By JAKE COYLE, AP Entertainment Writer Fri Sep 5, 2:23 PM ET
NEW YORK - No soup for Microsoft?
The software giant's new ad starring Jerry Seinfeld has drawn largely
negative reviews online after premiering Thursday night during NBC's
broadcast of the National Football League's season kickoff game.
The ad was the start of a highly anticipated $300 million advertising
campaign that Microsoft is launching in attempt to rebuff Apple's
popular TV commercials, which have ****trayed Microsoft and PCs as
uncool.
In the commercial — which can be found at Microsoft.com and on video
sharing sites — Seinfeld is walking through a mall when he spots
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates at a "Shoe Circus" store. The comedian
then helps Gates pick out a new pair of shoes while the jokes come
quick: showering with clothes on, Gates being a "10," platinum credit
cards for a fictional shoe store.
It's a zany ad that packs a lot of quirkiness into 90 seconds. With no
direct mention of Microsoft or its operating system, Vista, the
commercial concludes with the slogan: "The future, delicious."
The ad was created by Crispin ****ter & Bogusky — a firm with a
reputation for oddness. Many technology and advertising blogs have
turned to Seinfeld's trademark comedy description — "nothing" — to
describe the ad.
"Huh?" wrote Abbey Klaassen for Ad Age. "You could be forgiven for not
knowing what the heck Microsoft's new TV ad ... was about."
Dan Frommer, writing for the Silicon Alley Insider, pronounced the ad
"not funny" and added that the mall shoe store setting "is not going to
help Microsoft look any cooler."
For the blog Techcrunch.com, Michael Arrington noted that the "tech and
geek crowd is a little underwhelmed" by the ad, which he said is "a far
cry from the brilliant Microsoft v. Mac ads."
Brad Brooks, vice president of Windows consumer product marketing, said
in a video posted on the Windows press Web site, that the ad is a
"teaser" meant to "engage customers in a conversation ... to get the
conversation going again about what Windows means in people's everyday
lives."
Even if the reaction was mostly negative, Microsoft's ad has clearly
succeeded in getting people talking.
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It is simply breathtaking to watch the glee and abandon with which
the liberal media and the Angry Left have been attempting to turn
our military victory in Iraq into a second Vietnam quagmire. Too bad
for them, it's failing.
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