Microsoft to Cancel Seinfeld/Gates Ads Tomorrow

VALLEYWAG reports:

"Remember those awful Microsoft ads with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? Well, now you can forget them. Microsoft flacks are desperately dialing reporters to spin them about "phase two" of the ad campaign - a phase, due to be announced tomorrow, which will drop the aging comic altogether."

[unsunghero28]

I'm pretty disappointed by this. I don't say that because I'm some xbot or whatever who hungers over everything that Microsoft makes... really. I'm actually a PS3 man meself.

I say it because personally - and maybe I'm just unhip - I actually liked the ads. They had a non-sequitur humor that was funny in a daring sort of way. If nothing else, I felt as though they were just a couple of installments off from really hitting their comedic stride.

Ah well. They are no more.

[okcomputer]

You're not the only one let down by this. I'm a big seinfeld fan, not really the show (although it is good), but moreso of his stand up. I disagree with you in that I think the commercials were terrible, but i would have liked to see them try again with another concept. Gates as a straight man to seinfeld sounded like a really funny idea, shame to see them throw it away completely.

[Breakfast]

Bubbles for you!

And remember to never associate yourself with anything MS, or youll be labeled a robot.

[Killjoy3000]

Be careful using that word in this zone, buddy. Getting banned from the gamer zone for just 3 days sucks.

[The Lazy One]

but they were still entertaining.

[El_Colombiano]

No no Breakfast, not robot, Xbot!

[Cenobia]

I'm actually disappointed as well. I thought the commercials were pretty funny, but I guess I can see why they removed them. They told us nothing about Microsoft products, it just seemed to be advertising that "Microsoft isn't as evil as you think."

Really this was a nice reprieve from some of the other commercials that insist on insulting my intelligence. I'd personally strangle each and every person involved in making those video game college ads.

At least they were funny while they lasted.

[unsunghero28]

is that they weren't really meant to advertise any specific Microsoft product. Lord knows that Microsoft has done a fine job of advertising their products with ads such as the Windows Mojave Experiment or their "Jump In" series. They were just meant to combat the nerdy image that was being given to them in Apple's "I'm a Mac" commercials.

But from the 1 Agree and 7 Disagrees currently on my first comment, I'm getting the vibe that they didn't succeed in that goal.

-Edit-
Got to it before I could, 1.6. =)

[Millah]

LMFAO this whole thing has been so terrible its hilarious. The only winner here is Jerry, does he still recieve his 10 million? I mean I thought it was pathetic enough that they actually created these series of ads and spent all that money, but I can't believe they managed to make themselves look even more pathetic and third-rate. The only thing the commercials showed everyone is that they really are out of touch, this just seals the deal, I like how the ads even emphasize it. Man this is all just so priceless.

@unsung heroe: Wait...did you actually just say they did a fine job advertising their products with the Mojave Experiment? Wow...

[BrianC6234]

I don't hate the ads but I also don't get them. I can't even remember what the ad is about. Well, I remember Bill Gates doing The Robot. And Jerry tells him to power down. Is the ad about doing some dancing?

Besides, isn't Jerry Seinfeld a Mac guy?

[Leord]

I am of the opinion that the second one of these was terrific. I never saw the first one, but I thought it was brilliant.

It wasn't a commercial for Vista (thank GOD!), it was funny, and they took a bit of a piss out of themselves. I thought it was golden comedy.

There really is no other way to show them as "human" either. I am sad they stopped it.

[SnprSlick]

The first was meh. The second one was hilarious.

It's sad to see the wont build on it.

[xhairs9]

and the second one was still meh...

[IzKyD1331]

the first sucked, the second sucked

[juuken]

Good.
They sucked.

Let me say it a little louder.

THEY SUCKED.

I've seen better commercials than this.

[ThatCanadianGuy]

haha.I knooooowwww everytime i see one of those commercials it just leaves me confused and very un-happy.

[KiddyBrownTurd]

wait, u guys actually watch TV? LMFAO. that's sad.

[juuken]

...Isn't it time for you to be in school kiddy?
I mean...so you can learn some common sense for a change?

[KiddyBrownTurd]

why go back to school? I have a Bachelor's degree.

poor TV-watching monkey

[juuken]

...And you act like a five year old?
I have a Bachelor's Degree as well.

[ELite_Ghost]

any retard can get a bachelor, u prob took psychology! the easiest sh!t ever!

[Spread Butt Cheeks]

Juuken, you are disgusting. Stop sitting on your fatass all day and hit the gym.

[SlappyMcTaint]

Microsoft trying to be cool is like hearing your parents say, "for shizzle."

[KiddyBrownTurd]

yeah, but you watch TV. So........

[juuken]

And you troll so...

[air1]

yea they did suck. now they just gata fire the ppl that made it with my money..

[Panthers]

they didnt make any sense.

[The Lazy One]

have you never seen an episode of seinfeld?

[Raziel McGee]

and my god how they are terrible, just not that funny

[silverchode]

good news.

[unsunghero28]

And with 4 agrees?!

I mean... why is it GOOD news? Had the ads not been cancelled, you wouldn't have to watch them if you didn't want to. And if you really hate MS (as, from your comments http://www.n4g.com/up/42964... I get the feeling you do) then while some of us could enjoy the ads, you would get to see see Microsoft gradually bury itself in a PR ditch.

Everybody wins.

-EDIT-
Everybody, of course, except for MS fans who also didn't like the ads... they fall into that lovely double-loss middle section of my little venn diagram. They're also proooobably the people who are giving me disagrees.

Whoops.

[silverchode]

you take things to seriously.

[Nasty]

I always considered Seinfeld to be a Jewish Sinbad. Not funny. Ever.

[Liquid_Ocelot]

Bubbles

[poeo]

to each their own. i LOVE seinfeld (the series and the man).

[wetowel]

what a waste of money...

[unsunghero28]

Windows Vista is ALSO a waste of money!

HA!

...

*nervous cough*

[beavis4play]

thank all that's good those commercials are dead. they were unfunny and painful to watch. i didn't think they could make one worse than the first....but the second one proved me wrong. 300 million sure doesn't buy much anymore.

[unsunghero28]

Let's give MS a break here.

I mean... it's not like Sony's PR department has been hugely successful either. The thumb-penis comes to mind...

...I just realized how weird it sounds to say "the thumb-penis comes to mind..."

[EvilCackle]

Should've signed up Dave Chapelle for the ads. I feel like we're getting to the point where Seinfeld's not really that big of a draw - we're what, a decade removed from the sitcom going off the air? Get someone who hasn't already done these types of advertisements.

[unsunghero28]

He would be awesome.

Or maybe Steve Carell?

Those two are genius improvisationalists and actors. And each one, coincidentally, stars in "The Office" of his respective country. They would make sense because they're both associated with a Windows-dominated office environment already.

[x THE CHEETAH x]

Yeah, as much as I like Seinfeld (and I actually liked these commercials... a little) it seems MS could've created more effective marketing with another personality with more recent popularity. I wonder if a Dane Cook/Bill Gates combo would've been good...

However, by using Jerry, I imagine they had a certain demographic to which they were targeting... a demographic that's old enough to remember enjoying the Seinfeld shows and also old enough to be purchasing new computers/software/etc.

[x THE CHEETAH x]

Good call on Steve Carell... He'd be hilarious with Bill. Good call...

[The Lazy One]

not exactly anyway. They picked him because he's so financially successful. And not just because someone paid him a lot of money, because he invested it well and made good business decisions throughout his career. It was to try to show the company as regular people, while at the same time making fun of the fact that they're not regular people.

[SKUD]

I thought the commercials were pretty funny. They will be missed. "Your not so REAL" hahahaha...

[BubblesDAVERAGE]

GIVE ME MY BUBBLES BACK>>>>><&l t;<<

[tplarkin7]

I liked the ads. Seeing the worlds richest man at a shoe store is funny.

[Sitdown]

I don't remember seeing Warren Buffett in the commercial.

Anyways.....I can not think of too many people in general that staring in a commercial would help sell Microsoft products....I mean this is not like celebrities and shoe companies or clothing lines.

[cereal_killa]

@ tplarkin7

He's now the 3rd richest man. The commercials were not that funny,I never found Jerry Seinfeld funny to begin with.

[Baka-akaB]

console war , asides , it was some pretty awful ads , and i'm usually a seinfeld fan , and looked forward to those .

[Adamalicious]

I like Seinfeld, but Valley Wag put it well when they said that theses ads just go to prove how out of touch with its consumers Microsoft is. Obviously the point of the commercials is to improve Microsoft's image, make them seem "hip". Problem is, Microsoft is "the man" and when "the man" uses a comedian who was at the height of his popularity 10+ years ago and Bill Gates butt-wiggles to tell you that they are, in fact, cool, you know, just like Apple. Well, that's a pretty hard sell.

I don't expect much better from "phase two".

[The Lazy One]

Jeese... if they wanted to look hip they'd get some techno music with an abstract representation of their product that flashed various features to the beat.

They wanted to look unhip. "give me a little robot if yes" that just screams that they're going for the teenage crowd...

[GarandShooter]

Techno is hip?

[GameForFame]

Loving the responses...I myself am not surprised, I thought they were garbage, the main response to these ads were somewhat similar....I don't care if your a PS3/360 fan...the ads were terrible.

[Lionsguard]

Come eat me I'm a delicious pizza.

[Adamalicious]

Now that's how you make a commercial!

[Rob Hornecker]

I actually thought they were pretty funny!A heck of alot better than alot of the crap ad's out there. "I got my power chair with no cost to me" comes to mind!

[lnfinite]

hahahahaha

[lalapin]

come on ,why stop this , i need some jokes

[Captain Tuttle]

I kind of liked them

[NanoGeekTech]

The WORST commercial in the world.....at least the top ten...

Funny is falling face first in fresh pile dog $hit...or maybe someone with a little gonorrhea on there lips...

Actually the Jerry & Bill commercials..is almost like falling in a pile of fresh dog $hit face first with a little gonorrhea on your lips....I would have to retract my statement above.....its not funny at all...

[kingme71]

The 2nd commercial had its moments, especially if you watched the full 5 minutes on YouTube.

[TheDuke77]

I thought both ads were hilarious, I think I liked the first one better but both cracked me right up.

[Kinetix]

They should've got george carlin instead.

[strotee]

That would be a tad difficult.

[mmike855]

Loved them, especially the "new family" one. Not quite like commercials, more like mini-shows, which is one reason why I thought they rocked. There is real-people charm in here, in everyday stuff. You don't see that often, especially in a computer commercial. No there wasn't a "think different" or a guy standing in the middle of the abyss of a white background. There were people in real settings (the grandma! hilarious!) talking about real things. That's what makes it so funny! Microsoft isn't making fun of the Mac as much as they are poking good fun at themselves, and the charm shows! Good will to all, the commercial seemed to say, and the tiny clip of the microsoft logo seemed only a footnote, making the importance of the commercial that much greater. Its like Microsoft is saying "We aren't full of ourselves!" Great job with the commercial.

[mmike855]

George Carlin has passed away, and I loved that guy. Seinfeld was a good choice because you don't see him around a lot today, but everyone knows who he is, and that his show was one of the most popular sitcoms in history, making the little nuances of life funny, if not mildly amusing. Matching him with Bill Gates was perfect, because you don't see Bill Gates around much at all either, and yet his monolith presence has been known for decades. They work well together because they are both muted, quirky, and Bill Gates is known as a charming, yet understated man. If you put two completely different actors in a sequence trying to live out these skits, you wouldn't have the interesting chemistry of this commercial, you would have had the storytelling ads from GEICO.

[Blink_44]

Thank god!

[CarnageXB]

Guess what. They weren't canceled.

http://gizmodo.com/5051682/...

[mfwahwah]

Whew. I hated those lame ads. Thank you MS.

[rawd]

infinite commercial floppery

[snoopgg]

give me a little dance if you are ever going to make a console that actually works. Cool dance Bill, but I think your lying.

[Maddens Raiders]

I'd rather watch marathons of Oxy-clean & Super Putty info-mercials than this crap. Get it off the air already.

[Raoh]

the ads were stupid. made no sense to the common consumer whom ads are targeted to.

seinfeld as a spoke person would have made sense when the show as aired.

a good comback to the ads if they continued was showing seinfeld show clips.. where all the computers used were mainly macs.

most importantly, outside of the seinfeld show with the entire cast working together and larry david behind it........ jerry seinfeld is just not funny... at all.. not even a little bit...

[Kyur4ThePain]

Hi. Billy Mays here, for Windows Vista.

But wait...

[-_-]

[[microsoft are such failures]]