Microsoft says Seinfeld ads just a precursor to real campaign.
The long, oft-baffling "teaser" ads" by Microsoft featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates that kicked off two weeks ago are abruptly ending, the company said late Wednesday, as part two of its US$300 million Windows marketing rehab campaign begins.
What does the ad have to do with Vista? Nothing, which is probably a good thing, because the less said about that disaster the better.
Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, Siegfried and Roy, Gates and Seinfeld. Years from now, they will be remembered as the some of the great comic duos of all time.
Seinfeld/Windows ad dubbed "an ad about nothing" by confused viewers.
Microsoft's US$300 million advertising campaign for Windows starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld launched last week night with an extra-long television commercial almost entirely devoid of any talk of Windows, Microsoft, or anything, really.
Trying to repair the market"s perception of Vista by being funny is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic . . . as it sinks.
The IT world has a certain level of craziness that is remarkable, and nowhere does it show up more than in how various companies market their products. I have all sorts of examples to illustrate this, but given that I have limited space I'm going to concentrate on what I consider to be the 800-pound gorilla of marketing crazy: Microsoft.
