Microsoft taps Seinfeld to help battle Apple in new ad campaign

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  • Reply 101 of 145
    jpellinojpellino Posts: 698member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Flounder View Post


    You sure about that? I only remember macs. Maybe you thought it was a PC when he had a Mac LC?



    As I recall it started out as original macs (512, Classic, SE) then some LCs, and a 20th anniversary Mac the final year of the show.



    There was a Duo with a Dock in that progression too - perhaps that appeared to be a PC to some folks...
  • Reply 102 of 145
    nceencee Posts: 857member
    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
  • Reply 103 of 145
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Virgil-TB2 View Post


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



    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.
  • Reply 104 of 145
    freakboyfreakboy Posts: 138member
    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.
  • Reply 105 of 145
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    Chinese labour is just common and typical of any mass produced item, especially electronics.



    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.
  • Reply 106 of 145
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by FrankenSigns.biz View Post


    The first thought I had when I read this thread was, Jerry ALWAYS had a Mac.



    So, yes, for enough dough, it seems he would leave SUPERMAN for even The Ambiguously Gay Duo.





    Not that there's anything wrong with that...
  • Reply 107 of 145
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    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.



    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.
  • Reply 108 of 145
    hillstoneshillstones Posts: 1,490member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Flounder View Post


    You sure about that? I only remember macs. Maybe you thought it was a PC when he had a Mac LC?



    As I recall it started out as original macs (512, Classic, SE) then some LCs, and a 20th anniversary Mac the final year of the show.



    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.
  • Reply 109 of 145
    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.
  • Reply 110 of 145
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Really Confused Guy


    In the competition between PCs and Macs, we outsell Apple 30-to-1.



    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.
  • Reply 111 of 145
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by heavydevelopment View Post


    ....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.



    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.)



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by heavydevelopment View Post


    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.



    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.
  • Reply 112 of 145
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bobmarksdale View Post


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



    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.
  • Reply 113 of 145
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mac-sochist View Post


    As a big "Fridays" fan, I acknowledge David's contribution to the show.



    I love CYE. I'll have to check out Fridays if I can find it.
  • Reply 114 of 145
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    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!
  • Reply 115 of 145
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mac-sochist View Post


    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.
  • Reply 116 of 145
    tbelltbell Posts: 3,146member
    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.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RichL View Post


    He takes money from Apple for product placement, he takes money from Microsoft for commercials. Seinfeld is a money fanboy.



  • Reply 117 of 145
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


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



    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.
  • Reply 118 of 145
    tbelltbell Posts: 3,146member
    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.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bobmarksdale View Post


    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.



  • Reply 119 of 145
    quinneyquinney Posts: 2,528member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post


    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.



    Yeah. They could use Beavis and Butthead as spokespeople.



    Huh huh huh... You said microsoft... huh huh huh
  • Reply 120 of 145
    quinneyquinney Posts: 2,528member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Virgil-TB2 View Post


    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 haven't seen those other articles. Are you referring to "Q rating"?
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