“Microsoft’s new Windows ad, featuring Jerry Seinfeld, is outdated and not very funny — but it’s highly revealing of all that’s wrong out there in Redmond,” Paul McDougall writes for InformationWeek.
“The background: Windows is losing market share to Apple’s Mac OS and even Linux. And Vista, the latest version, has been a big fat dud. Businesses have shunned it outright, and many consumers find it unintuitive and difficult to use,” McDougall writes.
“So, Microsoft hired ‘award winning’ agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky — at a reported cost of $300 million — to give Vista, and the Windows franchise in general, an image makeover,” McDougall writes. “The Seinfeld ad debuted Thursday and it’s the first piece of an integrated marketing campaign covering TV, the Web, and point-of-sale outlets.”
McDougall writes, “It’s not going to work.”
McDougall asks, “For starters, what does the decision to use a 54-year-old, white, multimillionaire comedian, whose show went off the air 10 years ago, as the centerpiece of a campaign that’s supposed to give Windows a hip new image and help Microsoft reconnect with younger buyers, tell us about the company?”
“Mostly that it’s dominated by middle-aged white guys who made their own millions more than a decade ago and who are woefully out of touch with America’s changing demographics and any generation that doesn’t go by the initials BB,” McDougall writes.
McDougall writes, “These guys probably still think the Fonz is cool.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
Bill Gates + Jerry Seinfeld commercial, “Shoe Circus,” video:
Direct link via YouTube here.
MacDailyNews Take: The commercial is nearly as incomprehensible as the Windows UI.
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