Microsoft taps Seinfeld to help battle Apple in new ad campaign - Page 3

Yeah, that's nothing like Apple partnering with McDonalds and Nike, and using Chinese labor.

Pull your head out of your a**.

It's not anything like the last two. The Nike partnership was crating between two seprate products to form a new one. Chinese labour is just common and typical of any mass produced item, especially electronics.

Only McDonald's iTunes give-away is comparable as they are both marketing stunts to drum up business.


Why must you always attempt to be abusive?

I guess it just shows that anyone can be bought to say anything for the right amount of $$$.

The weather here in Cleveland is a balmy 87, over cast with expected showers in the evening...


I love how these forums go way off topic and degrade to hair pulling and name calling.

So, apparently you missed this:
http://gizmodo.com/5035456/blue-scre...torch-lighting

You do realise the difference in business' here? Apple make computers, they need to sell computers to make a profit (well now iPods and iPhones help a bit ) MacOSX is part of what helps Apple sell computers. They sell a computer as a package. The experience of OSX is tied into having a Mac. Bootcamp simply means that Mac's now represent a potential market for Windows (and better yet a market that may end up paying full retail rather then getting either OEM or Upgrade copies).

Microsoft are a software company, they sell software (speaking from the PC side of things, I know they make peripherals, consoles and portable media players as well). They have no interest in where you install your software (as long as it is only one machine per license, and of course in line with the EULA), they just want to sell software to you. Probably the closest equivalent to Apple would be to say they should release the Xbox 360 OS so that you can install it on your Playstation 3 (ignoring here of course that the two platforms have quite different architectures).

None of this has anything to do with ethics. Deciding that you want to sell billions of copies of software and leave making and selling the hardware to other companies is not an intrinsically more ethical decision that deciding you want to make an integrated platform of hardware and software. If you prefer Microsoft's approach then go with Vista, be happy! I happen to like my integrated platform, where the OS is made by the company who made the computer. It just works for me.

As for the ads, good luck to them. I mean I never quite got his comedy, but I know a lot of my friends did, and my demographic (late 20's to early 30's, dual income, no-kids) is not a bad demographic to pitch to. Personally I think that it is good that Microsoft can convince themselves that the only problem with Vista is the public perception of it.

No. Let Apple keep him as the neurotic George Costanza holding a Windows Vista OS box, walking into the NY Apple store to get help at the Genius Bar about uploading Vista on his Mac and have him "bump" into Steve Jobs and have Steve do a cameo and have it like when "George Costanza" had to meet Yankees owner George Steinbrenner! I can just close my eyes and see it all. What a hoot!

You missed the point. The author was accusing Seinfeld of selling out his principles by shilling for MS, yet failed to acknowledge how Jobs/Apple plays up the image of being the great benevolent corporate entity, yet partners up with scummy corporations and totalitarian regimes.

You can't have it both ways.

Doesn't know better. That's what I gather from the posts I've seen.

Why can't we all get along? I love anyone who loves Apple.
Lets take a chill pill and love one another.


Peace

Please give me an example of Apple "playing up the image of being the great benevolent corporate identity". When I think of Apple, I think of computers. OS, iPods, ITMS, iPhones. Never in all my years of owning Macs, which is less than 20 years, has Apple, through it's marketing and advertising campaign, ever convinced me of anything but being a business [with cool products] and not that of Mother Theresa.

Seinfeld can do as he wishes. I do not begrudge him for making a buck or ten million. I would never say he is selling out even if his show accepted product placements - is that what you mean when you say Apple partnered up with scummy corporations ala tv producers and television production companies, et. al.?

Seinfeld is great. But when he boasted about being the "master of his own domain" who'd have guessed he was talking MS, hope he was fully certified.

Apple may have the better OS, but Windows has more mondo-wealthy eccentric 50 year old inscrutables like Seinfeld and Gates, not to mention Ballmer!

For weirdness that rests on a foundation of gobs of cold hard money, Windows doesn't need to ask Apple what time it is. Seinfeld and Gates both have so much money!!

The marketing company they've hired were the geniuses behind an anti-smoking PSA campaign that was so offensive most stations that received the CDs tossed them. The premise was "passing gas" -- yes, they went there -- referring to second hand smoke by the phrase reserved for ... well, you know.

Great choice, Mr. Softie. As usual, I sincerely hope you rebound, though.

Sounds like you know the ad game score.

How about this for a concept: "Subservient Bill"

(google "Subservient Chicken" if you're in the dark)

HA!!

gc

Haha, I love Seinfeld (the show). I don't get the hate! I'd say 99% of the people out there would have trouble turning down millions to appear in a few simple commercials.

I work for a company that sold its soul to MS back in the 90s. Office, Active Directory, Exchange, Windows, you name it. I can assure you, BSoDs happen on XP, and yet, all of my executives have nothing but absolute loathing for Vista. It's not that they don't want to move to it, they want me to remove from their computers entirely, and one of my executives asked if he could get a MacBook Pro instead. Vista may be slightly more stable in that it doesn't BSoD, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have other problems.


Propaganda... You didn't watch MS come in and basically bribe your company's leaders into going for an all MS setup. The corporate world is completely different, and where most of the problems with MS stem from. They're finding that they're losing ground in that arena, and they're scared. And they should be, considering that they're 0-for-2 on their major releases for this generation of software (the other being Office 2007, which inspires even more hate in my company than Vista).

MS should have gone with a Martha Stewart, Bill Gates commercial. She shows him how to make fudge. He points out that Vista can make better "fudge" than OS X. She comments "You Mean FUD don't you? That's a good thing."

Besides, doesn't she have current TV show?

Maybe I'm showing my age, but I find it hard to believe there's anybody too young to know about Jerry Seinfeld. Of course, I was a big fan before he had the show, saw every one of the shows, and still watch the reruns even though I know most of them by heart. I am sometimes surprised because I've forgotten which three storylines went together in each show and how they were intertwined. (Anybody else would have gotten three shows out of them. Not bad for a "show about nothing.")

All that being said, I think this is a really stupid move. Advertising bits have a way of sticking around for a long time. To pick one at random from 20 years before the Seinfeld show that anyone would recognize:

Seinfeld look-alike saying: "I'm not a Mac User, but I play one on TV."

And, "Windows, not Walls?" Even worse. I wish I could credit the person who left this comment on MacUser, but they were anonymous: "Without walls and fences, nobody would need Windows or Gates."

How can MS be so dumb - it's staggering...

Firstly, Vista has been proved to be a poor product in the marketplace. The horse has bolted, too late to lock the stable door. Shoving an expensive marketing campaign down everyone's throats is not going to change opinions, its likely to polarise them even further and neither does a marketing campaign change Vista as a product.

Secondly, there's a lot of talk of 'no compromises'. Does Ballmer realise that providing the Mac-like experience involves making compromises at a design level. he thinks the MS philosophy is one of choice, but that's BS, it's philosophy is one of laziness and solving problem through focus-testing and statistical analysis.

Fundamentally, providing that complete end-to-end experience (I won't call it narrow, because it isn't) involves making decisions and not lumping a dozen teams worth of code together and hoping that no one will care about how badly it all works. back in the day, when we were all happy that our machines just did spreadsheets, sure who cared that the UI sucked, but now people are demanding more than just features and brute force.

MS have failed to show any sign of showing they have the wherewithal to tackle these fundamental issues and I can't see them solving them any time in the future.

Exactly. All the folks going on about how the Seinfeld series is dated have nothing but their own limited experience to back them up.

The fact is, MS is a giant impersonal corporation and they approach these things in a business like way. There is a list (actually mentioned in some articles on this today), of popular people and brands that they consult. It doesn't matter what anyone here thinks about Seinfeld, the point is he is about 19th on that list in terms of name recognition. That alone makes him worth 10 million and is the reason they picked him. Presumably if he refused they would go to number 20.


I was waiting for someone to mention this also.

The slogan tells you where they are going to go with the campaign and this "Windows, not Walls" slogan is seriously stupid. It implies that MS will go after the "Apple is a walled Garden" theme which is hardly a strong argument for Windows even if it were true. The worlds most bloated, in-your-face, stops-you-from-doing-stuff OS is going to argue that the partially open source, open standards OS-X is somehow a barrier to getting things done? And that the way to get around these "walls" is to go for Windows?

Talk about a reversal of reality. This is laughable. Things don't become so just because someone says they are.

There was a Duo with a Dock in that progression too - perhaps that appeared to be a PC to some folks...

I for one (and many other I know) - didn't like Seinfeld, didn't watch the show, and I for one, would quickly switch the channel if a commercial came on with him in. Hell I'm sure I have done it HUNDREDS of times, when the show was on.

Yes, I'm sure there are many more folks who love him / the show, but unless the commercial were great, as entertainment - I for one don't see MS doing anything that's going make me watch, or switch.

Skip

I have to disagree. Except for short tour and a special Jerry Seinfeld hasn't really anything new. The show, which I love having seen each one more times than I can count is dated. The hair, clothing, cars and other technology in the show is all showing it's age. The last new episode aired just over a decade ago.

Now, I don't think it's a bad move as Jerry is well liked, funny and will appeal certain crowd, but I also don't think it's the best choice to attract interest in Windows. Not just because they didn't choose someone more current in entertainment, but because I don't think any A-list personally can help sell a well known, entrenched product like Windows.

boy they must be giving him some serious cash. or he must be really bored..

i watched like 5000 episodes of seinfeld. He always had a mac.



maybe the new adds are seinfeld telling gates to buy a mac and gates getting all pissed off.

Chinese labor is common, but is certainly not limited to electronics. Just take a minute to peruse this site, or this site, or this one.

The days of just cheap junk coming out of China are fading fast. Of course, if a company is only looking for the lowest dollar manufacturer, there will always be some company that will fill the bill. There are all quality and cost level manufacturing facilities in China.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

I think if MS really wanted to go for the core demographic's jugular, they would hire Mike Judge to create the ads and give him free reign to insult Vista if it could get people's attention.

For a short time, there was a PC on the desk. The Macs featured on the show was an SE, PowerBook Duo (in the Dock) and a TAM.

The show was funny, but Jerry the comedian is lukewarm at best. The person that was funny was Larry David. He made the show. But Larry David is not made for the the television camera--he's funny and has great comedic ideas but his persona is a little grating. Jerry Seinfeld was the perfect sanitized vessel to deliver the Larry David experience.

It should be noted that everyone on that show has not been that funny since. Granted Jason Alexander is fairly funny....and I like what he did on Duckman--but still he's not THAT funny. I have one question, if Jerry Seinfeld is a comedic genius why hasn't he done anything else since? Did anyone think he was a great comedian BEFORE the TV show? No. Although, I have to hand it to the guy he has made a fortune living the lie.

This will flop for Microsoft like everything else lately. Why? Because Jerry Seinfeld is a safe pick. MS is going down. Why? I work at a large company in the IT department and the executives have been switching to Mac. Heck they just announced a big push to get the helpdesk up to speed on Macs. The reality about a Mac is that it's heart is *nix (BSD via Darwin) with a GUI that is intuative and easy to use. There is no one that can say Windows is better than a flavor of *nix for stability and security....no one. Mark my words, MS is on its way out.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...pc_vendor.html

according to that, Apple had 8.5% of all PC shipments in 2008 Q2. So that leaves 91.5% for windows, and I'll even go ahead and assume that none of those people use Linux. So 91.5:8.5 = 10.8:1. Now there are bound to be some users that put windows on their mac... but even assuming 100% of mac owners buy a windows license too, that is only 100:8.5 = 11.8:1, nowhere close to 30:1

I'd like to see the math Balmer is doing, it must involve a lot of creativity.

As a big "Fridays" fan, I acknowledge David's contribution to the show. Of course, that's where Michael Richards came from, and Melanie Chartoff, Maryedith Burrell, and of course Bruce Mahler were on Seinfeld off and on, too. Fridays was just ahead of its time (and probably still would be.)


Amen. It's always slain me that anybody who's as paranoid about security as the "Enterprise" market would have anything to do with Microsoft when Unix (and now Linux) is available. Apple's big service to humanity was to take the Unix kernel and build a usable OS on top of it.

I still think Linux would have a chance, particularly in the low-end PC and business market if only the Open/Free Software neckbeards would stop dicking around with the kernel and coming up with dozens of GUIs to work with it, and would bite the bullet and write an actual OS to tie the two together, instead of forcing everybody to write their own OS on the fly if they want to actually do anything. And oh, yes, then standardize on it!

If that ever happened, Microsoft would be in deep, deep doo-doo. But if the Freerunner is their idea of an iPhone killer, I wouldn't bet on it.

He is using the global numbers, not just the US numbers. According to a recent AI article Apple was ranked 7th in the world for notebook sales. Coming in at 4.6%. Ignoring desktops completely for a moment we get a 22:1 ratio of Macs vs. PCs.

But we are still not considering Mac desktops, which are considerably less popular than Mac notebooks which could easily make the 30:1 estimate on the low end if the worldwide Mac sales gets less than 3.3%, which is entirely possible.

Also, Ballmer did state, "In the competition between PCs and Macs" but we know that Windows is sold for a variety of machines that aren't run as personal computers and I don't think some sold as such which would even further increase MS' Windows dominance over Mac OS X.

I don't like comparing OS X to Windows sales as it's not a fair comparison. I much prefer to look at it from the HW sales POV. Either way, I'm glad Apple is growing.

I love CYE. I'll have to check out Fridays if I can find it.

I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. It was ABC's answer to "Saturday Night Live," but only ran from 1979 to...1981 (?) Please let me know if you can find it on DVD anywhere.

I'll never forget the the "Exorcist" spoof they ran the Friday before the election in 1980. "Election Night: When the polls close, the HOORROOOOR begins!" Truer words were never spoken!

Netflixs is a no go, but YouTube has at least a few.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvH0KQuuFYw

Actually, unless Apple has changed policy recently, it doesn't pay for product placement. It does, however, have a department that deals with loaning out Macs to the media.

I wish somebody could dig up the "Diner of the Living Dead" sketch. So many stations pulled the show after that that they never really recovered.

Moreover, in order to use XP, people have to first purchase a Vista license from Microsoft. So, even if you use XP on a new machine, that is counted as a Vista sale.

Yeah. They could use Beavis and Butthead as spokespeople.

Huh huh huh... You said microsoft... huh huh huh