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Mon, Dec 01, 2008 - 02:32 PM EST  —  AAPL: 91.09 (-1.58, -1.7%)  |  NASDAQ: 1441.14 (-94.43, -6.15%)

See if you can figure out the first Bill Gates + Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft ad (with video)
Friday, September 05, 2008 - 08:24 AM EST

YouTuber "Zenophobius" has posted the first Bill Gates + Jerry Seinfeld commercial, "Shoe Circus."


Direct link via YouTube here.

[Attribution: Gizmodo. Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers "ChrissyOne" and "RadDoc" for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Take: Get a Mac. And hurry!

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Reader Feedback: ( = registered)

Sep 05, 08 - 07:29 am Comment from: Jumbo

O M G!!!!! WTF WAS THAT?????? They CAN'T be serious! Great take MDN!! Spot on.

MDN MW=court as in MS isn't even on thee same one as Apple, never mind in the game.

Sep 05, 08 - 07:30 am Comment from: DanielM

If the shoe fits,…

Sep 05, 08 - 07:31 am Comment from: Brash

Huh?!?
that was a complete waste of 1:30

Sep 05, 08 - 07:33 am Comment from: Tiger

They expect to sell Windows with THAT?!?!

Sep 05, 08 - 07:34 am Comment from: Cubert

I am happy to announce that 8 years ago today I became a Mac user. It was on this day - Sept. 5th 2000 - that I bought my Cube (my first computer and still my only desktop). Before that point in time, I hated "computers" because all I knew was Windoze. It was my friend, Art, who showed me the light.

Thanks Art!

And who knows how long my Cube will run faithfully and flawlessly....

Sep 05, 08 - 07:34 am Comment from: Regulatory

Brilliant! When the aliens see this video taken from the time capsule, they will be disoriented and leave our galaxy.

Sep 05, 08 - 07:37 am Comment from: DentArthurDent

Note the Apple storefront at the very beginning....

The commercial had almost no point. Very Seinfeld. I guess the followup commercials will try to get to the point where Vista is, in Bill's view, very usable.

Weak.

Sep 05, 08 - 07:38 am Comment from: JAYGEE

That was awful, simply awful. gulp

Sep 05, 08 - 07:40 am Comment from: ron

Jerry Seinfeld is happy. He's making money. The other guy? Well, he's retired.

Sep 05, 08 - 07:40 am Comment from: Centris 650

Um...Am I supposed to want to buy shoes?

And man, Gates looks old now!

Sep 05, 08 - 07:42 am Comment from: Sixvodkas

I'd expected the new adverts to be lame, but I had no idea!

Funny?
Not.
Informative?
Not.
Well acted?
Not.

Pointless?
Decide for yourself.

Sep 05, 08 - 07:44 am Comment from: Apple Pi

Is there a commercial in there for Windows? I thought it was a Saturday Night Live skit. How could it be more pointless? I mean it was cute and all, but damn, that was a long way to go with no sell till the end.

Maybe the next commercial leverages that? Who let's this stuff leave the table?

Sep 05, 08 - 07:45 am Comment from: jeffv

The only part of it I enjoyed was that they used bill's mug shot for the credit card. As the start of an ad campaign, I can't figure out how this will possibly help win over consumers.

Sep 05, 08 - 07:45 am Comment from: One guy from Finland

That ad is so windows. Boring, unsexy, gray, slow....

That ad hits the all time low. How many millions did they spend to this shit?

Sep 05, 08 - 07:46 am Comment from: apple fan

If this were an apple commercial with Jerry Seinfeld and Steve Jobs everyone would be raving about how funny and clever it is....

Sep 05, 08 - 07:46 am Comment from: TMAN

What the hell was that????

Sep 05, 08 - 07:46 am Comment from: Investor

It made total sense to me:

When you're satisfied with buying cheap lower quality shoes, you're satisfied with making cheap lower quality software.

that was the message, right?

Sep 05, 08 - 07:47 am Comment from: ChrissyOne

This ad held my interest slightly longer than Bee Movie, but that's not saying a lot. The Mexican family was the only thing approaching comedy I saw, even if it was a stale stab at Jerry's salad days.

Jerry, just stop. I don't know when it happened, but you have to face it - you're just not funny any more. It's true. But don't let it get you down. It happens to the best of us. Ask Eddie Murphy.

Bill. You were perfect.

>.<

I'm telling you. Barad Dûr.

-c

Sep 05, 08 - 07:47 am Comment from: Jamie

Worst
Ad
Ever

My $0.02

Sep 05, 08 - 07:49 am Comment from: Rob

OM(F'n)G!

Sep 05, 08 - 07:51 am Comment from: Murasaki

Umm.. I read a review on this at another site and I thought, naw. It can't be that bad.

It was worse.

Sep 05, 08 - 07:54 am Comment from: Cubert

C1 lives!!!

Guess you've been hard at work on CS4, huh?

Sep 05, 08 - 07:56 am Comment from: master cylinder

Easy. It's a reference to taking the conquistador (windows) up the ass.

Sep 05, 08 - 07:57 am Comment from: Cubert

Anyone else notice the picture on Bill Gates ID is the mugshot from when he got arrested for speeding (and I think not having a license or an expired one) in New Mexico many years ago?

Google it.

Sep 05, 08 - 07:59 am Comment from: Metryq

The ad had no, er, sole?

Sep 05, 08 - 07:59 am Comment from: Macromancer

Happy anniversary Cubert!.

Still love the Cube. Still going strong.

Sep 05, 08 - 08:00 am Comment from: hagar57

Rob, my first thought exactly! This is what they plan to spend 300 million dollars on? Way to go!
I begin to suspect that the real Gates and Ballmer have been secretly replaced with cyborgs, engineered by the crafty Mr. Ive, and designed to run MS into the ground.

Sep 05, 08 - 08:00 am Comment from: Harvey

Jerry Seinfeld's show was about nothing, so I'm not surprised this ad is about nothing either. Apparently this is the first in the series of ads that have a story line and the teaser is Bill Gates wiggling his posterior, though that was barely discernable. I'm in suspense <yawn> to see what happens <yawn> next. Goodness, this ad is nap-inducing.

Judging from Jerry Seinfeld's obsequious step-n-fetch-it style wide-eyed fawning over Bill Gates, as if Bill were a celebrity and Jerry were not, he must have been hard up for cash.

Sep 05, 08 - 08:01 am Comment from: Dev Singh

"If this were an apple commercial with Jerry Seinfeld and Steve Jobs everyone would be raving about how funny and clever it is...."

Huh?!
Stupid comment. Apple wouldn´t air such an ad in the first place, and if so the critique would have been wy harsher then when it´s from MS...

Sep 05, 08 - 08:06 am Comment from: wings2Sky

Bill Gates. He's not John Hodgman! He's cool! He hangs out with Jerry Seinfeld for crying out loud!
And it's a commercial about nothing! Isn't that cool? Like the first Infinity commercial. Kind of baits you and holds you waiting for the point. And while your mind is sooo open, waiting, hungry, they toss you the nugget - Windows - delicious!
Oh, this is pure marketing genius!
Bill Gates - he's cool, he's hip, he gets it, he's not elitist, he's one of us, and he has a super brain that melds with the cosmos...
I'm dumping all my apple stock and buying M$! This is HUGE!

Sep 05, 08 - 08:06 am Comment from: madgunde

That was pretty funny. But I really don't see it helping sell Windows. I guess the idea is to deflect attention away from Windows and just promote the brand image? But the image I get from this is, "Don't take us seriously".

Best Microsoft ad ever. I love it and hope they do a whole bunch more.

Sep 05, 08 - 08:08 am Comment from: HMCIV

I am forever emotionally scarred. I want to bite my own head. And that was before Jerry said:

...chewy computers you can eat while you work... give me a sign with just your shorts.

Now I'll spend the rest of my life cowering in a dark library corner.

Sep 05, 08 - 08:09 am Comment from: Andy

Well, this ad certainly fits Bill Gates's sense of humor, which also means it's virtually undecipherable by anyone else.

Was the ad's message saying Windows 7 will be edible or what?

Sep 05, 08 - 08:09 am Comment from: bjh

You guys are missing the point. This ad has nothing to do with selling Vista or anything else. What they're *trying* to do - and failing miserably, so far - is to change people's perception of Microsoft. Instead of an autocratic, cold, ruthless company, Microsoft is - well maybe not cool, like Apple, but - warm and fuzzy...
This is all to do with hearts and minds, and trying to reduce the level of hostility many people feel towards Microsoft.

I imagine there will be a whole series of these 'funny' commercials...

Sep 05, 08 - 08:10 am Comment from: Mr. Reeee

O-KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

That's one way to rip through a heap-o-cash.
Keep churnin' 'em out Microsoft.

I love the smell of desperation in the morning...

Sep 05, 08 - 08:11 am Comment from: Cubert

@apple fan,
No we wouldn't. Dumb is dumb.

@macromancer,
Thanks! You have a Cube, too, or you just admire it?

Sep 05, 08 - 08:16 am Comment from: ED

To quote David Ogilvy, Advertising Guru:

"When the client moans and sighs make his logo twice the size,
If the client proves refractory, show a picture of his factory,
Only in the direst cases, show the client's faces".

This ad has Microsoft meddling written all over it. As visually confused as a Bill Gates PowerPoint presentation.

Sep 05, 08 - 08:16 am Comment from: Births and Deaths

MICROSOFT

5.9.08

Beloved child of Bill and Melinda. Much loved relative of Uncle Steve. Passed away peacefully in Redmond. Will be missed by I.T. managers everywhere.

No flowers please - just donations to the Zune project.

Sep 05, 08 - 08:20 am Comment from: The Muffin Man

... or could it mean that MS are going to introduce a bonus-point system to try to get people to stay with Windows.

Sep 05, 08 - 08:22 am Comment from: cookie

we all need to change shoes once in a while ?

Sep 05, 08 - 08:23 am Comment from: jjjj

FAIL.

Sep 05, 08 - 08:24 am Comment from: Forrest, Forrest Gump

Let's see. BG is in a cheap store buying cheap shoes that doesn't fit. JS help him and advice to untight them by fold several times and to shower the shoes so they can fit (though when they get dry they became ugly, stinky and disasemble) and then, BG is proud he belongs to the Clown Club (Is he the president there or what?).
Very windoze! Never works out of the box.
You have to fold the computer several times, shower it, wait it to dry and then...
Discard it!

Stupid is as stupid does.

big surprise

Sep 05, 08 - 08:27 am Comment from: BigmacX

Totally Clueless and pointless!

Sep 05, 08 - 08:28 am Comment from: critic

WTF

The only thing that could possibly describe this ad.

Sep 05, 08 - 08:30 am Comment from: shen

"Jerry, just stop. I don't know when it happened, but you have to face it - you're just not funny any more. It's true. But don't let it get you down. It happens to the best of us."

any more? when was he funny?

the great part about this ad is that the next time someone says "apple needs to do better ads, they need to show blah blah blabbity blah blah etc...." you can just hit them over the head with this until they submit!

Sep 05, 08 - 08:34 am Comment from: Randian

For those of us still using our Cubes . . . resistance was futile. We were (and remain) happily assimilated.

Sep 05, 08 - 08:34 am Comment from: JRA

Lets see, they are comparing Windows Vista, an allegedly lower cost alternative to the never mentioned OS X to shopping at an annoying discount shoe retailer. Anyone ever been in a Shoe Carnival.

The only truth here is that Windows Vista and Shoe Carnival are equally annoying.

Sep 05, 08 - 08:35 am Comment from: shen

remember all the comments about "why not use the 300 million to improve windows?"

if you think this ad is a better investment than paying your software developers to do better work, what does that say about the quality of your software team?

Sep 05, 08 - 08:36 am Comment from: Grifterus

OK, watching that makes me more stupid by the minute....

I swear my intelligence hurts at this point.

And I'm not the brightest guy....

Sep 05, 08 - 08:37 am Comment from: ChrissyOne

@ Cubert

Yes. And PSE and PRE and PS.com/express. It's been grueling.

-c

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