"moon house"?? i saw it once, i thought he said "mother ship"

Currently, I would say the Honda ads are top of the mark! As for Window vs. Mac vs. Linux, I will go with the best hardware deal, as in most likely a Windows machine, as I do not want a combo monitor / CPU computer. Before paying for an operating system, I would just use Ubuntu. I find nothing really wrong with XP, other than the need for anti-virus apps. My anti-vrus is provided by the DSL provider.

Seeing two guys who are "out of it" because they have "so much money" is kind of patronizing and demeaning to the viewer. Who knows? Maybe that's what they want.

I would rather see an ad campaign where MIcrosoft's***ory is depicted chronologically from the beginning days with real non-professional footage and some cool music to mark each decade/time period. With $300M and 4.5 minutes per spot to play with, why overpay a one hit wonder like Seinfeld to push your product - the guy is just not funny anymore (come to think of it, I don't know if he ever was).

This pseudo Laurel and Hardby bit is irritating at best. At least now I know why I use a Mac and have so far the past two decades. Just another indication of complacency when becoming a monopoly.

Let me adjust this for you:

"I use a Mac and have so far the past two decades. Just another indication of complacency"

You are welcome...

Wow, some of you just DON'T get it!
Been here 12 years, and is under the car looking for the bad head gasket...(Jobs at Apple in areas he CLEARLY don't belong..)
The family's looking strange and disconnected...in the same old mold, but comfortable with it...even though it's the same thing they ate yesterday..(Just put some cheese on it)...AKA new! Apple OSX..whatever...
These ads are starting out pointed at the geek world...and I'm betting they are going a little more mainstream with time. I know i'm going to be searching them out in the future!
But at least this time the windows logo was on the gym bag!!

It's amazing, considering the group of people this site brings in that no one gets it.

For those living under a rock in the tech community...

One word....

MESH

This has nothing to do with Vista. The PDC is coming up, and if you listen to Windows Weekly on Twit.tv you have known for a while. This last commercial just confirmed for me that they are talking about mesh.

Well, there are 96 comments about this. They won!
The propaganda goal is: "talk bad, but talk about"

"I'd rather have them talk ill of me than not talk about me at all" -- that works for celebrities not products.

Yes, and so far that's all we've seen in the past two commercials... celebrities, not products.

In other words: successful.

successful for Gates and Seinfeld, not so much for Vista.

Care to back this up with any kind of fact?

> New Gates and Seinfeld ad: do you get it yet?

What is there to get?

Microsoft Windows Vista has been and continues to be an unmitigated failure for Microsoft. So instead of listening to its customers and fixing the problems with Windows Vista ("when in doubt, fail", draconian DRM, BBLLOOAATT, etc), what does Microsoft do?

Well, Microsoft embarks on a campaign, the goal of which is to tell the Microsoft's customers that they are wrong. Now ::there:: is a successful business strategy.

http://www.stewleonards....ages/stew_jr_w_rock.jpg

"Rule #1 -- The Customer is Always Right";

"Rule #2 - If the Customer is Ever Wrong, Re-Read Rule #1."

"Microsoft Windows Vista has been and continues to be an unmitigated failure for Microsoft."

I am so bored of this rubbish.

I yet have to see such a comment from anyone else but frustrated pseudo journalists who wouldn't have a job to start with if it wasn't free and easy to run blog-type sites - and their blind following sheep.

Seriously. Anyone care to back up these claims with economic facts? Last I heard MSFT was raking in good profits in a tough economy.

Still much ado about nothing.

When I see stuff like this I have much more respect for Paris Hilton. I mean, she has money, and she does whatever the **** she wants. Gates has much more money, and this is how he spends his time? dude, you have a decade or two left on this planet, maybe three, why would you bother with this tripe crap?

He spends his time and money vacinating the worlds children from diseases we don't even think about in our country. His Bill and Melissa Gates organisation has done more to save the lives of children in poor countries than ANY GOVERNMENT HAS EVER DONE. Comparing Bill Gates and the charitable work he does EVERY DAY to Paris Hilton is like comparing Mother Theresa to Lizzie Borden. Your limited facts and overwilling desire to speak about things you know nothing about are embarrasing to you and nobody else. Bill and Melissa Gates foundation, turn off TMZ and check out their website. Tripe crap...Jesus do you live in a hole?

I dig it. Pretty funny.

lol i like it, reminds me of the tv show where paris hilton had to live in a poor white area :)

It is a story about nothing! That's a show!

You mean Seinfeld finally got his "show about nothing"?? lol Too bad, I don't see George anywhere. I think he should get royalties for helping come up with the idea. ;]

Well I get it and think it's a great commercial series, it's doing exactly what it was designed to do. Get people talking about the commercial and Vista.

Yup, just like we might all talk about how amazing the clapper ads were or the "I've fallen and I can't get up' ads were...

Let's see, aside from Tool (who I am sure has several of each ;-)))...how many of you have a clapper or the thing that gets you help after you've fallen?

Successful?
So the ads are a success if after 30+ years, we simply know who MS is or what Windows is?

I know what the clapper is, but I am not buying one.

For MS, a company that some what to argue is a monopoly player, simple name recognition is a moot point and a marketing failure. They shouldn't need a commercial to make you aware of something that even non computer users know, and it does not influence you in any way to modify your buying habits - except perhaps in negative reaction to the ads - as it has so many here.

In other words, for an unknown product, simple name recognition may be a plus, but for a very established product that literally dominates the market, spending money to achieve or refresh simple name recognition - that which they already have - is absurd.

This will bounce off the heads of 94% of America. The remaining 6% are already mac-users.

At least now we know what Bill's been doing with his time since stepping down.

(I do think they're hillarious... as I type from my mbp)

I haven't seen them yet, but now, thanks to all this enlightened discussion, I can turn off the TV if it comes on. :-)

The ads seem to have been very effective in getting people talking about the ad, instead of dumping on the company's product. Excellent diversion.

Probably not. The other folks machines are too busy crashing from loading the silly iTunes driver. ;-))

Great points from author Tim Conneally, especially his last line on Bertram Wooster!

Glyn Moody follows up with:
What's most striking for me is how well Bill Gates comes out of it. The image he presents is slightly nerdish, but ultimately self-deprecating and rather appealing in a rumpled kind of way. And that, I think, is the whole point of these ads: they are designed not just to soften Gates's and Microsoft's image, but positively de-fang it.

zridling: the setting is class struggle with the grandma as the rebellion leader. They occupy her seat, highly symbolic. And the father and the son eat the "royal" food from the fridge. That is very symbolic and very loaded. Like eating temple food dedicated to the gods. And the gods are here Bill&Jerry

But don't forget the last minute when Seinfeld again subordinates to Gates. Gates is also the person who realizes first that this connection doesn't make any sense, no, it is not his idea. Seinfeld argues with his "connecting to people" teaching. The teaching sounds hip but it just doesn't suit the PC and Gates. Same for the shoes in episode 1. Seinfeld is the person who is depicted as the "greater idiot" and as a bad adviser to Gates. Now, imagine that most viewers have more appeciation for Seinfeld. It all makes Gates the lesser underdog. And the family is even below and we have the aristocrate scheme for both.

The message is arogance and inability to respect social rules of beviour as visitors in a working class family. The spot sents a message about the American society and its appreciation for an upper class with what Nietzsche called a "herrenmoral". No need to respect hospitality and kindness and adopt to common people. We break your social rules, insult your meal and your potatoe proud, use your personal belongings as we like. We order food externally. The pizza guy knows we are famous and he respects us but we don't give a s*** about him. And all the viewers understand our lack of empathy because they take our perspective.

So the message is: Beeing one of you is really impossible for us and you know it (our marketing department comes up with these silly ideas). We have a higher mission, for instance to connect or entertain millions of people. And we are the big guys and our customers are the real fools. We cross the line and an average family does not really want us. So they find techniques to kick them out as they deserve (we are all some sort of a******s and we also enjoy our right to be)

The nihilist Gates can break the rules of his own game and show what will not be released and asks for an "NDA". He lacks empathy when he reads corporate bulls*** to a child because we all know, that is his world, a computer company nerd with a 'firewall'. He does not fit in because it is not really his class.

The experimental pun 'leaders meet herd' failed. And that's the way it ought to be... a kind of reversed class struggle. Viewers should not really sympathise with anyone in the family. The spot is quite telling. I never expected that you are able to apply a kind of class analysis to a video in 2008. I thought cohesion of society evolved and with respect to Microsoft's ad team I was wrong.

When you complain next time about Microsoft products don't forget these guys are super-humans and we are just the white trash. They won't listen to us and they can't listen to us.

It reminds me of marxist propaganda writings but with the opposite spin.

Wow, college sounds like fun.

Are you a Mac user? Your vitriol suggests that you might be.

I really like my Vista Home and have to use an old Kubuntu installation at work. OS are mostly irrelevant for me but Vista strikes the right balance. I can't stand Macs and they don't run the software I need.

Wow, that is exactly in line with their message. The hockey mum America.

No, I just meant it must be fun having the time to get caught up in those sociology books and overanalyzing things like MS ads...

"Vista strikes the right balance."

LOL. What a loser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHK8Irb3P5E

Vista just works. OS zelotism is so pathetic. It doesn't really matter these days anymore which Operating System you run.

I never read sociology books and I admit I am trained in media analysis and I looked at many hundred meters of microfilm from the propaganda and intelligence units of a dictatorship in a national archive.

When you spent 300m$ you analyse first what to tell and why. Advertisement professionals regularly discuss things like slogans and changes to the logo with their customers and do market research. Often they over-analyse and over-interpret. It may take years to develop the right message. Advertisement often follows simple and classic plots and topoi because they are generic narratives.

Those guys who made the advertisement knew exactly what they were doing. They are trained in that. They were not naive boys who make a video starring Seinfeld-Gates but propaganda professionals. They should reflect on what they were doing and why. They have to understand their audience and how it thinks. If they don't do it they were the wrong agency for the job.

Your anti-intellectual attitude is for instance a pattern they can hack into. Problem: it only works in an environment where these ideologemes are shared.

Let me add that the reason why I criticised it is exactly that is conveys very negative messages which surprise you. It is like the Ballmer Monkey. The crazy guy or the enthusiatic CEO? It depends on the audience. The Gates-Seinfeld video was made to make you talk about it and say WTF, it draws you into analysis.

You're one to talk. After looking at your professional journalistic video I came away with the conclusion that mac users really don't have a clue.

1. Time Machine is a ripoff of system restore that came with Windows XP 5 years ago.

2. Multiple desktops has been done before at least 10 years ago with Xwindows if not more (you know the GUI environment for Linux/BSD/other open source OSs/plus a few Unix flavors as well including Next I believe).

3. Anytime I hear over some astronomical number of new blah blah blahs from any company I know it's just mostly crap. I'm sure you can't list the new features so I'm sure that it didn't improve your productivity x number of times either.

In short Vista is not perfect and neither is any other OS for that matter. When I see blatantly biased information about features that was ripped off I am so turned off of such said product. iSheep is the #1 reason why I don't recommend Apple products. So it would be best if you just simple stop promoting their products if you want users to switch to Mac OSX.

This is just hilarious.

System restore???? Yup, a 3rd party MS they bought. Remember when GoBack debuted 10 years ago for the PC? Duh!

And Multiple windows???????????????????? LOL!
Yeah, tell us about XWindows and MS! XWindows was a UNIX environment from MIT around 1983/4 as I recall! Just because it has the word "windows" in it doesn't make it MS's! LOL!

I don't care what OS you use, but to sit there and claim that Apple ripped off Windows in designing their GUI and OS absurd. Now, if you want to go back to what Next and Mac have done based upon UNIX and technologies developed at erox PARC - who NEVER could figure out what to do with them, have fun - but NOT Windows!

Nevermind, I am laughing too hard to finish this one.

"OS zealotism is so pathetic." "I can't stand Macs."

Well put, and all too representative of so many other 'open' and 'fair minded' folks here.

So 4421- are you sayng that all Advertisements
are propaganda tools? Social engernering ?

I think you need to re-read my comment again.

Specifically the part about Xwindows the GUI part of Linux for at least 10+ years. That's something that obviously MS would have no part of. The point I was making is that it's not a new invention that Apple thought up at all. I said 10 + because I remember using the feature with KDE when I first worked with Linux 10 years ago. I think Windows NT 4.0 had a resource kit tool for this as well if you want to get technical about it. (XP should be compatible/not sure about Vista though.)

BTW the user agent for Safari has KHTML in it which means it was based of the Konqueror source code in some way.

Also look at this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoBack. If MS bought this product why is it being produced by Symantec? Doh!

Think (and re-read) before you post.

Dimwit, multiple windows (desktops???) were used in Apples's GUI before there was a Linux or Windows GUI.

You mentioned XWindows specifically - something which has nothing to do with anything Windows of Mac - as does the rest of your incoherent gibberish. And windowing has been fundamental to the Mac GUI ever since it was introduced ~ 1984 - just a few more years than your 10+! Oh... Are you even familiar with the concept and history of the GUI? Yeah, I know - you'd best run to Wikipedia...

And GoBack was a 3rd party app before MS ever incorporated the feature - before there was an XP!

Your post is confused nonsense. How old are you? You might want to go back and study the history of all of the platforms before you post again - as your knowledge of desktop history - regardless of the platform - is sorely lacking.

You are absolutely correct! The whole multiple windows thing is what Apple stole from PARC!

??? You mean, they spent the money just because Gates wanted to have his own Seinfeld episodes? Well, that is possible but would not make their shareholders feel comfortable.

When you do advertisement than for a purpose. It can be successful or not. Propaganda. The social engineering would be to change your perception of Microsoft. Because advertisement communicates with a "you" and takes you on board it often quite telling about society. Or maybe here it is just to make people talk about Microsoft and the crazy Seinfeld-Gates duo.

It is interesting for me to analyse what their intention was because as opposed to art advertisement has a direct message. Here it is complicated because you don't have a direct "buy a Mac" or "Win95 is great" message.

Or: Seinfeld becomes like a boring Gates, so the whole game is to sack Seinfeld as a Mac advocate and rebrand him. The next campaign would then focus on the gay community and assimilate them as Vista users... just kidding.

As Tim said in his video: Nothing in an ad is accidental.

What is wrong about the adaption of good ideas? They should get disseminated.

What really matters is not functionality but user experience and stability. And there Vista runs better for me than say SuSe with KDE4.1 or Ubuntu. MacOSX is well designed but I find it too simplistic. It lacks the richness and the applications I need. And I am also not keen on a good "look" or the appearence of equipment. Apple is a hardware nazi while everything runs with Microsoft and despite all attempts users will never accept DRM and other restrictions. When Win3.0 was around I used Geoworks, beautiful superfast software but it lacked an SDK, Microsoft Windows sucked but it was an open plattform. Embrace openness and you win the market. Apple is still stuck in the old times where you had to buy everything from one vendor. They lock down their platform. Vista is great and more interoperable. It is not overloaded and carefully redesigned. And it just does what you want it to do.

In software no one cares who did it first. your patent attorney may disagree but these guys are parasites anyway.

Advertising by definition is propaganda.

yup, one of the reasons the roman empire got so big is that they weren't shy on embracing other people's ideas. One can feel special all they want for being first but it don't mean your entitled to much and the world won't stop moving for your specialness.

Anyone else tired of this "what OS is better" drama? We are all a bunch of geeks that don't have the perspective of an avg user. We are also much more emotionally attached to a product than we care to admit and our logic is riddled with confirmation bias. It's a never ending pissing contest. lol but what can we do.

agreed, it's just emotional product attachment, which can easily turn into another topic of what's wrong with our consumer society.

I for one don't care what OS you love/hate as long as you know what the facts are. As you probably seen, misinformation rules the net and it's becoming a bigger problem everyday.

you think there is some misdirection involved here?

These are Great advertisements......
I love Seinfeld.

It will be funny once it comes out that the ads have been produced on Macs...

Alright, that's enough excitement for the day.

Over.

For many years ALL of the graphics were produced internally on Macs - nothing new about that!

And MS is the largest Mac developer.

Why does BN continue to let Whiney Tim review the new MS adds? Pick someone that is not predisposed to hate MS, has SOME writing ability and has moved out of his parents house.

On second thought, other than annoying a few of us who scan the articals for that rare tidbit of usefull information, no one else in the world knows what Tim is snotting into his crying towel about, nor would they care. We sure don’t.

Kindly requesting permission to use your post as a textbook oxymoron example..?

Let me ask you DeKoquonut, how the heck can you have anything else but contempt toward M$ for these lousy and horrid commercials they are producing?

Should Tim have had nothing but praise for such dreaded nonsense just to satisfy Microshaft fanboys like yourself? Awful is awful and M$ is the personification of AWFUL. End of story. Have a great day. :)

permission granted

The first commercial was great. Gates photo on his shoe club card is classic.

So IS you loving them commercials :|

I loved the commercial. Why is it that we always want to see some kind of quick punchline and a marketing message that is cute.

You have two guys making fun of the fact that they are not just like us and to me it was a lot of fun and had a lot of funny schtick at the same time.

I can't wait for the next one

Do I get it? I haven't bloody seen it! Maybe they should take a leaf out of Gieco's book, and nuke the airwaves with really annoying crap, then I'll have another reason to switch the TV off and go and do something useful.

I still like the Billy Mays idea though.

Words cannot express how incredibly dull and boring that was. (: Whoever put this monstrosity together should be shot on sight. However on the other hand, as a Mac user I am delighted to see how Microshaft is wasting millions of dollars on HIGHLY ineffective marketing.

Thanks M$. Keep this up and you'll soon be as vibrant and relevant as the Netscape browser. ^__^

It is not meant for you and similar sheep clones so easily pleased with simplistic toys instead of real computers - who not even understand the difference.

To explain in your language: The ad is a masterpiece. The sound track is the best composition since Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. The acting so subtle and full of passion it made me laugh and cry. This will surely get an Oscar if MSFT allow it. They probably won't since this work's value would be diminished by lowering it to the same level as previous nominees.

heh.

You are a master of sarcasm, even if you weren't serious.

Yup, those Mac users sure are sheep!

Not like those independent minions who only use Windows because it is just like everyone else and where consistency and uniformity are so important! After all, you wouldn't want to be different than those folks in the next pod would you?

So just when will the EU courts ever get around to the HUGE corruption and organized crime issue in Bulgaria (and Romania) and to enforcing civil rights for the Roma? LOL!

aren't we all sheep?

Like others have said below, the MS ad is bad - but in a good way.

It reminds me of the annoying local alcohol dealer or furniture salesman's ads. They make one cringe. Yet they clearly work.

People want to see these ads and they are no longer talking about the Apple switcher ads.

Apple's ads now seem repetitive, formulaic, and much more condescending (not to mention the outright lies contained therein) compared to these MS ads.

There is a method to the madness.

"Apple's ads now seem repetitive, formulaic, and much more condescending..."

And yet Apple ads are just as effective as when they first started. After watching a humorously ACCURATE Apple ad that is always spot on, you don't sit there for an hour trying to figure out what Apple is trying to say in their ads.

Two M$ ads in a row and most still have no clue as to what the hell these morons are trying to say. Since M$ always rips innovative Apple anyway, they should have just copied the Apple style of ads. When M$ tries to get "creative" they fail miserably every time so they should just stick to ripping all things Apple. :)

So... you're saying you spent an hour after viewing this ad trying to figure out what is was trying to say?

You have more problems than could ever be addressed here.

Apple's ads are stupid and misleading. The humor is actually unintentional... like bragging about having a built in camera and being able to run MS Office. OMGZ! What advanced technology! Welcome to 1998!

The Apple commercials also make constant references to "Leopard" without explaining WTF it is or why it is good.

I don't think your hero and role model thinks the same about Apple. Let's see what he has to say about Apple:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvskEGWMLp4

(I guess you know who to thank for giving M$ the inspiration to "create" Vista?)

You know what's REALLY funny?

All of you who say the MS ad is SO successful by virtue that it makes people talk - all the while you are obsessed with bashing iTard7 for making you 'Windows only' zealots talk non-stop about Apple and the Mac and the iPhone and the IPod.

You folks are your own worst parody!

Annnnddd -- for the next ad, Bill and jerry visit a monastery, where they and the nuns will frolic in the fields because they are so damn happy with the world and their os'es. Wait.. that was done already... by IBM (sort of - w/o bill and jerry of course)

Worse than the first one... and TYVM - I will be having nightmares about Bill gates doing the robot while "adjusting his shorts" >.< My psyche cant take much more of this.. please.. stop

very stupid...

if bill gates is so bored with his rich life, then become a producer or director and make a movie, instead of making ads that are not sending a clear message to the people who need to be convinced to spend money on a microsoft product.

obviously the king doesn't know he's wearing invisiable clothes.

btw: did bill & jerry pay for their room and board "or" were they free loading?

Boring and without humor or purpose. Just as bad as the first one.

If Microsoft wants to make some good ads, they should use the agency that Target uses. They are very creative.

these ads remind me of the failed IBM OS/2 ads from the 1980's.... pointless and willing me to change the channel

I liked it...I thought it was funny and entertaining. I can't believe so many of these people are over analyzing this...in fact, why the hell are you analyzing it at all!? It's just a commercial people. Watch and enjoy or just change the channel...seriously.

well, ah, that's what we're all doing here, yourself included. me, i'm sick at home but working, taking breaks from the computer... on my computer.. oh god.

agreed

I liked it, but then I never get up off the couch & the remote is missing, go figure.

Furthermore, I keep hearing, "Will people get it?" "Are we communicating?" which are non-questions, they beg the hopeful premeditation that there is something of content to get. Nothing but empty concepts. Yes, people are hearing that.

The next clip should be Bill & Jerry getting jumped, beaten, and robbed. And they better be able to laugh about it. But MS would take that as a hater comment and not a useful suggestion.

When these guys break through the ice there may be no one around to pull them out of the lake.

rather than will the people get irt, ms should be listening to the people.. instead of shoveling sh*t down our throats, listen to what the consumer wants for a change.. THAT would be a big improvement

Microsoft has got it on with this ad campaign.

Although the adverts may not be the best thing since sliced bread, there is a large number of people wondering what's going to be next. The interesting part will be seeing if Microsoft can transform the manufactured expectation of "the next big thing" into consumer expectation and excitement for their next big OS release.

Got the blogger community on tenterhooks!

Oh, I don't think that many really care - we just post and complain cause its here. But when I go home I won't care about it one way or the other. Especially if its 4+ minutes long - I will just click right through it.

A classic interogation technique is that you talk bulls*** with a prisoner until he speaks up and says what is right ;-) Maybe they want the web to produce the better Seinfeld ad for them or will launch a "write a better episode" contest where customers express their excitement about Vista and ceide Gates-Seinfeld because they were unable to deliver the Microsoft beats Apple message.

yeah I am wondering how the tv version is gonna be cut.

Personally I never thought Seinfeld was funny. He is however extremely annoying. Maybe M$ should have gone with Dave Chappelle, now he's a funny dude. His sketch of "the black white Supremacist" was hilarious.

I think they would have been wise to get John Cleese to reprise a variant in the vein of his management training videos - some of the funniest and most effectively instructive training tapes ever made.

Or they could enlist Despair.com - well worth the trip if you are not familiar with them!

(And I heartily agree...Seinfeld is obnoxious and NOT funny.)

John Cleese would have been a great choice. At least he makes irritating people funny. Like his how to irritate people "pilot" sketch. (There is absolutely no cause for alarm! The wings are not on fire!:-) I've always wanted to do that while flying over the Atlantic. LOL

Microsoft can't communicate what they're about. The great products they stole at the dawn of personal computing, which made them rich and powerful, have been used up many times over. No one with integrity will provide them with top-notch material, so they are a culture of defensive, condescending mediocrity.

This ad is so condescending toward other human beings, it is outrageous. Bill should take up the fiddle.

Seinfeld is laughing all the way to the bank (in the Caymans...)

what a boring waste of time

I never got it... in fact I gave up halfway thru, because it was BORING.

In my mind, as a life-long PC user who has only dabbled in Linux, and for the most part steered clear of Macs (outside of the support arena), Bill Gates and Microsoft's biggest challenge is telling people why after so many Moore's Law exponential advances in the performance of CPU's that Microsoft's OS's and software cause the AVERAGE CITIZEN the most stress in their lives (e.g. Blue Screens, Send Error Reports, Security Notices, SPAM crashing Outlook, tediously long boot sequences, updates that close all your open documents in the middle of the night without saving them, and ridiculously prices Office software.)

"I never got it... in fact I gave up halfway thru, because it was BORING"

I think you are right, and the average person won't either.

It is a bit ironic that after 30+ years that MS still has not communicated a clear image of its mission (aside from dominate the universe) and what its vision is. And the ads thus far seem only to reinforce this obsfucated view.

In a culture where most communicate in sound bites, they are missing the point by dragging out an obtuse installment based whatever the message is requiring one to pay attention and discern their overly obtuse message over a period of days or weeks or...

Microsoft's OS's and software cause the AVERAGE CITIZEN the most stress in their lives

You apparently don't realize the average person rarely even *thinks* about their computing devices, and usually only in passing?

That's exactly right:
The average person only notices when it DOESN'T do what it is supposed to, which is still far too often in 2008.

For you, perhaps.

Most folks seem to get by just fine.

"It is a bit ironic that after 30+ years that MS still has not communicated a clear image of its mission (aside from dominate the universe) and what its vision is. And the ads thus far seem only to reinforce this obsfucated view."

maybe it's intentional? I got a picture in my head of bill gates doing a mr. burns in some dark room. lol

http://heylarryhughesple.../mr-burns-excellent.jpg

I donno, I think parts of it is hillarious. I watched it a few times already. Clever.

Thats 4 1/2 minutes of my life I will never get back.

Being out of touch just inst a character concept in a comercial for these two. They are so far out of it they think this is......is.........just cant find the words.

As I said last time. It's worked.

It's got you - the journalist - writing about it, and it's got us - the commenters - commenting about it.

That's exactly what Microsoft wanted.

They may yet prove that there is such a thing as bad publicity.

Click

...and you're still here.

'Nuff said.

Um, we're here because we're in the industry. I have been in advertising and the computer field for 28 years. The average Joes holding the TV remotes are the "target audience". They're at work right now, completely oblivious to this discussion thread.

Check your demographics.

'Nuff said?

We're here for fun and amusement.

I don't care about the ad. And I have never liked Seinfeld. And I will use the remote and advance through it like any other commercial I don't care about.

Besides, were not here for the commercial, we're here to give you a hard time. ;-))

For someone not caring you sure post a lot about it...

Agreed... and vice versa. Watching you two go at it all day in the iTunes 8 thread has proven to be quite a humorous and entertaining undertaking for an after-work read today. Thank you both. :)

Well said, Stimpson. ;)

im wondering how big the tech demog is

They are not as funny at PC and the mac guy (the mac guy has yet to come realize his to sexuality. he is in love with pc)..

It's true!! By gum, I never realized. Sorry, I'm not being sarcastic it's a beautiful insight.

The Mac guy is in love with the PC guy (so stodgy and fugly cute!) and wants him out of that abusive relationship with his unsatisfying box, so he can get in his pants. Now I'm waiting for the mac-guy-pc-guy knockoff porno.

Yeah, the PC that is mentally retarded and the Mac guy that is full of himself.

"These ads have been referred to as "icebreakers," meant simply to capture the viewer's attention and introduce us to settings, themes, and characters."

Great, provided we haven't already used the remote to move on to the next channel...

This stuff is coming off as a protracted "Help, I'm MS and I've fallen and I can't get up!"

ouch.

"This stuff is coming off as a protracted "Help, I'm MS and I've fallen and I can't get up!"

*lol* Yeah, just keep repeating that to yourself.

The ads are more along the lines of "we can be fun too"

I liked the first one I thought it was interesting - for people who like Seinfeld will continue to watch these and has been stated its causing everyone to talk about it whether its negative or positive you still are talking about it.

billy mays should do their adds.

he can make using a MAC seem like the hardest thing ever.

"has this ever happened to you??

OHHHHH NOOOO!!!"