What creativity does recognize, Jill, is opportunity. And there is a great opportunity to comment on the new series of advertisements coming out from Microsoft, which have met an overwhelming response of, well, just refer to the Q-Tip picture again. In fact Microsoft's own press release nearly apologizes for the ad in its opening paragraphs.
Why the need for apologizing? That's a difficult question to answer. Put simply though, because the first in the series of ads doesn't make any sense at all. Let's take a look.
It opens with Jerry Seinfeld walking through a mall, eating a churro.PAUSE We're good so far, Jerry Seinfeld can walk and churros are delicious. Continuing on, Jerry stops when he sees Bill Gates shopping for shoes at a fictional discount shoe store named 'Shoe Circus'. PAUSE Bill Gates is a multi-billionaire and uses Doc Martens as shower sandals. From here Jerry takes over the job of the shoe salesman and begins to sell Bill on a particular pair of shoes named "El Conquistador". PAUSE Jerry Seinfeld, aside from the negative aspects of puffy shirts, is not known to give fashion advice. Plus 'Conquistador' is a stupid name for a shoe. From here Jerry and Bill discuss the shoe, its qualities, and general aspects of 'nothing'. PAUSE Seinfeld's exploits into talking about 'nothing' are well-documented. Gates' are too, but far less hilarious. The commercial ends with Jerry asking Bill if he plans on using his huge brain to make computers more like delicious cake. Gates responds by picking his wedgie. PAUSE The cake is a lie.
And that's it. The Windows logo flashes on screen, with the comment 'Delicious'. When you boil down the commercial to its actual content, and we're talking real boiling here folks, you're left with the last 15 seconds or so where Seinfeld is asking Gates about the future of personal computing. After the disasterous results of Windows Vista, the over the top introduction of Microsoft's Surface, and the somehow survivable collapse of the XBOX 360, Microsoft answers back with a resounding, "Ehhhh, we're working on it.."
3 comments:
How did you post this at 3:01PM today when it is only 10:46AM right now? I think you might need to find some kind of time-zone option in your blog...
And, my comments are not bitchy, they are encouraging.
I have been hitting the rewind button on my DVR every time this commercial comes on. I always think if I just watch it one more time I'll find what there is to "get" about it. People tell me its the microsoft answer to the MAC vs PC commercials. If so, I have one thing to say. "Weak."
Uhhh, one problem. They did not flash the windows logo. Last time I checked, windows wasn't cool enough to have a logo. They have a vista icon, but no official windows logo. Someone fell asleep in a branding meeting.
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