The Second Attempt by Microsoft‘s Gates-Seinfeld Ad to Improve Vista!

After the first debut of Microsoft Bill Gates-Jerry Seinfeld ad unveiled on September 4, the second Bill Gates-Jerry Seinfeld ad appeared on September 11, just one week after the first add was presented. It was aired on "Big Brother" reality show on CBS at 8 p.m. Both ads were created in order to improve Windows Vista image among consumers. Microsoft‘s officials says that the ad No.2 is more concentrated on Windows than the ad No.1 .

The $300 million marketing/ad campaign designed for Microsoft by Crispin Porter + Bogusky agency is Microsoft's attempt to improve the image of Windows Vista and bite back at Apple, which has described Windows effectively as scanty and out-of-touch with its Mac vs. PC commercials. There aren't any hidden hints or subliminal anti-Apple messages in the new spot. The ad of Microsoft was interpreted as a metaphor in order to reach their intended goal: get people talking (even if negatively) about Microsoft and Windows again.

During the new four-and-a-half minute commercial, Microsoft‘s founder Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld try to "reconnect with real people", move closer to a seemingly "typical" American family in order to experience "real life" in an attempt to find out what the average user wishes. The family members talk with Seinfeld and Gates sitting on the funny dinner table when hilarious grandmother passes by and says some replications. The ad is based on the same manner as the first, encompassed mostly of Seinfeld's well-known comedy style "about nothing."

Gates and Seinfeld depict characters who act the total opposite of their commonly perceived personalities, in a scene with a food delivery driver being told by Gates that he has "got nothing" when they have to pay for the food, instead Seinfeld gives the teen an old Greek coin. Later, the ad portrays Gates reading bedtime stories while Seinfeld gets involved in family politics. In the ad, Gates definitely out of place in a working class family household, puts a question to Seinfeld in order to remind him why both of them are doing this. Seinfeld replies that they are a little out of it.

Gates and Seinfeld are subject to a hilarious grandmother character evoking suspicion and abuse, before they are finally suspected of attempting to take a leather giraffe statue. The teenage girl in the family had a fit after Seinfeld was found in her room, clipping his toenails. Their experience ends when they walk down the street with their luggage and Gates dances like a robot in reaction to Seinfeld‘s command. Microsoft is expected to use the new ad campaign in order to help it strengthen the message that Windows is "without walls." Exactly what the meaning of and what form the messaging might take is still unknown.

Resources:
Gates and Seinfeld try to "reconnect with real people"
The second gates-Seinfeld ad more concentrated on Windows
Microsoft presents the second ad with Gates and Seinfeld
Gates-Seinfeld ad No.2 on "Big Brothers" reality show on CBS