Microsoft boots Seinfeld, reboots ad campaign

Microsoft announced today that it was launching a new ad campaign — without Jerry Seinfeld — and that that was part of the plan all along. The new ads that begin today open with a guy who looks like John Hodgman so they can play off of the "I’m a PC" notion, cutting between celebrities and regular folk to say it’s more than OK to be a PC person. As David Webster, a general manager of brand marketing for the Big M explained: "We needed to gently say to people, We’re back, we’d like to talk to you. When you have been out of the public conversation about a brand for a little bit of time, there is a point where you want to warm people up and get into the conversation a little more smoothly." (AdWeek) They certainly got people talking, because the two short films that starred Seinfeld and Big M’s Big Guy, Bill Gates, were lengthy, odd and well, yeah. I’ve already posted the debut short. Here is the other short, which lasts more than four minutes and has Seinfeld and Gates pretending to live with and as regular people (including that guy who gave newspapers a bad name in The Wire!). Weird. It has gotten more than 1.2 million views on the YouTube so far…it is funny, albeit in a weird, awkward way. Did anyone want to see Gates do the robot?

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

View all posts by Sean L. McCarthy →