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Microsoft To Drop Seinfeld Ads
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by Jarrett Martineau | September 18, 2008 at 08:18 am
353 views | 10 Recommendations | 7 comments
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The widespread consensus: Microsoft + Jerry + Bill = FAIL.
The result: Gates + Seinfeld = CANCELLED.
The Microsoft version: it was all part of the plan.
Which do you believe?
Remember those awful Microsoft ads with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? Well, now you can forget them. Microsoft flacks are desperately dialing reporters to spin them about "phase two" of the ad campaign — a phase, due to be announced tomorrow, which will drop the aging comic altogether. Microsoft's version of the story: Redmond had always planned to drop Seinfeld. The awkward reality: The ads only reminded us how out of touch with consumers Microsoft is — and that Bill Gates's company has millions of dollars to waste on hiring a has-been funnyman to keep him company. Update: In a phone call, Waggener Edstrom flack Frank Shaw confirms that Microsoft is not going on with Seinfeld, and echoes his underlings' spin that the move was planned. There is the "potential to do other things" with Seinfeld, which Shaw says is still "possible." He adds: "People would have been happier if everyone loved the ads, but this was not unexpected."
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Jarrett Martineau
Vancouver, Canada
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Jason Sandersat 08:34 on September 18th, 2008
I enjoyed those mini movie commercials... boo
at 08:45 on September 18th, 2008
I didn't even make through the second one
at 09:24 on September 18th, 2008
The only good PR Microsoft has had over the last few months is that apparently people are feeling sympathy for John Hodgman (the PC guy in the mac ads).
at 16:49 on September 18th, 2008
Too bad - I liked the ads.. Does that make me weird?
at 18:23 on September 18th, 2008
This American Life at 08:00 John Hodgman talks of life after becoming PC.
at 07:41 on September 19th, 2008
Ersatz Hodgeman stars in Microsoft ad
Source: adweek.com
at 09:18 on September 19th, 2008
I don't think they'd have put this much effort into the ad series to only air two. Also, it was perhaps a miscalculation to presume that viewers would seek out a five-minute MS ad as a destination. (There's a rather large ambition- and production-value gap between these and, say, the BMW mini-film series)