Shoe Circus Commercial

Friday, September 5th
by Michael Sherlock

I have already talked about the mojave experiment but the above video is a new ad campaign by Microsoft featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. (Apparently, this is just the first in a set of several Seinfeld Gates ads.) It seems to me like Microsoft decided that they really needed a strong ad campaign to compete with apple’s “Get a Mac” ads. As of now however, I think the combination of these Seinfeld Gates ads and the mojave experiment are not going to work the way Microsoft envisioned.

Anyway, the ad above entitled Shoe Circus Commercial was some-what interesting for me to watch. However, without the information I had telling me this was a Windows ad it’s a little hard to comprehend this is trying to sell Windows. I mean, I could defiantly see if this way trying to sell shoes but software? How is the average person supposed to feel enthralled into buying Windows with this? For the $10 million they are paying Seinfeld and the multimillion dollar bill for the entire campaign, Microsoft needs to start making a better ad very soon. Apple’s “Get a Mac” ad’s at this point are more creative and actually sell a product.

I have said it a few times and I will say it again. The best way for Microsoft to go about advertising windows is to give away trial machines with vista preinstalled and allow the user to have a good, unaltered, test. That way, they go out and buy the product and tell their friends too. At a minimum, the next bunch of ads need to be firmly based on windows and even take some blows against apple. Microsoft can no longer site on their butts not caring because their market share is much higher than anyone else. The fact of the matter is apple is rising fast and Microsoft should be worried.