Say Goodbye, Bill and Jerry

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

It was all planned this way! Seriously. That’s the spin Microsoft is giving, as it’s been announced that the nearly universally panned Microsoft commercial series involving Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld is about to bite the dust.

I’m torn between doubting the above statement, as it seemed from ad #2 that they were actually starting to create a “relationship” between Gates and Seinfeld, and I definitely saw an improvement.

At the same time, I remember when the ads were first announced that they mentioned possibly having other celebrities in the ads. So it seemed like there might have been some hint there about this “phase 2,” as Microsoft calls it.

According to Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw, the end of the Seinfeld ads was planned all along, and is not a response to criticism of the first ads.

“All along we said we were having a teaser campaign. We’re getting ready to start the second phase. This was the plan all along.”

This message was echoed on the Windows Vista Team Blog.

The second phase begins Thursday and carries the theme “Windows. Life without walls.”

According to the New York Times, the aim of the new phase is to use the Apple “I’m a PC” ads as a springboard, even embracing them, with one ad featuring a Microsoft engineer who resembles John Hodgman, the PC character in the Apple ads. As he says:

“Hello, I’m a PC,and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”

While Seinfeld is gone, Gates is still here, and he makes a cameo in the second phase, along with celebrities like Eva Longoria, Deepak Chopra and Pharrell Williams.

However, the focus of the campaign will be on everyday users who, according to the NYT,

affirm, in fast-paced, upbeat vignettes, their pride in using the computers that run on Microsoft operating systems and software.

Pride? I must admit I like Microsoft OSes, but much of that is because I’ve been using them and even developing for them for a loooong time. Habit is part of it (but then, so is the fact that I use it at work, and that I can’t get as many games as I can on Windows).

As to the question of whether or not Seinfeld will return, Rob Reilly of Crispin Porter & Bogusky, architects of both Phase 1 and Phase 2, said:

“Jerry is a friend of the agency and Microsoft. You like to keep your friends close — and your enemies closer.”