Microsoft stuff (apart from the Xbox, the Zune and possibly surface) isn't exiting. No one feels hip or cool by using it. And they shouldn't market it as such.

Apple is trying to make a fasion statement. Good for them. Microsoft software is what keeps our businesses running. Aim marketing towards them...

Microsoft wasting money? "I regard them as brand failures."

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Whilst a "hip & cool" product shouldnt be the only reason it sells is a sad fact of todays market. Luckily in the case of Apple that hip and cool product is actually far better than MS's offering IMO.
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I think the market may in part have moved away from MS because of fashionable brands, but in the main its moved away because of years of issues, promises, exploits and vulnerabilities, culminating in the release of Vista.
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The MS ads were failures (Bill Gates series) not IMO because they were that bad (I found them quite interesting) but because, IMO the products they represented are so poor. The Im a PC ad meant nothing to anyone I know who has no interest in PC's other than just "average" use.
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I said before, MS should have considered investing the advertising funds in refunding or upgrading to Win 7 (when its released) all the customer burned from Vista. That IMO would be a better advert for the company.
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As someone who has seen others suffer with Vista, IMO MS ads seems to say "Right, forget about past experiences, lets move on. Dip into your pocket and buy this new package". - Although to most non techy people in my circle of friends, they havent got a clue what the "Im a PC" ad is trying to say or which company it represents.
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Talking of advertising and "coolness" was it just me who found it difficult to see the name Microsoft on the Zune homepage? Could it be that MS realize that their name has so little respect and "trendyness" that they sought to hide it a little in the hope wouldbe customers wouldnt realize?
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Just a thought.

In the end the effectiveness of advertising - particularly viral advertising is dependant on the emotional attachment of the population to a brand.

To give a contrived example you could highjack Apple's marketing department and set them to work on creating Microsoft ads but I believe that firstly
.) they won't be able to create as good a campaign because they're not as involved with / attached to the Microsoft brand as advertising and media folk are with Apple
and secondly, if they still were able to make as good or better ad campaigns as they are for Apple
.) the population isn't as emotionally attached to Microsoft and thus not as inclined to make parodies of it or other content that supports the virally advertised brand.

Corporations and Enterprises that are far more attached to Microsoft than most any other brand are hardly likely to start creating grass-roots viral content...

PS. i'm a techy, not a marketing guy so i may be way off, but that's just my fistful of cents on this.

I used to work for a company where the department execs would head for the corner bar at lunch time, get plastered, and come back to work and cobble up all these incomprehensible schemes for promotions and ads.

Of course, the "campaigns" were always flops. The ones that saw the light of day made no sense whatsoever to the public.

Maybe the folks responsible for "Bill & Jerry" and the other silliness generated their ideas at a similar venue during lunch.

Microsoft will never be hip or cool. Their best bet is to create well-thought, creative, informative, slick ads. Most people and businesses will continue to purchase Windows and Office, mostly due to its familiarity and compatability. All the need (or can) do is to keep their name out there, and try to put out quality products. Linux and Mac are going to conintue to eat away at MS market share and I truly believe IMO that there is nothing MS can do about it. Like I said, just keep their name out there and work on quality products and they can at least slow the slide. They are so integrated in businesses that they will always have a large base, but I think the glory days and market share growth are pretty much over.

Completely agree with Ridley.
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If MS released quality products instead of talking about them they may get somewhere.
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Unfortunately open source doesnt rely on cash like MS does, and we can wait. How can MS fight something that is free and encourages the sharing of knowledge an ideas in an open forum?
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I think MS could start by admitting the faults of Vista publicly. Just out of interest, how many people here are going to be upgrading to Windows 7 as soon as its available (and can I use the word upgrade loosely as IMO Vista certainly wasnt an upgrade for XP users)
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You can't take advantage of your customers with programs like Software Assurance and then expect to be seen in a positive light.

You're either a company that depends on milking your position or your a company that depends on creating something new. College students want the new and not the milk.

Corporate cultures and strategies are reflected in a company's marketing efforts. To Steve Ballmer, a "customer" is a company that signs a license agreement, and a "good customer" is a company that does it regularly without asking too many questions. He couldn't care less about the end users of the products Microsoft licenses.

This latest ad campaign attempted to appeal directly to end users. It was ill-conceived, clumsy, and barely showed any sense of branding or continuity. Exactly what I'd expect from the execs sitting around the conference table in Redmond.

Ubiquitous placement has a way of eventually locating itself directly at the center of a void. Thank your lucky stars t-shirts aren't all white, cellphones don't look like bricks and smoking has become passe - it was all headed that way at one time or other.

They weren't targeting students dumba$$. I laughed out loud at the Bill/Jerry commercials.

It seems the world just can not figure out what the heck Microsoft was thinking with that Bill and Jerry ad campaign. For "entertainment" purposes let me offer you some of my crazy speculation.

After years of Microsoft trying to drive VCSY out of business, Microsoft settles with VCSY just one day before the Markman Hearing and just 15 months after the infringement lawsuit was announced, with a CONFIDENTIAL settlement agreement.(Strange for Microsoft-imo)

So to cover up any past wrong doings how does Bill and company send an untraceable message to anyone that was involved in trying to help drive VCSY out of business to let them know that if they were part of shorting VCSY's stock in attempt to drive VCSY out of business, that they better cover their shorts because Microsoft has settled, although neither company put out a public press release. Emails, letters and phonecallls are all easily traceable but how about right out in public on television, right under everyones noses?

So how about a wacky ad campaign that would be so very confusing that even experts would be clueless on what the meaning of the commercial would be?

At the very end of a very wacky and confusing commercial:
Jerry asks Bill a way over the top question about change in the future of computers and says, If they are, give me a signal "adjust your SHORTS"

I think Gates was referring to a new disruptive technology that is now in play since the VCSY/Microsoft settlement on July 25, 2008, about one month prior to the commercial. And the adjust your shorts comment is referring to covering any shares shorts of VCSY stock that was in attempt to drive VCSY out of business. IMO

I also like to point out that the expiration date on Bill's Shoe Circus Platnum Card is '09, could that be the expiration date of anyone short VCSY stock to cover? We shall see! LOL!~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afR5J7eskno