Jerry Seinfeld And Bill Gates' Microsoft Ads Being Pulled

Microsoft is preparing to pull its TV ads featuring comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft's co-founder and chairman Bill Gates.

Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw said the end of the Seinfeld ads was planned well in advance, and wasn't coming in response to any criticism of the spots. "All along we said we were having a teaser campaign," he said. "We're getting ready to start the second phase. This was the plan all along."

The news, broken this afternoon by Valleywag, comes just days after Microsoft aired the latest in the series of commercials, produced by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, featuring the two men in comic situations. The ads have been largely panned as a strained effort on the software giant's part to not only promote Windows but also portray Microsoft as cool and in touch with regular consumers -- basically, to counter the stodgy image painted in Apple's "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads.

Seinfeld, who reportedly received $10 million for his efforts, was a superstar in the 1990s with his hit show. Using him now, in 2008, only added to Microsoft's image as being behind the times, critics said.

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Comments

[jonip2211]

I thought they were very endearing, especially when this week Gates was again named wealthiest man in America. It cracks me up to see him trying on shoes at the discount shoe store (as if), and showing his frequent shopper card complete with 1980 photo. Bill Gates has seemed like an inaccessible icon at times, but these commercials were obviously trying to debunk that myth. I think they were great, and am sorry we won't be seeing more in the future, who knows where they could have gone with these. He might become the next Dave Thomas (Wendy's founder who made down home folksy commercials for many years, for those youngsters who will ask "Who's Dave Thomas?').
Jerry Seinfeld is a very funny addition, and probably enjoys having something to do these days as he retired much too early IMHO.

I hope Microsoft reconsiders, I think they were brilliant.

[SD leaker]

M$ is pathetic. A company that throws $300 million, just for this, should not exist. Use linux or solaris to free the world from this horror.

[newunderground]

Hard to believe Microsoft paid pefectly good money for those lousy ads.

[jalyn]

I like how ads are trying to connect with the little man. God bless the little man!

[GaiasChild]

I too like the ads. They are funny and endearing and God/Goddess knows Bill Gates needs a little endearingment after the way his compulsion for competition has seared the technological landscape. Nobody doesn't hate Windows. Nobody doesn't remember how it was more or less stolen from Apple. Just coz you rule the world doesn't mean people like it. Now Gates is better and more endearing for giving away money almost as fast as he earns it. But his true spiritual challenge would appear to be to learn to share authority, play fair, give collaboration and not just charity.

[Danilo Gurovich]

I was watching the ad and my TV Crashed.

[herhonor]

good one...now our TV's will be hijacked by about.blan­k

[MIKEinNYC]

I like the ad. I like Windows. I hate when Windows messes up, which is infrequently but what I really hate is Apple. Overpriced. Architecture is closed so that it's hard for independent hardware and software producers to make stuff of Apple. They try to hog the entire market for themselves. It's hard and expensive to get stuff for it. Remind me, what's the good part?

Oh yeah, it does graphics well. Well, I don't do graphics. I do text. PC's are just fine and don't cost and arm and a leg.

[oregondemgrl]

Don't be a hater. Have you tried a Mac? I have to LOL about Apple hogging the market. Microsoft is still the biggest guy in the game.

But the good part of the Mac - everything! No drivers, no viruses, they just work. That is a novel concept.

[LEFT-TURN-AHEAD]

They seemed so out of touch that it was insulting.

[picacho]

Good riddance! I like Seinfield, but give these ads a rest. Its what Microsoft gets for laying Vista on U.S.

[SaraPulis]

What a shame! I liked these ads. I hate Windows, but I like these ads. Maybe Microsoft would do well to create some features for their operating system which Apple didn't come out with a couple years before them? 'Yadgets': what were they thinking?

[Sundialsvc4]

(Shrug...)

Not bad, but about "4 minutes too long" and "1 minute too long," respectively.

Bill and Jerry are both at the point where they can do whatever-the-hell they want to do with the rest of their lives, and if being an actor for about 6 minutes (and $10 million...­) is what they want to do, "go for it."

But Apple can give me in just 30 seconds a clever, tight ad featuring 4 gorgeous cheerleaders (one of whom does a free-standing back flip!) that is actually memorable. :-D

[ScapeGoat]

Here is the solution:

Buy a Mac which can run the Mac OS, Unix, Linux, and Vista. You get the best of all worlds in one machine!

[AmandaBC]

Can I get a latest-generation quad-core mac loaded with RAM for a grand or less?
Of course not.

Not to mention Photoshop CS4 will never run in native 64-bit on a mac (that's what Adobe officially said...), meaning you'll only be able to access 2gb at a time, no matter how much RAM you have. Quite a waste...

Good reason to ignore the overpriced and underperforming mac for everyone, except mac cultists, who believe buying a mac somehow makes them better human beings...

Oh, and BTW, there is no Photoshop CS4 for Linux and there will never be one.

Case closed.

[Driver125]

10 Million Dollars!?!? Someone is laughing all of the way to the bank.

[ccice9]

I liked the ads. The Mac ads remind me of mudslinging political ads, and don't we have enough of that already?

[rmreddicks]

Not that it matters, but I seem to recall Seinfeld had a Mac on his desk in some episodes of his show.

[stepintothelight]

Many different Mac's in ALL of the episodes in his apartment.