

The second Seinfeld and Gates Microsoft ad - halo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBWPf1BWtkw

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aneesh
It's ironic. Just months after a much publicized retirement that emphasized
"Microsoft after Gates", Microsoft wants to build some brand. And who do they
bring back?

Is there Microsoft beyond Gates? More broadly, what does it take for a startup
to outlive its founders?

~~~
jkent
I wouldn't recognise Steve Ballmer if I walked by him on the street. Unless he
was begging..

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nuclear_eclipse
What if he was throwing chairs?

Edit: damn, I should refresh before posting...

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gscott
The next set of commercials might have bonding between Steve Balmer and Bobby
Knight.

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brandonkm
After seeing this second ad in this new microsoft ad campaign i'm definitely
looking forward to the next installment. These are pretty funny and
entertaining.

All things considered I think a lot of us are overanalyzing these ads. This is
a $300 million ad account with crispin + porter + bogusky arguably one of the
best ad agencies around. The size of this account ensures that this campaign
will stretch over a year or more. I think the overall messege they are going
for is fun. Microsoft isn't going to try to win this in the "cool and hip"
area, so they are going for the "fun and useful". After this campaign runs for
awhile you may have people looking at their pcs as fun ("I can play all my
games on a pc but not a mac") and useful ("wow! pcs are everywhere, I know how
to use a computer thats everywhere"). While I myself tend to overanylyze the
underlying messages with these ads, I have to remember in doing so that just
yesterday my mom was talking about how funny the shoe ad was and couldn't wait
to check out the new one, so for the average consumer these ads will hit their
target over time.

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froo
I can see where they're going with this, they're getting buzz about the ads by
starting off with something "bad" and then gradually making it "better" -
perhaps a nod to Vista?

Anyway, the 4 odd minutes was worth it to see Gates do the robot.

~~~
Tichy
Wait, I can create buzz by creating something bad and gradually making it
better? That sounds brilliant - suddenly a lot of my projects have gained a
new perspective...

~~~
froo
exhibit a) cuil

I rest my case.

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Tichy
Has cuil gained some traction now? I lost track when it was in the "bad"
stage.

~~~
froo
I can't say with any certainty, but I don't think the results are as relevant
as Google, Yahoo or Live (I don't really know about ask as I haven't used it
more than once or twice), but it still looks like the image results are very
strange to the point of just being wrong. I wouldn't use Cuil if I was
personally looking for anything at all, but I would (and do) use the 3 main
ones interchangeably.

I just put in some example phrases that I thought would be no brainer's for
any algorithm to work out.

For _"TechCrunch"_ it gives me a Gmail beta image, 2 links to the techcrunch
homepage and a link to some conference they had back in April, no mention of
Michael Arrington whatsoever.

For _"Google"_ it gives me earth.google.com as the main result but
interestingly enough down near the Google Labs link, the image is a picture of
a flying monkey (I don't know if anyone else sees this, so I took a
screenshot)

For _"Yahoo"_ first result is yahoo's homepage, but the included image is a
banner ad.

For _"Microsoft"_ the link to the microsoft homepage's accompanying text is
about qbasic for dos. Also interestingly, the image attached to their research
labs is the Apple logo, which might say something... screenshotted.

For _"Apple"_ the first result is apple's home page, the accompanying image I
can't make out but is definitely un-apple-like... it's a black screen with
what looks like the letters "LCA" in gray.

So next stage I'll give it some results which shouldn't be "top tier".

For _"Y Combinator"_ the first result happens to be YC, with the YC logo so
grats guys.

For _"Warhammer Online"_ the result links to their homepage, but the attached
image is a tiny sponsor image at the footer of the page.

For _"Calacanis"_ it gave me a link to Jason's weblog, the attached image is a
pie of some variety. Also interestingly enough the wikipedia entry has the
Lost splash graphic.

For _"Paul Graham"_ it seemed like everything works great, Paul's pic is up
the top, until down the bottom theres a pic of someone who I can't determine,
but it looks like he could have come from the set of a 70's porn film.

Now last phase would be some out there phrases, stuff that would be more
difficult for the engine but could be considered relevant to someone who lived
in my city. I figure we're the most isolated city on the planet (in terms of
distance to anything), so lets see what it could do. For kicks, I turned safe
search off.

Since I just did PG, I figured I would throw in my name for laughs, _"Mark
Lancaster"_ , the very first result I could find even mildly related to me is
page 16, which is someone who's befriended me on Digg and shows me on their
friends list. My personal blog was on page 22 which they haven't seemed to
have visited since mid June. Interestingly enough I just did the same for
Google, Yahoo and Live and I was results 4, 1 and 1 respectively.

Something more specific _"Perth Bell Tower"_ , a page of pure spam sites.

I typed in a large mining town in our state _"Kalgoorlie"_ that is well known
for the amount of gold it produces, the first result for me happened to be
about Hay Street which as I just found out is red light district. Interesting.

Ok, something a little more obvious since it doesn't seem to play nice with
niche terms, how about _"Perth"_ , being the city I live in. All the results
point to the town of Perth in Scotland, which has a population of 40,000
people, whereas my Perth is a city with a population of 1.5 million. I
followed up with _"Perth City"_ thinking that it might point to the actual
city called Perth, and not a town - but still points to Perth, Scotland.
Perhaps the results might need tweaking there as I'm sure they don't take
location by IP address into account in their algorithms, which many other
sites (not just search engines) can manage to do.

I don't think any of the other big 3 have anything to fear just yet, the
formatting of the pages are nice, but the results just don't seem to be all
that relevant which is a shame and I do hope they fix it.

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gabrielleydon
Ive got so many cars I get stuck in my own traffic. lol

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dangrover
Much better than the first.

~~~
zacharye
Agreed, though it still does little to convey any sort of useful message. I
thought this campaign would be targeting Vista as opposed to brand awareness
but apparently that's not the case.

~~~
aneesh
Microsoft has much bigger problems than Vista. Their stronghold on the OS
market is strong enough that they can probably stand 1 bad release. Only if
Windows 7 screws up will they have real problems in terms of market share &
bottom line.

The bigger problem for Microsoft is that they're just not cool anymore. Not
for prospective customers, not for prospective employees, and not for
prospective partners. That's why I think brand awareness is what they're going
after with all this.

~~~
lux
I think that's it too. I was just talking to someone the other day who was
with IBM back when MS kicked their butts in the battle between Windows and
OS/2. OS/2 was technically superior in many ways, but he was saying that at
conferences it was a bunch of old guys with sore feet at the IBM table, and
hot women with loud music and lots of giveaways at the MS booth. Where would
you rather be?

MS isn't perceived as exciting and new and hip these days, and needs to bring
back some youth and fun, which Mac seems to have plenty of at the moment.

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jmtame
LOL @ Bill reading the story. "The fact that a design uses inheritance in
polymorphism doesn't make it a good design--" "are there any monsters in this
story?"

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binarray2000
The fact that both ads have been understood in so many different ways (here,
on the blogosphere) shows that the message isn’t clear and in marketing that
means trouble. Thus, being funny (for some more, for some less, for some not
at all) or being talked about isn’t going to improve Microsoft’s image or sell
more licenses (in particular of the problem child Vista). Apple, with the Mac
vs. PC campaign, has a clear message besides being funny (not to me, but many
like it) and being talked about.

~~~
halo
I have the opinion that the 'misunderstandings' largely consist of either
preconceived notions of what the ad campaign would be like or, more commonly,
anti-Microsoft sentiment repeatedly raising its ugly head and any Microsoft
advertising campaign would not please those people. I think the ads are
generally quite strong - kooky, memorable, unique and a talking point... if
not particularly funny (FWIW, I didn't find Seinfeld funny either) and a
little long. I think they do the job they set out to do well.

So, I would ask you (and, as an extension, the Hacker News hivemind):

What would make a good Microsoft ad campaign that the collective Internet
would have actually liked and not heaped scorn on? Note that this pretty much
precludes mentioning Vista positively in any way anyhow...

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timr
_"I have the opinion that the 'misunderstandings' largely consist of either
preconceived notions of what the ad campaign would be like or, more commonly,
anti-Microsoft sentiment repeatedly raising its ugly head and any Microsoft
advertising campaign would not please those people."_

They're trying to _change_ anti-Microsoft sentiment with these ads. If the ad
does nothing for people who don't like Microsoft, than arguably, it is a total
failure.

~~~
astine
The trick isn't to convince the hard line critics, but to marginalize them.
The vast majority of people have no hard fast opinions on the matter and are
only aware of what the trends are. If Microsoft can put out a positive message
_and_ get that message repeated and talked about, the naysayers will begin to
look silly. There's just enough latent resentment against the snobbishness of
the Mac campaigns for this to work.

This is not just marketing, it's politics. You could draw parallels to current
US presidential election, but I won't because I know where it will lead.

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jgfoot
I'm just loving that YouTube listed "Firework scares my punjabi neighbor" as a
"Related Video."

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mhidalgo
Man if I was a shareholder in Microsoft I would be worried. There spending
money on this... what about making their products better. Whatever the quality
of microsoft now it doesn't matter because I switched to Mac specifically
because my computer crashed constantly , lost files, and gave me nightmares.
They need to get my friend telling me , " Dude, I have been using Vista and I
love it, " end of story. I don't hear this anywhere. Is Vista that bad ?
Probably not, but not bad isn't going to take back business from Apple, and
change any previous negative perception that many people have of Microsoft
products. A good Ad-campaign does little if you don't have substance behind
it.

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brentr
Odd: Gates doing the robot shows he is human.

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snewe
The fact that we are talking about their ads means that the campaign is
working.

~~~
axod
people are still talking about cuil, but it's still an epic failure. There is
such a thing as bad publicity.

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tel
Crispin Porter is once again rebranding through awkwardness.

It's making me feel like Microsoft is a company from a Wes Anderson movie.

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micah63
I love it when funny people help not funny people be funny. Gates should have
hired Seinfeild a long time ago...

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noodle
funnier than the first. still not that funny, though.

~~~
helveticaman
I liked.

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iamdave
How did they get in that house? I mean if they're going to tell a story, I'd
love some continuity.

~~~
helveticaman
Perhaps they got in through one of the...

~~~
doubleplus
I heard there was a back door.

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koblas
Are we sure this isn't a pilot for a new spring season replacement show for
NBC. Maybe a reality show featuring Jerry and Bill -- it's not "The Simple
Life" but rather "The Billionare Life"

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vaksel
4 minutes seems like a long ad, what does the short version look like?

~~~
reidman
Same thing except a lot more cuts, and it ends right after the dad says 'Gates
and Seinfeld...!'

The long version of this ad does a better job of conveying the 'normal people'
theme, but the short version is as confusing as the first.

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shaunxcode
Do you think the reference to the "old car with weeds growing over it's tires"
is a reference to mac os x being built on top of *nix?

~~~
astine
No. It's a reference to the nosy suburbanite stereotype. Cars weren't featured
enough in the commercial for it to work as a Mac vs PC metaphor.

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brfox
Anyone know where it was shot? It looks like somewhere around Seattle. West
Seattle maybe? Magnolia?

~~~
mjr578
Too flat for Magnolia, could be out in Kirkland or Bellevue.

~~~
timr
The streets seem too wide for West Seattle, too. I'm guessing somewhere in old
Redmond.

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b1te
They should have used iMovie!

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hooande
This is one of the most disturbing things I've seen in a long time.

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raheemm
I wish that was a movie commercial - it looks so good!

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jbenz
That giraffe has been in our family for six years.

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netcan
It's playing up to the mac ads.

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gojomo
Why are News.YC submitters/voters so eager to do Microsoft's marketing for
them?

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aneesh
First, I think the News.YC crowd is least likely to be swayed by MS'
marketing.

Second, I don't think this is "doing Microsoft's marketing". You'll probably
find a fair number of critical comments too.

~~~
gojomo
The comments pro or con are irrelevant; the submission and ranking (currently
the #2 story) are my concerns.

We're giving free placement to a company that is (1) rich enough to buy our
attention, if it needs it; (2) arguably 'dead' as an animating force for our
industry (as in PG's 'Microsoft is Dead' essay).

Their desperate-but-cutesy ad campaign does not deserve to be our 'news'.
Voting up this goofball lowbrow crap makes us into Microsoft's tools. This is
spam.

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neilc
Nonsense. The ad is interesting and faintly amusing, and the advertising
strategy from which it is drawn is worthy of discussion. I think you are
_vastly_ overreacting to say it is "goofball lowbrow crap", or that it "makes
us into Microsoft's tools": YCers are more than capable of viewing an ad
without being brainwashed, I think.

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gojomo
Again missing the point. Of course we won't be brainwashed. We're all media-
savvy and generally ad-resistant.

But should a 4+ minute skit from Microsoft be 'top of mind' news for hackers?
Did watching it make you a better hacker? Did it give you marketing insights
that work for anyone other than a fading monopolist with money to burn on
sitcom celebrities? Do the best hackers spend a lot of time watching, and
chit-chatting about, giant companies' clumsy viral marketing efforts?

The value here is in finding what is uncommon. Content-free celebrity-filled
Microsoft ad campaigns are as depressingly common as you can get.

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extension
would be much funnier if they gave Gates some jokes.. how bad can he be?

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Tichy
Fail

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burp
yeah

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rbanffy
The message is clear: "Windows, for IQs 100 and below".

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jrockway
And "OS X, for IQs 50 and below"?

