Seinfeld is so much better than Justin Long, but he's got a harder product to market. Curious to see what these commercials will be like.

 Microsoft is going to start a new $300 million advertising blitz to try to regain some of the street credibility they have been losing over all these years. The campaign is built around the idea that "Windows breaks down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting." Sounds like corporate PR-puffing, but there's a twist: it will star Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld.

http://gizmodo.com/5039860/gates-and-seinfeld-to-answer-apples-pc-vs-mac-ads

 

Microsoft’s hiring of a celebrity who peaked back in the 1990s is a perfect metaphor for a two of their biggest problems:

• They’re hamstrung by the need to maintain backward compatibility with 1990s applications (Raymond Chen’s blog has the best stories about these issues).
• They’re still using their 1990s approach to marketing: throwing a lot of money around.

I expect that Microsoft’s ads will be the exact opposite of Apple’s: instead of two unknown (at least prior to the ads) guys against a plain white background, they’ll feature a celebrity against a glitzy background. Also unlike Apple’s ads, I suspect theirs won’t be all that effective.

To borrow another Seinfeld line: “Good luck with all that.”

 

Seinfeld and Celebrity Computer Endorsements

 

Via: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/21/seinfeld-and-celebri.html