* "shops cheap at Shoe Circus."

And uses Linux instead of Windows because it's a lot cheaper and more than good enough?

* "Microsoft's whole business model is about value."

To Microsoft. They've already given 95% of the world nearly all the value they ever will, now that their market growth has flattened. Now they have to squeeze those customers and provide them less value than they used to.

No, I don't really know what these ads are trying to say. Some guesses:

1. They failed to perform due diligence and hired an advertising agency run by mentally retarded chimpanzees.

2. They want to publicly gloat over how rich they are by spending many hundreds of millions of dollars on the stupidest advertising campaign they could muster just to show how little those hundreds of millions of dollars mean to them. It's the equivalent of inviting all the neighbors over for an evening of watching you put sack after sack of thousand-dollar bills in your fireplace just to show that you can.

3. They want people to focus on advertisements that are so incredibly stupid that they will make Vista look good by comparison. (Unfortunately, they also make a root canal look good by comparison.)

4. Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld look-alikes are doing the commercials. And when Bill and Jerry return from their well-earned vacations, boy, will they be enraged to find their good names have been dragged through the mud by these idiotic buffoons.

5. $300 million just doesn't buy what it used to anymore. Darn inflation!

Those are the only explanations that pop into mind at the moment. Any other ideas?

There is one thing I can easily tell from these commercials and that is that Bill Gates outperforms Jerry in acting!!!

Uh, here's a hint, Joe: "The Simple Life".

And in the same vein as the first commercial, I don't think the ad's targeted at computer knowledgeable folk but rather a completely different market segment. This is the reason you obviously didn't recognize the parody which is still okay... I think this is to be expected being that the humor for this bit wasn't meant to be all-inclusive.

For those that did know what the commericial was about, I think it's actually pretty funny. Bill Gates == Nicole Richie?

If it's still not totally clear who it is these commericials are reaching out to, here's one more hint: Try watching the commericials and sponsorship during broadcasts of "TMZ".

Joe, you omitted one very popular Coen Bros. film: The Big Leboski. And if anything, this ad campaign may resemble Leboski more than any of Coen's darker films that you cite. Look, the campaign's getting a lot of exposure, and most of it off air (in part, thanks to blogs like yours)(which makes the $300M investment go much farther). At 4:30, this version seems too long for airing as is, but one never knows these days, given phenomena such as the expansive Acura campaign that is a "series within a series" http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2008/06/23/acuratnt-microseries-event/. We will just have to watch and see where it goes. If people stop paying attention, then it might be time to fire the ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Until then, they're doing what they're being paid for. Finally, you mention "1984" in your post. I find it ironic that it appears that the roles in that ad seems to have been reversed, at least for Apple, given the cult of Mac.

Philosopher : wrote

"2. They want to publicly gloat over how rich they are by spending many hundreds of millions of dollars on the stupidest advertising campaign they could muster just to show how little those hundreds of millions of dollars mean to them. It's the equivalent of inviting all the neighbors over for an evening of watching you put sack after sack of thousand-dollar bills in your fireplace just to show that you can."
---------------------------------------------------

Sure looks like it.

Shame on MSFT!

They need to spend more money on shills. We can't get enough of the shills saying how great Vista is
(It makes great fodder for the Mac and Linux forums...lotsa comic relief...just look how great I Tunes 8 and Vista get along...oops!)

Then when Windows 7 is released ...the shills will be out in force and THEN we will get to hear that Vista isn't really all that great and it sucks and we need to move away from it (a very easy task!)

And then the shills will drone on how Windows 7 will provide everyone on Earth a rich and rewarding experience and is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Seriously...I wonder what the stockholders are thinking....since Bill is supposedly retired...looks like Ballmer has some questions to answer....

Maybe $300 Million isn't enough...just like 2 GB RAM isn't enough to run Vista...

Like the commericial, there is often a painful uncomfortable reality to MS software.

a) Vista not supporting SQL Server 2005 when it was first rolled out.
b) resource hog
c) the buried click-click-click-click-click interfaces
d) other bad junk about Vista already mentioned

I am not a Mac user, but at least their Mac Guy vs PC Guy commercials are fun to watch. I would think that MS could do something similar.

Joe,

My sense is that you're just upset that M$ didn't come out with Apple attack ads. Given time, these commercials will probably prove to be quite successful for M$. Going forward M$ has to do three things extremely well:

#1. Create an effective add campaign that shows consumers that behind all of the Apple generated anti-Vista FUD lies an extremely capable O/S, browser and related online services including search. The pictures alone M$ is refreshing on live.com are worth the time to stop by and perform a couple of daily searches.

#2. Either work with a 3rd party vendor or do it themselves, but they've got to create a LOW COST mobile phone that is really hip, slick, touch screen, rock solid reliability wise that incorporates all of the features of the Zune and Live Mesh. Personally, I would like to see a mobile phone where about 95% of the face is LCD.

#3. Work with PC vendors to stop preloading crapware on new PC's. Rather, give customers a welcome screen that shows them all of the Windows certified applications that they can download for free at their convenience if they so choose.

Great that you're finally starting to get it, but wrong on the Ballmer idea. No one (except techies and finance/business types) knows who Ballmer is. Everyone (regular consumers) knows Bill Gates and Seinfeld.

Why do these ads bother Linux and Mac users so much? They are really getting bent out of shape over these things.

@Butler T. Reynolds:

I can't speak for anyone else. But speaking for me, the ads don't bother me at all. However, they are pathetic and they invite ridicule on their own merits (or lack thereof).

As far as a classification goes, I am a Windows, Linux, AIX, and Mac user. In the past, I was also a reluctant OS/2 user, a reluctant DOS user, and a user of my own fully-multi-threaded minicomputer operating system.

I enjoy Apple's Mac vrs. PC commercials, but I don't fully subscribe to the idea that moving from a PC to a Mac is easy. Which system is easier to use depends on what you are trying to do, what you are used to using, how much you are willing to learn something new, and so on.

There have been many ads for products I've never used and never intend to use, and yet I've enjoyed the ads nevertheless. For instance, I LOVED the old Sun ad (before Scott McNealy sold his soul to Microsoft) in which Sally Struthers and her save-the-world-from-poverty sad face pleaded, "Still running your servers on Windows? Isn't there enough world suffering already?". And yet, I've never used a Sun workstation in my life, though I have walked near a few.

And I happen to really like my old Camry, but I find the Toyota ads that rained keys on everyone to be pathetic and annoying. What comes out of the design labs, and what comes out of the Madison Avenue crowd can paint two very different pictures.

And I'm not saying that the Microsoft horror flicks won't be effective. Someone once said that no businessman ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. And these ads certainly don't exceed the intelligence of a rotted cucumber, let alone that of the average idiot on the street.

But regardless of what operating systems I use and don't use, and regardless of the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of these ads, one thing I find clear: These ads are pathetic and invite ridicule. Maybe that's their purpose. Who really knows who can tell us?

I would keep away from film critque Joe and stick to technolgy.

what gets me is that scene where GATES is seen telling the KID "if anyone asks you, you don't know where you got it". Is he implying he's given 'pirated'
software to the family?
Not a good example!

@Philosopher:
Please don't try to save yourself from your arrogance with your painful litany of "I'm open". Talk about "mentally retarded chimpanzees". When were you even responsible for $300M? Half that? So if these "mentally retarded chimpanzees" had that kind of trust dropped on their hairy laps, what does that make you?

These ads weren't meant for "technical gods" like yourself, who can do no wrong and can make elephants, pink at that, fly by shoving Linux up its you know what.

It's an ad, creating by the marketing gods, which up to this point, is fine simply by equating Jerry and that "other guy", with the brand.

To those who actually know who Bill Gates is, and what he looks like, it's funnier and gives him the "ordinary guy" feel. Funny, strange, eccentric...Jerry's "George"...but this George doesn't live with his parents.

Well, I've just watched this twice and it makes even less sense the second time around. But I do realize these ads are aimed at the lowest common denominator end user who they obviously feel, with $300 million to play with, they can dupe into thinking Vista is just wonderful. How that connection happens, I'm not sure, but I think Seinfeld has something to do with it. But then, I never watched Seinfeld's program, either, and don't feel the huge 'hero worship' attached to him.

And no, that software Bill gave the kid wasn't pirated .. the kid is now a beta tester for life.

Seems to me, with $300 million, they could go all thru the 'average,' working class neighborhoods in Bellevue and simply give away copies of Vista. Oh. Wait. They'd have to give away computers that can handle all the bloat and eye candy, too. Or are they still pushing the myth that you can run Vista on 512 meg of RAM??

Give me the Mac ads any day .. not that I have a Mac (not yet, but soon) .. but those ads are short, direct, to the point .. and funny.

Pssst-t-t .. Bill and Jerry .. don't come into our 'average,' working class neighborhood here in Bellevue. We're a bunch of geeks who will NOT have Vista anywhere near our machines.

Oh, and for the commercial? That's what mute buttons are for .. or that quick trip to the fridge or .. umm .. elsewhere.

Now you know what it's been like all these years for those of us who aren't Seinfeld fans. And this could be construed as some of his better stuff too, he's usually not this funny...

I wonder... how many of these people who rant and rave about Vista actually use it. I bet if they did (rather than spewing the regurgitated ranting of others who haven't used it either) they would not have so many bad things to say about the OS as they would about third party vendors, hardware manufacturers, and others who ignored it's release.

As someone who uses just about all the OS's available (including most of the flavors of Linux), the best OS there is, is the one you like and can work on productively. I administer several heterogeneous networks and find I spend time on the OS that's least controlled. Hmmm... that one has a fruit on it. Don't get me wrong (as I am writing this on my 17" MacBook Pro), I like Macs. But I like PC's that run Windows also (Yes, Vista included).

csnow,
most people bashing Vista hate Microsort. It doesn't matter how good or bad Vista is.

@evan
I speak harshly of Vista whenever I get the chance because it makes my life harder, and it costs me money to use. Not just the money for the license, but money for the new computer, money for the new printer(s), money for extra memory to add to the system after not realizing that you had to have 3GB of memory to run it well, money for the applications I had to upgrade, money to go find new vendors for the applications that I can't run anymore, money to keep running the old computer that SHOULD have been replaced, but is kept because I can't seem to FIND a new version or a replacement for the applications that JUST WON'T RUN on Vista.

@csnow
It's funny that you imply that Mac's are the "least controlled" OS out there. That statement just made my day. I suppose it's why you see so many hardware vendors out there implementing systems to run OSX... Wait... Or maybe it's why you see so many software vendors rushing to develop applications for OSX... Wait... Oh yeah, nearly every vendor that has a OSX version of their software has ported it to Windows or some Unix, or there is a comparable replacement of that software on Windows these days. Please don't call OSX or Apple open, not when you have the infrastructure surrounding the PC world (Windows and Linux/Unix) that clearly demonstrate a more open ecosystem than any Mac ecosystem has EVER displayed.

@the article
It boggles me to what degree people allow themselves to be reduced to the lowest common denominator, but it just shows how our culture has allowed it's self-image to deteriorate. We are no longer concerned about self-respecting attributes like quality and intelligence. We just want to be spoon-fed our knowledge, entertainment, our means, and have our every whim instantly fulfilled without any effort on our part... That is, indeed, why we see marketing targeting us in this way, because it's one of the easiest ways to get our culture to respond to our desires. Tell them that it's their desire too by showing them how "fun" it is to believe our message, or that they already do.

There should have been apple pie at dinner. Grandma should have been carrying a log. The delivery boy should have spoken with a Jake Renault accent.

This is either a commercial to sell Tivo - (You just wish you could fast forward the thing) or it's some dumb mind trick, where if you play the soundtrack backwards you find a subliminal message telling you that Vista is actually worth something... Maybe they should play it to chimpanzees and see if they do anything - but that would be inhumane - Heck, just buy a Mac or install Linux - just to make you feel better...

Could it be that it is a commercial about nothing? Does that sound familiar?

Get a sense of humor will you? This commercial is hilarious, not cheap shots about other products, no oversell on MS products either. It's entertaining, funny and yet we know what's behind it. If you're not familiar with the concept of developing corporate goodwill without pummeling people with product details you should see the way cars are sold, cigarettes, lots of other things. It's a brillant campaign, and they don't care of computer geeks who already have their opinion about MS don't get it.

@Philosopher, personally I think these ads are just a scapegoat for Microsoft management. What else could it be? If Vista's perception doesn't get any better or sales drop they can blame it on the ads. It is easier to change the advertisement company after spending millions than changing Windows after spending billions in its development.

There are also a couple of comments I'd like to make on the ad:
a) Value! There is no value provided to the family by Bill's and Jerry's visit. Their stay should be symbolic to Windows or Microsoft product usage. The family should have learned or acquired something. Overall be better off than before they arrived. By the looks of it they were left off the same as before Bill and Jerry's visit.
b) There are three events that look like metaphors to real life Windows usage.
-Bill reading "technight" stories to the kid. Windows despite popular belief is extremely technical and just happens to disguise this by having so many people "know" how to use it. There is no "it just works" experience with Windows.
-Gaming is advertised. There being so many things in which Windows could benefit a family, they choose games. Why not music? or photography? family involvement? school related applications? Why not promote those features in Windows?
-Security. Bill and Jerry got owned by a teenager. A type of framing related to identity theft. Don't do this!! It's too touchy a subject. Once again another metaphor to stay away from.

Just my 2 cents.

@Bosco99 - a great advertising campaign doesn't sabotage it's later efforts by providing a disincentive for people to follow the campaign. After seeing the previous commercial, who's going to want to sit thru another one?