Microsoft to Give Seinfeld the Axe

Written on September 17, 2008 by Josh Pigford and 11 people have commented

CrunchGear is reporting that after only 2 commercials, Microsoft is giving Jerry Seinfeld the boot.

The general consensus on the two ads that have shown has overwhelmingly been that people just straight out don’t get them. Both ads mention next to nothing about Microsoft or Windows.

It’s reported that Microsoft will make an announcement shortly about this change but will make it seem as though it were the plan all along. That is, of course, unless blogs and news outlets around the world beat them to the punch and call them out on it.

The obvious assumption here is that the ads just didn’t ever catch on and were proving to be a waste of money. But for a company like Microsoft, a few hundred million here and there seems a bit like pocket change. My guess is that the ads could very well have been having a negative impact on Microsoft with viewers possibly equating confusion to the Microsoft brand. The exact reasoning is anyone’s guess and I doubt Microsoft would ever divulge such information.

I really was hoping to see this series of ads through to see if there was, in fact, some grand ending to it all…but alas we shall not.

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#1 Bill says:
They are about nothing.
#2 WordVixen says:
Personally, I thought they were far too long. Not that I’m against long commercials if they’re entertaining or informative, but the two that were released were neither. I actually announced to my husband after seeing the second commercial that if the new operating system isn’t insanely better than Vista, my next computer will be a Mac.

Negative impact? Yes, I think so.
#3 Philip Downer says:
It’s probably for the best. Gates and Seinfeld are so awkward together that it actually hurt my cranium.
#4 Michael Teuber says:
Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
#5 BustersDad says:
Damn, I too was hoping that there was a grand punchline that would make all that nonsense come together. But maybe my hopes were too high.
#6 Wesley says:
Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I thought the commercials were entertaining. Sure, they made no sense, but isn’t that Seinfeld?
#7 Mark Ashton says:
Just out of curiousity…do you really think that Microsoft somehow miraculously produced a new set of ads in the last 10 days because the technorati blogged negatively about the Gates/Seinfeld ads? You give yourselves way too much credit. The idea of doing “teaser” ads to launch a campaign is not new or common.

It just cracks me up how people (especially bloggers) over-state their influence. Microsoft may not alawys be the smartest company in the world but they’re not so dumb as to let a bunch of software geeks drive their advertising strategy.
#8 pwner says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqcUJ0gbgp4
New Ad without seinfeld