The First Bill Gates + Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft Ad Makes No Sense • Hacker News Board

Re: The First Bill Gates + Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft Ad Makes No Sense

#61

Post by dotcoma » Fri, Sep 05, 2008, 6:26 PM UTC

volida wrote: post #7

for those that didn't get it: the ad shows a normal conversation between two people. it wants to show that pcs are for normal people. this is achieved because it makes you think: hey look here are two famous people discussing something normal... that's the thought that runs in your subconsious and thats what microsoft wants, where instead the message of Apple ads is hey "we use mac, we are better than you" bullshit..…

do normal people want pcs for "normal people"? Like, didn't it use to be that teens wanted to be or at least look older, married men wanted to look single, 30 years old women wanted to play lolitas once again etc? But now, "normal" people just want a brown box with a stupid OS just like everybody else. Really? Are you sure?

Re: The First Bill Gates + Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft Ad Makes No Sense

#62

Post by dotcoma » Fri, Sep 05, 2008, 6:29 PM UTC

JoelSutherland wrote: post #44

rrf wrote: post #35

Spending $300m on an ad campaign to inspire consumers to reconnect with Microsoft not only feels desperate, but seems such a waste when it could have been channeled into making better products or hiring better hackers.

Microsoft is spending all kinds of money on both products and great hackers already. The biggest problem they have is their overall strategy. With the cash they have on hand, I have never understood why they aren't doing more parallel development in smaller groups to let the good ideas happen organically. They continue to try to fit every new product into the existing Microsoft ecosystem -- something that is beginnin…

beginning to fail?

it has failed. big time, too. do you want a Zune? ;-)

Re: The First Bill Gates + Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft Ad Makes No Sense

#63

Post by mattmaroon » Fri, Sep 05, 2008, 9:31 PM UTC

brandonkm wrote: post #21

I think the ad is rather brilliant. The whole "wtf" vibe is what they were going for. You have to always remember that this ad and the followup ads are part of a much larger campaign that is basically going to be a saga of microsoft advertising. Think of this as one of the first few pages in a chapter within a long book.

I would agree if it were funny. It's really not.

And people stopped reading long books 10 years ago. Now it's all Dan Brown type crap you can polish off in a day.

Re: The First Bill Gates + Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft Ad Makes No Sense

#64

Post by joshu » Fri, Sep 05, 2008, 9:34 PM UTC

acesamped wrote: post #5

Have you guys watched the Seinfeld tv series? Its really the same kind of humor. lol. I found it funny As much as we may hate to think it, in the end, I think Microsoft wins again because we DID watch the ad didn't we? Jerry and his comedy is the bait. We now know microsoft is up to something "delicious." whoopie.

I certainly hope not.

Re: The First Bill Gates + Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft Ad Makes No Sense

#65

Post by rms » Fri, Sep 05, 2008, 10:06 PM UTC

pwk wrote: post #37

rms wrote: post #36

This advertising campaign will be a great critical success. It's a sublimely entertaining advertisement and a really nice thing to do for Bill Gates. This 300MM blitz will really humanize Bill Gates to the TV watching public. Of course, even the best advertising company can't save Microsoft. They need a miracle. How long do you think it will take for the market cap of Amazon and Google to surpass Microsoft? In 100 ye…

"In 100 years and beyond, Microsoft will disappear and Google will achieve immortality" I suspect that, in a mere 25 years, Google will get the same respect that Microsoft does today (ie some, at least from some quarters, but much less than heyday levels). Some young bucks will come along with the same combination of smarts and business savvy and build the next big thing, and lots of the bright people currently at Go…

Sure... I suspect that the market cap of Google will have surpassed Microsoft in 5 years. Amazon, in 25. In 100 years, Microsoft will certainly be entirely irrelevant if not completely gone.