You Could Have Just Sent 1 Million People A Copy Of Vista

So apparently the Seinfeld/Gates ads were only a “teaser” and now we are going to get the next phase of the campaign.

Alllright…

Yet from the sound of it, those ads will have almost nothing to do with the rest of the campaign. So really, why make them at all?

I’ll admit I found the second one to have it’s moments, and they did get people talking, but they paid Seinfeld $10 million to make 2 commercials that wouldn’t have even been good “Seinfeld” episodes, neglect to mention your product, and that just the “start” of your ads? Talk about having money to burn.

But really the best you can come up with is some Microsoft engineers, a bunch of celebrities/real world users, and, worst of all, a John Hodgeman clone?!?!

Three hundred million dollars, and you get a Hodgeman clone. Ugh. Plus you just know most of the testimonials they get are going to be from a bunch scientists who do use windows, but mostly because the programs they use were written in DOS and they have no choice but to stick with it.

Look Microsoft why not just focus on the good points of Windows, like gaming, or enterprise (look I would love to have a Mac at work, but I sure as hell don’t want one for my server), or the fact that you can get a Windows box for WAY less then a Mac. (Not that I’m saying Mac’s aren’t worth their price, but there are times when being cheap is a plus, e.g., the netbooks.)

Focus on these in the ads, and you’ll do just fine. Sure, you can bring in some star power to do it, but not in a way were you neglect to mention the product at all, and definitely without a Hodgeman clone.

Oh, and please don’t go on the defensive with Apple. They had to attack you because you are the dominant player in the market. They found their opening and they took it. Please don’t turn this into the OS equivalent of a political attack campaign.

We have enough of those already.

(And I know it’s a little cliché, but I guess I should also throw in a bit here at then end where I point out that if you just spent $300 million on making your products better, you wouldn’t have to make all these ads asking people to use them. People use things because they work, not because a comedian tells them too. Although I’m sure that new Verizon ad where Greg Giraldo voices the talking dog would prove otherwise.)

I Just Don’t Get It

more about “I Just Don’t Get It“, posted with vodpod

OK, I’ve seen it about five times now, and even putting aside the fact that I’m an unapologetic Apple fanboy, I just don’t get the new Seinfeld & Gates Windows commercial.

Yeah I get the joke about one of the richest men in the country shopping at a mall shoe store, so much so that he has the frequent buy’s card, and I even chuckled at the joke about wearing shoes in the shower, but really, what was the point of all that?

This is what they spent $10 Million on?! This is what’s going to regain their name after all the bashings they taken in the, “I’m a Mac,” ads?! This is the marketing a multi-billion dollar company can buy?!Gates has proven that he can laugh at himself, and Seinfeld is, well… Seinfeld. Come on guys, you can do better then this.

Oh and while you’re at it, why not actually talk about Windows computers? I get that it shouldn’t be a minute and half of Seinfeld & Gates going on about Vista’s security features, but other then the logo at the end, would you have known what the ad was about?

Alright, I’m sure this is just the opening shot to establish how the two met up, and to give a taste of the tone they want to take, but try to have a little more focus next time, could you?

(Oh and listen, I have no problem against Windows machines. I use them every day at work and I get by just fine. I have people ask me all the time what kind of computer to get, and while I nudge them in the Mac direction, I also tell them that can do just fine with a Windows box too.

I just think that if your going up against a campaign that’s focusing on some specific bad points, you might want to start pointing out some good things rather then go for pure irreverent comedy.)

I’ll Have The Chicken, And The Flood Of Painful Memories. Thanks!

I got word today that the mailer for our 10 year High School reunion is being sent out, and if that wasn’t a scary enough idea, they’re asking for $116.

Per person. Yikes.

I like to think that I keep in pretty close contact to a lot of my friends from High School. We talk online a lot, Facebook helps, and I try to make it back home to hang out when I can. Still I was a little stoked at the idea of getting all of my friends back together in the same place at the same time.

Plus there is a good amount of people who I’ve just plain lost touch with over the years, and who it would be nice to catch up with.

So I was actually warming up to the idea of a big party reminding us that we’re almost 30 and that we should have done something with our lives already, just so long as I got to see some friendly faces.

(Oh and the fact that I have a pretty decent job and a cute fiancee that I can show off, doesn’t hurt either.)

But really, $236 to eat bad food, and spend the night shaking the smiling hands of a whole bunch of people who I never really talked to then, but who want to talk now for nostalgia’s sake?

Couldn’t I just spend it on a X-Box, a box set of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and probably achieve the same level of feeling like a goofy nerd all over again?

Naturally a friend and I started toying around with the idea of throwing the anti-reuinon. We would rent a place, get some food booze and music, and show those money-grubbing reunion organizers what’s what!

Of course the ironic thing is, even after being able to get a discount on a hall to have it in, and a sound system, we probably STILL wouldn’t be able to bring it down below $116 per person.

Plus then you got the set up, getting the word out, and of course the clean up…

Hell man I’m willing to pay $116 right now to avoid all that crap.

Still the rebel in me thinks it would be cool to set up our own part, and even invite the people who we hung out with who were in grades above and below ours. Ah… it will probably never happen, but it would be soo cool…

PS – Oh and one last thing, since I have not received my own invite yet, and was told the price by a friend who did, I have to point out that I obviously haven’t received all the details yet. There could very well be a big flip-side to the mailer that points out that for our money not only will the food be provided in a Iron Chief fashion were Alton Brown oversees a cook off between Mario Batali and Gordon Ramsey (Fuck off, you wooden shoe wearing, donkey dick!), but that we’ll be flown to the Bahamas in a tricked out Airbus A380, while U2 provides the soundtrack.

However I’m pretty sure we’re all expected to make it down to Priceton area so we can eat bland, “safe” food (”Chicken or beef?”), while listening to wedding DJ who still plays “Electric Avenue.”
So, anybody else going?

PPS – I think, “Wooden shoe wearing, donkey dick,” is either my new favorite curse, or the name of my new band.

Both.

Wow, We Found The Ghostbuster’s Firehouse

Wow, We Found The Ghostbuster’s Firehouse, originally uploaded by blackavar21.