kicking MS would have got over its release if net coverage had been as widespread as it is today? It would have made all the fuss over Vista look like a walk in the park.

Drummer_Boy

@MichaelScrip: "Like Windows having 90% of the computer market?"

Frankly, that's mostly inertia at this point. Companies wouldn't be bundling Vista at all if Windows hadn't become the de facto standard. As it is, they're looking for a way out, whether that means taking advantage of the downgrade clause (which, amazingly enough, is still counted as a Vista sale, despite the fact that the customer never sees Vista), or expanding Linux offerings, or even (in the case of HP) looking into the feasibility of crafting a custom OS.

And I would love to see some retail sales figures (i.e. not ones bundled with new computers), and compare them to retail sales of previous Windows OS's. I think the results would be quite interesting.

MS had better come through on Windows 7, because if its launch is even half as problematic as Vista's was, they might be in some serious trouble.

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak

These ads are the worst ever, and I think that they are only running them to "pay" bill gates on the side.

atomoverride

I mean CPB, Crispin Porter Bogusky

Death

Make the commercials 1/2 hour long, set them in NY, Jerry's apartment, and Monk's Diner. Bill can play the independently wealthy neighbor across the hall who drops in at inopportune moments.

"Hey, buddy!" Cosmo Gates.

madara

CPG, the agency responsible for these, is one of the top agencies in the world. They are responsible for the Burger King "King" ads (love/hate them, they got a lot of attention).

Apple use Chiat/Day, another top agency, but CPG are younger/hipper/cooler. As an Apple fanboy it bothers me that MS have the cooler agency.

Death

@Curves: They only do that every 10 years to keep their hooks in. Zune software?

marc_wtih_a_c

@chumleyex: These commercials are pretty much "smart" humor. Meaning, the ad is not all in your face saying things like, "I'm better and here's why." Or "Microsoft isn't evil and here's why."

No, instead, they relay those messages without having to say it or put it in your face... Take the first commercial. It shows Bill Gates, the multi-billionaire inventor of Microsoft... at local shoe store buying normal shoes. Not only that, he's a gold member or whatever. HILARIOUS and drives the point home that Bill Gates is a normal guy just like us and can relate to us just the same.

Take the 2nd commercial... Driving this point further... Bill and Jerry move into a "normal" person's home showing that they can relate to real people issues... Where even in one point Bill is quoted as saying, "You're not soo real!" to the little girl. Again, this commercial is aimed at proving that Microsoft is not Evil, and can relate to us normal, real humans, because hey, Bill is just that regular guy.

Also, please keep in mind that after each one, Seinfeld asks Bill about what could be possible in the future of computers and Bill doing something funny to say Yes... Meaning, that Microsoft has big plans for the future with innovate releases coming soon(Windows 7).

Obviously Seinfeld is there for the humor and Name/Hollywood recognition... To drive these points home in an un-threatening manner. Like I said, the message is clear if you think about it for a second... ie, "smart" humor. I personally love them.

SkoGoody

@SkoGoody: The fact that you need five paragraphs to explain an Ad shows that it's ineffective.

Joseph

@atomoverride: If Bill Gates needed the money, instead of hitting up Microsoft's ad budget, he'd probably cut back on the massive amount of money he donates to charity.

OMG! Ponies!

The fact is that people are paying attention to the commercials and talking about Microsoft. That's all that matters. Who cares if you didn't get it?

bluebledthesea

@Joseph: The fact that we are still talking about it shows otherwise.

Nice to know they are not being cancelled... I liked them.

It's different. And not Sony Playstation different, fortunately.

I'm also willing to bet that half the people complaining about the ads would be saying it was the best ad ever it featured... Jobs and some other comedian. With the exact same script.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

I don't get how this smashes rumors. Seeing how CP+B has egg on their face, this response isn't surprising. But confirming that Microsoft asked them to shift focus to different ads = confirms this is not occurring according to their phased plan. (Essentially shooting down the thinnest but best spin Microsoft and CP+B could hold onto.) Having an ad in the can (which is more or less assumed by the cancellation angle) doesn't mean that it will air. Having plans to film more merely means they have scripts for ads that may never air, no surprise there.

Tim Faulkner

@Joseph: I was just trying to be detailed to really get my message across to the rampant Microsoft haters.

Dumbed down version:

The commercials are not the in your face types of "Mac is better then PC and here's why." Instead they deliver their message subtly... through humor. Bill Gates, just your average Joe who shops at the local Shoe store. "See, he's normal like me and you. Microsoft can relate to us common folk." Is Windows planning something huge? Why yes, Bill just did the Robot.

Simple, Smart and funny... To those who know how to think for themselves.

SkoGoody

I figured as much. It wouldn't seem fiscally sensible to pay Seinfeld a cool ten million, only to kill the campaign after two ads. It's true, the ads aren't particularly effective at boosting sales, as they don't really make any points in favor of Vista or against OSX, but they are original and pretty damn entertaning.

sridhar3

@madara: I'd watch it.

yesthisisapc

Does it seem plausible that Crispen Porter just hasn't fully accepted that MS has lost confidence in the Gates & Seinfeld spots and is trying to spin this as "all part of the plan"...?

I laughed at some of the spots but nothing I saw made me think MS knows/knew what it was doing with Vista.

bombs_away

The ads have almost certainly been cancelled. The way in which this came out in blogs is another PR disaster almost as bad as the ads themselves. So this retraction is just more PR to water down the total failure of the campaign so far. They may have more "in-the-can" which they may broadcast, but only to protect reputations.

zato3

@zato3:

And you know this because...

Oh wait. You don't.

Drummer_Boy

"Some sites have jumped the gun"....some sites? Like this one? Own up.

MasterSauce

I think this ad camapign is obviously a huge success. I haven't ever seen an add campaign talked so much about on Gizmodo, Engadget and all the other worlds biggest tech blogs. You can be sure about 99% of tech oriented early adopter types know about this ad-capaign.

There is no such thing as bad PR. Just get people talking about you, that equals more sales no matter what people are actually saying.

With just two Seinfeld ads, Microsoft managed to turn its image around from being a big evil coorporation into being a weird funny incomprehensible very advanced humored ironic company that don't mind making fun of itself and that manages to put out really weird stuff, not having to have all of their PR be filtered to only fit for the lowest common denominator. Now Microsoft don't mind targetting the niche of people that understand that type of humor and can appreciate it. Basically the intelligent type of people.

Charbax2

Pity - waste of TV time - I'd prefer to watch the Charmin Bear wipe it's butt than watch dumb and dumber buying shoes and chewing on PCs...

MINI Driver

I loved the second one so much that I have it streaming on my bedroom wall 2160 dpi all night long while listening to Lionel Ritchey and kissing Sarah Palin's photo. No really...I do like them. Really.

SpeedyGonzalas

@Ssscorpion: sacreliege! burn him at the stake!

asurroca

So CNN (via AP) is reporting today that they indeed _are_ canceled. Which is it??? I haven't even seen one yet!

Ike_Skelton

Funny how you refer to the "I'm a PC" MS ads as Anti-Mac.. the one I saw never even mentioned Mac. OTOH the Mac VS PC ads are clearly slanderous and very desperate in nature.

Zodduska

I don't understand how Seinfield plays into the commercials...but I guess it's just as a comic relief.

I do understand the commercials however. Is Bill Gates your average person? Does he know how real people act anymore? The story lines are just that, a story. Billy himself getting out there and comingling with common folk has a sense of "Microsoft reconnecting with real, average joes." I don't understand how people don't get that?

I like both commercials, althought I could careless about the MS/Apple crybaby b*$#& fest back and forth.

x3r0

@Randy87: Nothing about these ads is entertaining. If I wanted to watch a crappy sitcom I'd turn on the WB. Microsoft and Apple seem to be competing for the "Who Can Piss Off More Customers" Award.

Topper82

@x3r0:

"Billy himself getting out there and comingling with common folk has a sense of "Microsoft reconnecting with real, average joes." I don't understand how people don't get that?"

Oh yeah, that point is clearly obvious in the 2nd commercial. But if that's the message, why have him fail to connect by the end of that same ad?

+ Watch video

The problem I see with these ads is that it relies on niche humor, which by it's very definition is not going to be universally accepted. It just seems like they were trying so hard to connect with the virial video and reality show people that they never realized they have no clue what entertains these people.

darthuv

The fact that everyone is talking about how it doesn't make sense PROVES that it's an effective tool to get you to remember Windows. "Have you seen that new Microsoft ad with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld? Not one mention of Windows. Huh!" They still got you to remember that PC is your only other choice versus a Mac. Plus, Seinfeld is a guy who talks about nothing. And that's exactly what the commercial is about: nothing. And a well-placed Windows logo. :P

misterburglund

I gained a whole new respect for Bill when he poked fun at himself in his retirement video, but i had a hard time grasping the point of these commercials. I'm sure there is a hidden metaphor in there someplace, but i am just not seeing it ... at least seinfeld is still banking with syndication.

VSGinc.

@Joseph

It takes more than five paragraphs to explain ANY good advertisement. If you can sum up an advertisement in one or two sentences it will have no lasting impact on the consumer and the brand promoted will be quickly forgotten. If you worked in the field you would know this.

charliebob

One thing I love about the Giz coverage of these commercials is to see the Mac fanboys scrabble on how "terrible" these commercials are. Sounds like desperation to me.

The fact is that these commercials are brilliant branding. I hear people talk about them all the time and they never say "Microsoft is lame" They say things like "I didn't get the point, but I thought it was funny". For all of you who don't understand how advertising works... that is a bullseye. They created a positive association with their brand name. It is along the same lines as putting a celebrities name on a bottle of perfume or cologne. It is garaunteed sell due to association.

Mountain Dew, Nike, Sprite, And Reese's Pieces have all been wildly successful using this method. Microsoft has just found a new and inventive way of implementing it.

charliebob

I like these ads, they give me a break from all of the mind numbing insurance, car and political ads that are sucking the life out of me in the 90 seconds that my mind wakes up from watching my 'stories'.

AbnormallySane

The thing that amazes me is that Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld wear such crappy shoes. Please guys, get some style. When your shoe budget is without practical limits, brown lace-up geek shoes should be have no place in your closet...

Interesting that while Apple ads hammer home the perception that Vista has more problems than OS X, MS ads focus on shoes and (I'm guessing here) how MS is going to improve your computer beyond your wildest dreams by making it soft and moist, like a good cake. I think the Apple ads have been more effective so far. Of course they have been on much longer. Can't just run a couple of ads and expect anything to really change. So I'm glad the MS ads aren't being dropped. I was hoping that the next few would really reveal the message.

dahveed