I don’t know if you have seen the recent ads for Microsoft, but it involved Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. I was in the computing field back when Bill Gates was just another name in the industry, but I’ve always had an opinion of him. Although horribly successful in his field (as is Apple co-founder Steve Jobs), I’ve always imagined that Bill had to be a total geek to do all he’s done. And, being a geek, he probably lacks in personality and social skills (but I am sure his billions make up for it.)
It appears that someone decided it would be a great idea to pair the geeky Bill with Jerry Seinfeld. I can just see ads people sitting around a conference table, thinking that Jerry’s humor would somehow make Bill seem funny, more personable, and more approachable and thus, sell more software.
As it turned out, I think the ad actually made Jerry look less funny (that is some geek pull that Bill has!). I watched with a look on my face that only Botox can remove as Jerry and Bill had some conversation about shoes, then Bill shook his butt while the two walked away. Then, there was the one where Bill and Jerry are sitting at some family’s dinner table talking about connecting with real people and the forgotten grandmother. It was almost painful to watch!
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one with this reaction because the ad was pulled (maybe due to online ridicule) a mere two weeks after it started. Of course, Mich Mathews, senior vice president of central marketing at Microsoft, said it was always their intention to pull the ad after a brief run then do an ad that focused more on Windows. As a new user of Windows Vista, I am not sure that ad will be met with much more fanfare, but whatever.
The new ad will attempt to be a knock off of the popular “I’m a Mac” ad by Apple. The Windows ad, which you can see Thursday night during the season premiere of “The Office” on NBC, will feature real life Windows users, including celebs, repeating “I’m a PC.”
I’ll be watching “The Office” on Thursday just because I love the show, so I am sure I will see the new commercial. I can only hope it is not as painful as the Bill and Jerry ads. Just in case you were wondering, the whole ad campaign is costing Gates a cool $300 million.