I had high hopes when Crispin Porter + Bogusky took over the MSFT campaign. I expected something creative, edgy, and/or amusing. I was doubly excited when I heard Seinfeld was involved. Imagine my (and your) dissapointment with this garbage:
Questions:
Yeah. He’s 95% embedded into the brand. But didn’t Bill quit his job awhile back? Why is he here?
Shoes in the shower?
Why the Spanish subtitles?
Moist and chewy?
What’s the point?
Most importantly, the questions that ANY ad should answer and that this ad fails miserably at — What’s being sold here? and What’s the call to action?
Frankly, it’s as bad as when the local car dealer calls in his kids and does an ad just to entertain himself. I hope Jerry, Bill, and CP+B had a fun time shooting it.
Chris,
Perfectly hideous. At least it’s perfect…
“Adjust your shorts”? Run away, run away!
Thanks for the giggle!
Regards,
Kelly
Chris -
Despite being an avid Mac user, I have to disagree with you here. From what I can see, this is the first in a long series of (long) spots that aim to build interest in the brand, to begin to reshape people’s perceptions of what Microsoft is all about. I’d say the implicit call to action is “wait with bated breath for the next installment of this series”, and it’s the brand, generally, that’s being “sold”, however softly.
Just my two cents.
Love the blog, by the way.
@kelly — Thanks.
@clay parker jones — I agree it's an installment /teaser for the bigger campaign. And all branding campaigns do this to an extent.
And they certainly have the money to do it, but I have always had as a primary rule not to "waste" advertising (either in the client's money or the consumer's attention)
btw – the second spot, where Jerry & Bill move in with a family, is more entertaining, but still rambles. It has a better plug for msft at the end, but is still a VERY soft sell. You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBWPf1BWtkw
Chris -
Agreed… the second spot did ramble on, but seemed more of a real live piece of entertaining content than something classified as an “ad”. Of course, they are shilling the brand here, but it seemed to me that they were simply trying to say, “Hey, we’re people too.”
I guess it wasn’t ever going to be what I had hoped it would be (more Jerry on TV), but it did do a nice job of setting up the new “I’m a PC” ads.
Ben McConnell has a good roundup of it here. But you’ve probably already seen it, I imagine!