[LINK] Seinfeld is axed – even he can’t make Bill Gates look cool

Bernard Robertson-Dunn brd at iimetro.com.au
Sat Sep 20 15:45:25 AEST 2008


Seinfeld is axed – even he can’t make Bill Gates look cool
By Guy Adams in Los Angeles
Thursday, 18 September 2008
The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/seinfeld-is-axed-ndash-even-he-canrsquot-make-bill-gates-look-cool-935071.html

He’s unlikely to miss the money, but Bill Gates is coming to terms with 
the fact that neither Jerry Seinfeld, nor a $300m (£160m) investment, 
can succeed in making him look cool.

The world’s richest man has axed Microsoft’s bizarre new television 
commercial, in which he starred alongside the New York comedian, just 
two weeks after a disastrous launch, when it was described as one of the 
worst ads in history.

Critics panned the sketch, in which Gates and Seinfeld awkwardly trade 
banter after meeting at a suburban shoe shop, as obtuse, unwatchable, 
and insufficiently funny.

Its message was ambiguous, they claimed. In a monument to either 
commercial hubris or professional incompetence, it neglected to once 
mention the words “Windows Vista”, the product it was meant to be promoting.

Instead, the 90-second ad showed Seinfeld asking Gates a series of 
nonsensical questions, apparently regarding the future of computing. The 
52-year-old billionaire responds with “signs” that he’s in touch with 
the zeitgeist, including “adjusting his shorts” and doing “the robot”, a 
dance move previously associated with the beanpole England footballer 
Peter Crouch.

Whatever its purpose, the decision to pay Seinfeld $10m to star in the 
campaign also backfired. The comedian’s eponymous show was axed 10 years 
ago, and viewers said that instead of giving Microsoft a fresh image, he 
succeeded in portraying it as a fading brand from yesteryear.

Yesterday, the shoe-store advert disappeared. Seinfeld was replaced by 
several more modish celebrities, including the Desperate Housewives 
actress Eva Longoria, the singer Pharrell Williams, and the author 
Deepak Chopra. Gates was also conspicuous by his absence from the new 
Microsoft campaign, which prominently features the magic words: “Windows 
Vista”.

Microsoft insisted the doomed adverts had achieved their primary aim of 
“getting talked about”. A spokesman also claimed that they had never 
been meant to remain on air for longer than a couple of weeks.

“The notion that we’re doing some quick thing to cancel [the Seinfeld 
ads] is actually preposterous,” said Mich Matthews, a senior 
vice-president in the firm’s marketing group. “Today was always the day 
[that would happen]. Media buying is something you have to do months in 
advance.” Mr Matthews insisted that the Seinfeld ad, which first aired 
in the US during the famously expensive half-time slot in a round of 
Sunday afternoon American football games, was designed as an 
“icebreaker”, with a limited shelf life.

Its purpose was to grab people’s attention in a tongue-in-cheek way 
without the pressure of having to talk about the product, he said. “We 
wanted to be sure that when we do come out with our major message, ‘Life 
Without Walls’, more people would be paying attention than they would 
otherwise,” he told the Associated Press. “My goodness, did we do that!”

The campaign marks Mr Gates’s latest attempt to steal thunder from his 
more modish rival Apple, which has grabbed market share in recent years 
with a series of celebrity-based commercials portraying Microsoft’s 
product as both outdated and unfashionable.

Although Seinfeld and Mr Gates are unlikely to return to America’s small 
screens, they were still attracting ridicule and disbelief on 
video-sharing internet sites yesterday.

Many viewers debated the purpose of their conversation about 
unfashionable shoes, and were baffled by a short sequence in which 
Seinfeld is shown soaping himself down in a shower, while fully clothed.

Even ad industry pundits, who normally applaud and even offer awards for 
inventiveness, were nonplussed by the commercial, which was scripted by 
Crispin Porter & Bogusky, an agency with a reputation for oddness.

“Huh?” wrote Abbey Klaassen in Ad Age. “You could be forgiven for not 
knowing what the heck Microsoft’s new ad was about.”

-- 
 
Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australilink
brd at iimetro.com.au




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