Ron Schenone

Microsoft Explains Seinfeld & Gates Commercial

Posted by on Sep 6, 2008 | 12 Comments

Microsoft has had to call major newspapers and had to explain to reporters what the Seinfeld – Gates commercial actually meant. Which in itself is funny compared to the commercial which totally lacked any humor. In fact the commercial basically made no sense at all. Including the butt wiggle by Gates.

So here is the official explanation of what the commercial really meant:

As they walk out of the store together eating churros, Seinfeld asks Gates if he and the other great brains at Microsoft “are ever going to come out with something that will make our computers moist and chewy like cake so we can just eat them while we’re working?”

In response, Gates wiggles his bottom.

The ad barely mentions the word “Microsoft” and never mentions Windows. Nevertheless, the Microsoft officials who phoned reporters Friday said it is indeed a campaign to brand Windows, “the start of a conversation … easily the largest marketing campaign we’ve ever had.”

Microsoft plans to hire 155 “gurus” by the end of the year to work in Circuit City, Best Buy and other retailers to help customers pick out PCs, said Eric Hollreiser of Microsoft – presumably the way Seinfeld helped Gates pick out shoes.

Microsoft is also working with PC manufacturers to deliver “a compelling Windows experience” – to study how long it takes, for example, for Windows to start up and shut down. Mobile phones and Microsoft’s Web site are also part of the plan. Hollreiser said Microsoft will do “a terrific job of delivering consumer information.”

Which brings up a question. When was the last time some one needed to explain a commercial to you? 

Comments welcome.

Source.

  • Stanley F. Nelson

    The Sienfeld-Gates commercial is barely worth commenting about. It simply uses visual gimmickry to “tweak” the viewer — hardly an original idea. It says nothing. It sells nothing. I watched through it simply from curiosity. My Vista DVD will remain in its case.

  • Jerry

    A “compelling Windows experience” would be a fast and efficient experience without errors and problems. I have been using Vista for a year and a half now and have never once actually felt myself “compelled” about anything, because I have to deal daily with its unknown, unexplained, uncorrected and unapologized-for problems. Vista blends great efficiencies with great inefficiencies in a way that suggests that the “master-mind” that would have coordinated all its parts into a functional whole was in fact sleeping on a beach on the Côte d’Azur. To name just one of Vista’s manifold annoyances, why are my window settings and preferences not remembered for more than an hour? Who keeps changing them? Why is this impossible to fix? If we’re going to skip over Windows Vista and go to Windows 7, that might be all right, but I want my money back that I paid for Vista. Instead of paying for a multimillion dollar commercial and ad campaign MS should have refunded my 140 bucks, and done the same for every Vista user who feels burned. The commercial is funny if you can think fast enough to penetrate its subtleties, but Mr. Gates’ butt twitch at the end gives too much of an impression that he is sort of “mooning” me for being too dumb and too set in my ways to switch to Mac.

  • Bill

    It reminded me of the “emperor’s new clothes”. It is amazing that something this “stupid” made it on TV. Sorry, I forgot that it’s Micro$oft and Micro$oft’s money! It doesn’t need to make sense.

    I would like to use some version of Linux, but everyone follows the “emperor” and tells him how nice his new clothes are and supplies device drivers just for him.

    Stop the world, I want off.

  • GatesKeeper

    Gates is coming back to fix Windows and make it more like XP Professional- it works great. Indeed, Microsoft has gotten so much pressure from the corporate world that Microsoft XPLX or whatever they call the next realease will be so much more in-tune with business. Registered Vista folks will be given a free download code.

    That is the message that I got. Microsoft will fix Vista with a new re-branded OS next year.

  • Will

    It was meant to be a commercial about nothing… like Seinfeld was a “show about nothing.” Though it’s not going to make me run out and buy something Microsoft related, I loved the commercial. But then I loved Seinfeld, so I guess it just fits with my humor. Kudos to Microsoft… It’s nice to see Seinfeld back on the small screen.

  • travis

    i didn’t like the commercial at all. at first. then i started searching the net…

    i didn’t catch all the little points in the commercial (let me take care of you, you’re a ten, delicious…) but now i’m starting to warm up to this approach.

    this commercial is obviously having exactly the effect that one would want. people are talking about it a LOT.

    mainly i think i like the fact that microsoft just made a commercial and didn’t bash anyone. that’s the biggest way to say fxck you, and they did it. mac spends all its time trying to make microsoft look stupid and gates seems to not even notice. why? the ads are crap, and the market is the biggest measuring stick: microsoft is still winning, no matter what mac does.

    bill gates takes the high road – he just walks on to your screen, cool and calm. he makes a few moments of akward comedy, and closes. face it. gates and microsoft are so successful that they can make a double-length commercial that makes no sense, says nothing important, doesn’t highlight or bash anything, and he even shakes his butt at the camera, and his product will STILL sell just fine.

    i have to agree with gates on this one. let’s not even respond to macholes. business goes on as usual.

  • mike

    If they have to explain the commercial then it wasn’t successful. Isn’t that marketing 101?

    Unless, of course, they put out this vague and hard to decipher ad to force unsuspecting viewers into asking “what is it about” and, consequently, talking about the ad anyway…could be genius as well…

  • Cheryl

    I like the spots. I admire Bill and just love Jerry. Just seeing Jerry made me rewind and call my husband to the tv room to watch.We both smiled. I watch very few commercials these days, but will always stop to see Jerry. Heck, I’m still watching one episode of Seinfeld/day. I sometimes wonder when I will tire of their comedy. It does not appear to be forthcoming.

  • Mazzula

    I liked the ad.

    The Apple ads had been very effective at portraying the Microsoft mentality as completely linear and constrained. This ad effectively rebuts that. It shows that, although extremely goal oriented, the company is willing to be completely non-linear in their strategy for achieving that goal.

    Everybody understands the Apple ads because there is nothing creative about them. The Apple ad is just the old straightforward message “You are defined by your possessions, and if you possess our computer you will not be made an outcast by the in group.” Everybody understands that schoolyard mentality, most people have outgrown it.

    But even more important, the Microsoft ad is getting people to talk. People have asked me “Have you seen that strange Microsoft ad?” They are trying to figure out what it means. This ad arouses curiosity and encourages thinking in different ways about the company. This is part of the genius of the ad.

  • brer

    I absolutely love these commercials. I start laughing the minute I see Seinfeld’s face, and the deadpan response of Gates is just hilarious.

    I’m sorry, but they really work for me!

  • Luke the Duke

    Amazing that people don’t get it. I guess without having seen the sitcom, people might not get the ‘about nothing’ premise, but since I have wasted hours watching every episode, I thought it was pretty good, and continued the saga of Jerry and his weird friends and family–still weird, just different ones. I think casting Gates as the nerd perfectly brings Seinfeld into the new millennium.
    The long commercial where they live with the family is also very funny in a Seinfeld sort of way. Great writing.

    –Luke

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