Microsoft’s new ad campaign: Did you get it?
Posted on September 12th, 2008 in English) by JulioHM | 0 Comments »
So people are all confused, some even angry, at Microsoft’s new ads starring Seinfeld. So far, we’ve had two commercials aired, and they’ve also hit the web in the most viral possible form. The fact that a company tries to hire actors to be associated with their name or products is nothing new. But people got really confused when they learned that Jerry Seinfeld would star in Microsoft’s next ad campaign. After all, Seinfeld made his fame with his sitcom, a show about nothing. For those who loved the series, they did mostly for a simple reason: there’s just no story.. no plot.. it’s about nothing!
Now, as Microsoft’s new ads spread through the net, people got even more confused. Ironically, the commercials also seem to be about nothing! I won’t even bother embedding them here, since they are already stuck into every website you can possibly imagine. With discussions popping up all over the place trying to make sense and explain what these ads are all about, I might as well share my opinion on them.
Up until now, we only have two ads to look at, and they might very well not show us the entire picture of their campaign. Some say there’s really nothing to explain, they’re just stupid ads about nothing — that would place them under the same category of Coca-Cola commercials, they never tell you anything, they are just there to remind you that the product exists.
I’ll go ahead and agree with some people who think these ads are basically full of metaphors. I’m inclined to believe they wouldn’t want to spend millions of dollars in a campaign that just doesn’t say anything other than “yes, we are here”. Since we can all watch these ads anywhere, I’m not going to spend any time walking through every frame, explaining every single detail you can possibly catch. But here’s an overall idea.
Ad #1 - Shoe Circus Disccount Store
Bill Gates represents… well… Gates himself. Just a regular human being who lives his own life in his own beat. Seinfeld represents the Microsoft empire around him: the company, its employees, its products.
We can all agree that not everything that comes out of Microsoft is something that pops out of Bill Gates’ head. Thousands of people work towards creating all of their products, and Bill Gates is really someone who gave it all a jump start, and keeps funding and investing on it. Gates and his whole army of employees might not always agree on every idea they have — hence, the awkward moments when Seinfeld suggests taking a shower with your clothes on, or asking feedback about how well the shoes fit, until they find a pair that goes well. In a sense, the simple fact they are in a shoe store (a type business) is a punch line to the fact that Microsoft is inserted into a larger market with endless business possibilities.
Some people actually found the Mexicans looking through the glass as offensive to developing countries. But, really, why would Microsoft even come close to convey that message? The family outside, represents the entire class of people who like using Microsoft’s products. And even though Microsoft and Bill Gates are worldwide known names, when it comes down to real truth, what do simple people, simple home desktop users really know about Microsoft, Bill Gates, and the entire computer business? Not really much! End users, people who get on with their own lives, have their own problems to worry about, they know very little about Gates, or Microsoft as a company, or Seinfeld for that matter. Most are really interested on the products, such as Windows or the Office suite, and whatever commodities that brings to their lives — hence their sole interest on the type of shoes (products) they’re handling than on Gates or Seinfeld themselves.
The final punch line comes when Seinfeld asks Gates what’s the future going to be like. “Give me a sign”, he asks. And with a billionaire booty shake, they just end up with the message that good things are on the way. Maybe the idea is to associate Microsoft with good things, yummy things, things you like… It doesn’t matter what that thing is, they just leave that up to your imagination and your memory associations to the word “Delicious”. When you think about it… not bad marketing at all!
Ad #2 - Living With The Family
When you think about Microsoft and their products, it’s clear that they try to satisfy both the enterprise world and home users. Whichever you look at, you can look at the family aspect of this ad in both ways. Keep in mind both sides of this metaphor when you watch this ad, but since most of Microsoft revenues come from licensing their products to enterprises and companies, try and make a connection with the business world.
Microsoft is always searching for opportunities to infiltrate other businesses to sell their products. Most of the time their products have to live alongside an entire legacy of other systems (hardware and software) that have been around for decades — hence the metaphor “living with another family”. Remember as Jerry himself points out to the mother “I really don’t wanna hear the financial thing, it’s a little uncomfortable. I just wanna live with you, people.”
As problems arise among family members, due to old in-house issues that come across many years of living together, Gates and Seinfeld find themselves in sticky situations: caught in the crossfire between arguments, or competing for space with smaller radical products and very old “do-it-all-purpose” grannies.
You can think of the main message as: “We are trying to fit in, help you with your everyday life. But sometimes, we get caught into problems that are really not our fault. But that’s ok, we’ll take the beating sometimes, and do the hard work for you. Just don’t let me out of your house”.
The final scene tells us that Microsoft is not helping just one family. They are always looking for more families to help. And I have to admit, the robot was a nice touch.
So, at the end of the day…
Microsoft seems to be attempting to create a new look for itself. Not by inventing anything new or fantastically innovating or revolutionary… but by simply showing you things as they are (or as they want you to perceive them). If you hire Seinfeld — the master about stories about nothing — what type of commercials did you really expect to see? It’s just like the Seinfeld show on TV. It’s about nothing, just showing you life as it happens.
Sometime ago, when I was testing Ubuntu 8.04, on my HP 
