Microsoft drops Seinfeld, to target "Get a Mac" with new ads "As quickly as it began, Microsoft's fling with comedian Jerry Seinfeld has come to an end. In a development first reported by Valleywag, Microsoft announced today that the Bill & Jerry "teaser ads" that launched two weeks ago were always meant to be short-lived, and that they would give way to a new series of ads starting tonight. In short, Microsoft has disposed of Seinfeld's toothbrush in the bathroom and replaced it with a shiny new one.

When it was first rumored that Microsoft had commissioned Seinfeld as part of its $300 million ad campaign to turn around the image of Windows Vista, the world scratched its head. After all, what was Microsoft trying to do—be young and hip (with an older, practically retired comic) just like those crazy kids in the "Get a Mac" ads? Then, when the first ad actually aired, the world scratched its head even more. The first and second Seinfeld ads were nonsensical and not really about anything at all.

Microsoft says that the new, post-Seinfeld ads will focus on "tearing down the walls," and will "celebrate the diversity and passion of consumers around the world who use Windows to stay in touch with the people, information and ideas that they care about.

In addition to the Life Without Walls campaign, Microsoft also plans to roll out an ad series called "Real PC" in response to Apple's "Get a Mac" ads. Microsoft's ads, some of which will feature a John Hodgman-like figure acting as the PC, will also include "a diverse group of faces representing the one billion people who use Windows PCs worldwide, all celebrating the sense of power and community Windows enables by declaring: 'I'm a PC,'" the company says." Via Ars Technica .

Labels: microsoft, vista

  ¶ posted by Jimmie Geddes, Editor @ 9/18/2008 03:52:00 PM