Ok, so I am probably the only person on the planet that hasn't seen the pre-release of Microsoft's new $300 million advertising campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld.
On the off chance that you haven't seen it - check it out:
The first thing thought I had was "Are you kidding me?" I felt a little dirty, stupid and just plain confused. THIS is supposed to compete with the "I'm a Mac" commercials?
Ok, ok - so maybe I missed something. So, I watched it again. And again.
Nope - I missed nothing from the first view. Then, I thought - hey, this is one of those cool in-house movies that Microsoft always makes for their conferences and stuff. So I searched the Internet for other copies - and much to my dismay, it was the real thing.
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I always thought that advertising was supposed to make the person watching the ad want to buy your product or service. I thought it was supposed to strengthen the brand, promote "new" features, while at the same time putting a positive spin on the company doing the ads.
The scariest part of all is - there will be more of them!
You just know that there is a whole series of these things shot and in the can, just waiting to be unleashed. There's been "only" about 700,000 or so views of the video - and already there are people who have made their own scathing, mocking videos in response (I'll bet 50% of them are Mac users!).
I guess the end of the video sums it all up. Jerry says to Bill Gates: "Just wondering, are they ever going to come out with something that will make our computers moist, chewy, like cake, so we can just eat 'em while we're working?" Then Bill Gates shakes his ass - acknowledging Jerry - and then Jerry says "I knew it."
Here's the BIG payoff - the branding - the screen cuts to "The Future," "Delicious" and the Windows logo.
Ching! That was the sound of the $10 million Jerry got for the commercial hitting his bank account. If that's the best that Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Microsoft can do - then I'm DEFINITELY a Mac.
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