More Proof Microsoft Is Stuck In 90s: Seinfeld Ads
In case there was any doubt that the company is still stuck in the 1990s, MICROSOFT HIRED JERRY SEINFELD as the face of its $300 million advertising campaign to hawk Windows Vista. Here's the incomprehensible part: The 54-year-old washed-up has-been was chosen because Microsoft is "weary of being cast as a stodgy oldster by Apple Inc.'s advertising," according to the Wall Street Journal. Seinfeld's 90s-era sitcom was famous for, among other things, featuring a Macintosh on the main set. Microsoft will pay Seinfeld $10 million.
6:16 AM * PERMALINK * 6 comments
Comments:
Yippee. Seinfeld thinks that I should use Microsoft Windows. Maybe if I'm laughing at his jokes, I won't think about important things, like how fast, secure, stable, and customizable I want my OS to be.
They couldn't pay me ten million to pretend I liked Windows.
Linux rocks.
They could pay me ten million to pretend I like it! Hire me Microsoft! And if they do Mike, I will treat you to McDonalds and let you SUPERSIZE anything you want!
The computer in his apartment on the show was always a Mac. Does Bill know?
This baffles me too. I'm assuming they wanted a "hip" spokesman to counter balance the stodgy representation the Apple commercials give?
Then why Seinfeld? Agreed: stuck in the 90's. Maybe a Junior MO who is under 30 years old could help?
"Business" is stuffy and stodgy. Seinfeld doesn't overcome that stereotype.
Microsoft made a bad choice using JS, but to call him a "washed-up, has-been" is silly? His "Bee Movie" this past year is one of the highest grossing animated films ever. He produced it and did the voice work... still a bad choice for Windows Vista however.
***** Microsoft made a bad choice using JS, but to call him a "washed-up, has-been" is silly? His "Bee Movie" this past year is one of the highest grossing animated films ever. *****
Look, nobody's a bigger Jerry Seinfeld fan than I am. His show was literally, in my opinion, the best thing ever broadcast on TV.
But as Jerry himself said, comedy isn't about telling the truth. It's about telling a half-truth. Calling Seinfeld a "washed up has been" is funny to me, not because it's true, but because it's half true. It's a wild exaggeration with a kernel of truth.
Seinfeld is still as talented as he used to be, and still rich and famous, and he'll probably continue to work for decades and be fairly successful.
But almost all his "superfame" is from his show, and his show is from the 1990s.
Almost all of Microsoft's fame is from Windows, and Windows is from the 1990s -- that's when it was super "famous" -- or, at least, when a majority of users seriously liked or loved the operating system.
For Microsoft to choose Seinfeld because it's "weary of being cast as a stodgy oldster" is absurd precisely because Seinfeld is a famous person whose fame has its origins 10 years ago, not right now.
Microsoft needs to bring Windows -- and its marketing -- into the present, not back to the 1990s.
Mike
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