Microsoft's paid army not as popular as Bill and Jerry

On Thursday, the Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates ads were shuffled off the stage so the next phase of the new Windows ad campaign could begin, starting with the ad released Thursday night. (A shorter version is above.)  Early reviews of this new effort were a little more favorable -- or at least they lacked the vitriol of the attacks on the Seinfeld spots.

As I wrote earlier, the message seems to be that "the world is one," carrying over the idea from the Seinfeld ads that Microsoft connects us. But in this age of constant e-mail/Facebook/IM/Twitter, can they really take credit for that? And do we really want even more people offering us connection, anyway?

Still, the ads are not as puzzling as the Seinfeld/Gates spots. They're cheerful and upbeat and easy to watch. Except nobody is watching them so far, at least on YouTube. By my calculation, there are fewer than 10,000 views today for all the copies of the ad that are on the site. There are fewer than 100 comments. Love him or hate him, Seinfeld may have been the draw with the first two. Those ads were both closing in on a 1 million views when they'd been on YouTube as long as "Pride" has now been.

Also, in my previous post I wondered how the high-achieving PC lovers in the new commercials -- Seinfeld's replacements, in a sense -- were cast. This is the explanation from a Microsoft spokesperson:

Microsoft sent out a casting director looking for interesting people doing interesting things. In order to avoid swaying responses, this person asked questions similar to those you might expect from a market researcher on the street, determining how the person uses PCs in their lives. We invited people with particularly captivating stories to participate in the ads. They were compensated for their time.

The people cast in the ad are all bona fide PC users, in other words. And fair enough that they were "compensated for their time." Still, if you're trying to show how the company embraces normal people, the staginess of it all seems off base. It's supposed to be a bunch of people out in the real world, spontaneously declaring their affection for PCs. But now that we know they were paid, it seems less like a grassroots uprising and more like a paid PR army. They may be fighting a stereotype, but they're fighting it on behalf of a massive corporation.

-- Maria Russo

Comments

[Richard Prince]

I find it amazing that they are so brain dead there in Redmond. Washington. All those dull dweebs of unimaginative operating systems so easily get locked into the trend of the day after it has been happening for months, if not years, that they now think they are in a adversarial political campaign within a deadlocked two-party system. Why?

And then, the Bill and Jerry "non-commercial" commercials were actually quite amusing and refreshing in this tit-for-tat season of attack and counter-attack but Microsoft couldn't even see cleasrly enough to stick with a good thing when its right inside their grasp. Instead, they have to counter the Apple vs. PC guys with dull and humorless defense.

It just gees to show, if those boys in Redmond had any confidence in their product (and their marketshare) they wouldn't be running these stupid "paid army" ads. Have they no pride in their brand? Apparently not!

[wut]

...and the people in the Mac commercials aren't paid?

I didn't know that.

[bobo]

the ad sucked. Boring and unmemorable. Forget microsoft...they are the past. Apple, google, and social networking are the future. MS is dead. Vista is a piece.

[RobL777]

Ms. Russo, you are overthinking this set of ads. People at home watching them aren't asking themselves whether or not the people in the commercials got paid, or whether this is a true "grassroots uprising". They know they are being sold something, and they know it is about PCs. If they aren't in the kitchen getting something to eat, they may even know that it is Microsoft doing the selling by the end of the ad.

I think Microsoft changed horses in the middle of the stream with this ad campaign. IMO, they should have continued to develop the Seinfeld-Gates series of ads as mostly being "about nothing", but gradually worked computers into the mix, until Seinfeld is sitting at a computer, and the Vista operating system is booting up. He says to Gates "Vista? How the heck did you come up with that name?" And Gates, ever the down-beat guy, says, "Well, Visa was taken already."

[Jay]

No, these ads were much better. It's just that the mindless drone-filled public gets lulz from comedy and will say the ad is good even when it's not really saying anything. These ads aren't saying that much either, but at least they address stereotypes set by Apple a little better.

You also have to understand their audience here. Almost everyone uses Windows already. You don't need to showcase the poduct. You have to target the audience who doesn't have Windows: the Mac crowd, the PC-phobes, who are plagued with misconceptions about Microsoft's OS.

inb4 Windows flaming

[Arye Michael Bender]

I was one of those people shown in the Mojave 'experiment'. It was not an experiment, but an exercise in deceit. MS lied, duped me, and only demonstrated a few features on a very high end, pre-programmed computer. The demonstrator did not allow us to test how the system really operated. We were only allowed to view a few nice graphics desktop that essentially emulated a Mac.

The hyped responses of their 'experiment' were stitched into commercials. Those commercials are at best misleading, and at worst out and out fraud.

And BTW, at the beginning of the focus session, I was told that they were videotaping the session "for archival purposes only". Imagine my shock when I saw myself appearing to pitch a product I had faith in.

It took several days, but MS finally edited my voice and image out of their commercials.

My bottom line is that I will never again trust anything that comes from Microsoft.

You all may judge for yourselves.

[Mike]

It's disturbing to see Jerry Seinfeld ally himself with Bill Gates. Microsoft is just a spinoff of IBM, the company which used the infamous tattoo numbering system to keep track of the Jews in the concentration camps. And Bill Gates' dad was on the board of Planned Parenthood (a eugenics program). So, is Seinfeld clueless, or is this part of his comedy schtick? Is hobnobbing with Nazis trendy now? Very disappointed. Study your history, Seinfeld.

[SuM]

I love my Macbook but frankly MS > Apple. Apple wouldn't know security if it fell on poor Steve's head. The no show at the last conference and secreacy that surrounds their products and their founder will lead to their fall.

SuM

Sent from a 3G iPhone.

[ethana2]

I'm a human being..

and I use Ubuntu.

[steveballmer]

People, the Gates/Seinfeld ads have not been canceled, they have been stopped. Huge difference! Chris Flores, head of MS marketing or something explains on the Vista Blog:

" So there seems to be the rumor running around that we’re supposedly cancelling our Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld ads tomorrow. I wouldn’t count on anything being “cancelled”. It was always the plan to have Jerry Seinfeld in the first phase of the campaign and not a part of every ad. Instead, our Windows Consumer Campaign is moving into the next phase and we did mention previously that you should expect the campaign to evolve. I’ll direct you to a post by Stuart Elliott of The New York Times to shed some light on what’s next for our ad campaign.
More to come - stay tuned!"

While it is true that we shot ten commercials, we always planned to cut it off at two! We have a long list of celebrities chomping at the bit to work with me and Bill! Eva Longoria is next, after her the Dice-man Clay, then Mel Brooks, .... the list goes on and on .....

[M3]

"The people cast in the ad are all bona fide PC users, in other words. And fair enough that they were "compensated for their time." Still, if you're trying to show how the company embraces normal people, the staginess of it all seems off base. It's supposed to be a bunch of people out in the real world, spontaneously declaring their affection for PCs. But now that we know they were paid, it seems less like a grassroots uprising and more like a paid PR army. They may be fighting a stereotype, but they're fighting it on behalf of a massive corporation."

Tat is the most iditic thing I seen all week!

Are you trying to go after these ads because...GASP.... Microsoft actually paid people for their time?

If they hated Microsoft so much, like apparently the writer of this story, then they would have say no, and told them to shove it.

But despite the fervent hopes of mac users, they didnt. They gave their time, and got paid.

Can you imagine is Microsoft didnt pay them? Then this hack would have been complaining about how Microsoft just used these poor people and couldn't even sport them a nickel.

"Except nobody is watching them so far, at least on YouTube. By my calculation, there are fewer than 10,000 views today for all the copies of the ad that are on the site. There are fewer than 100 comments. Love him or hate him, Seinfeld may have been the draw with the first two. Those ads were both closing in on a 1 million views when they'd been on YouTube as long as "Pride" has now been."

I cant believe you are actually employed by a real newspaper.

DO YOU NOT KNOW HOW MANY COPIES OF THIS AD ARE FLOATING AROUND INDEPENDENT OF ONE CLIP ON ONE SITE?!

And you base yet another silly comment on ONE video, posted on YouTube?

@Arye Michael Bender

If your story is remotely true, which I doubt, then shop it to a news site.

[blinkdt]

I liked the advert.

[MWeurope]

"Hello, I'm Linux"http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wAbBDMWKOpc

[World Travel Guide]

You like these ads or not but the fact is that people are loving these ads, since the telecast of new Microsoft ads people's sentiment and trust in the company has increased according to a study.