September 4th, 2008
New Microsoft Seinfeld/Gates Ad Talks About Nothing (but not even in an ironic Docker’s Way)
By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
I vaguely remember TV commercials for these khaki pants by Levis Docker’s, and the innovative (at the time) way the ads had guys standing around talking and throwing footballs or darts and going on about their lives with no mention of the product. Sure, you saw their pants and shots of the Docker’s logo on the back pocket as the camera zoomed around, but it was supposed to be hip and anti-commercial. It was also parodied many times on Saturday Night Live and so on, for basically being pretty lame.
Flash forward almost 2 decades and we have this little gem. Jerry spots Bill G at a cut rate shoe place in the mall, and they select cheap shoes for Bill while Jerry eats a churro. In the parking lot there’s some business about Bill doing a mind meld and adjusting his shorts as he walks as signal, but I guess in the end, it’s just stupid and not even that memorable. See for yourself.
Or watch this Docker’s ad from 1989
Alpha-geek says:
Quite honestly, after watching this commercial last night, my wife & I said almost simultaneously “what the hell was THAT?” But hey, maybe we’re just not “hip” enough to understand it.
September 5th, 2008 at 3:39 am
DecaturHeel says:
Now, if only Vandelay Industries would hire Jerry to promote their latex products…THAT partnership would rock! “And you want to buy MY latex products.”
September 5th, 2008 at 5:13 am
Jim says:
Did that ad really air? It is horrible! It probably is a good ad for Vista though. Long, boring, more of the same old stuff, and cost a lot of money.
They say never do your own ads.
September 5th, 2008 at 6:11 am
Alf says:
I’m not sure who this commercial is aimed at or the point of it. I’m a technical person and I did my best to read between the lines and if this was about Vista it was never evident. This is then a commercial to promote Microsoft? I believe a commercial should give some idea about what it is supposed to represent. First Sienifeld talks about moist and chewy, then I thought it strange when Bill Gates wiggled his butt and Jerry Seinfeld said “Delicious”. There is something disturblingly gay in a coprophiliac way about this. They paid Seinfeld $10 million for this. A high school student could have made this commercial with his lunch money.
September 5th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Chris Cade says:
I think is Microsoft’s intro to this ad campaign. To just get you to know these two people are going to be doing microsoft spots.
September 5th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Rabid Rabbitt says:
“They paid Seinfeld $10 million for this?”
He may not be very funny but who ever said Seinfeld was an idiot? Take the money and run, right!? I’d do it for 10 mil too, in fact I’d pull down my down my drawers then wiggle my butt for that! Personally I think Microsoft is crazy paying that kind of money for this drivel, but its their money.
September 5th, 2008 at 9:42 am
elgarak says:
Microsoft tries to defend the ad as being just the first in a series, that’s supposed to start a “discussion”. Well, that it did.
The problem is that Microsoft announced this ad campaign some time back with clearly defined different targets: “Improve Vista’s image” and “Jab at Apple”. That it did not do, in fact in achieved the complete opposite.
Guess it fits Microsoft’s recent behavior quite well to release something that is totally, but not quite, different than the announcement.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
GON says:
If this is supposed to be a teaser, then shouldn’t it leave you wanting to know more, instead of disgusted????..
I’m really impressed with how awful this is. it’s so 80’s, trying to fit in a lot of independent “funny” moments into a long dumb ad.
But then, only and ad like this could fit Vista.
Too bad Seinfled’s in it, specially when throughout the series he had a Mac on his apartment.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Jim says:
And the two non tech people I talked to today thought it was a shoe ad LOL!
September 5th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Alice says:
Ok… the one positive, (and believe me it took more than once viewing to find one,) was it made Bill Gates look funny or warm or something geeky- yet-approachable. This is a major new thing for him. He has always been this calculating nerd people saw as plotting to kill every software company on the globe.
His rapport with Seinfeld is like getting to be an old man in a cardigan handing out hard candies. Where was this image when he needed it most? And WTF does that have to do with anything today ?? Or any tangible product??
So Bill G is finally “lovable” and Jerry is still “quirky” and they both are retired and wealthy beyond our dreams. Thanks for making us see them as “cuddly” now too.
Ick!
September 5th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Ben Richards says:
Watching this commercial is kind of like going to your high school 30 year reunion. Some people who were so “it” back then have,well, aged badly. Think Microsoft. Others who were total dweebs now look pretty darn hot. Think Apple.
When is MSFT going to get rid of that chrome dome idiot Balmer?
September 6th, 2008 at 6:49 am
Alpha-geek says:
[quote=Ben Richards]When is MSFT going to get rid of that chrome dome idiot Balmer?[/quote]
when hell freezes over?
September 6th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Michael Rudas says:
There is one VERY funny thing I noticed, however, which salvaged the commercial for me. When BillG whipped out his “Big Top Shoe Mart Bonus Card” the picture on it was his infamous 1977 Arizona arrest mug shot. To say my jaw hit the floor is only a slight exaggeration, being as I’m 6-foot-8…
~~ ScienceMikey
September 8th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
john z says:
Speaking of the CHROME dome idiot Balmer…Google Chrome rocks!!! Bill Gates could of used Google Chrome to buy his shoes online in about 30 seconds.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:22 am
drdarkeny says:
The problem was, neither of the ads made a lick of sense as an ad of any type. There were some inside-baseball references (like using Gates’ mug shot on his Big Top Shoe Mart bonus Card), a bunch of bizarre non sequiturs (Gates’s reference to “leather”, Seinfeld asking when computers were going to be moist and chewy. the Hispanic family), and some weird sort of homoerotic undercurrent that’d be right at home on TORCHWOOD. Then, to compound the strangeness, this ad’s an overlong :90 (the second ad’s even longer at 4:30, and had to be shown in two parts!)
I can’t tell if this was just a Bill Gates ego trip, or if a LOT of people at MSFT got seriously taken by their ad agency….
September 20th, 2008 at 10:14 pm