VANITY FAIR ON THE CANCELLED MICROSOFT CAMPAIGN

I was emailed yesterday by Vanity Fair for comment about the new Microsoft campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates that was pulled earlier this week. I'm particularly pleased that Vanity Fair is embracing our industry - Advertising - because advertising is on the rise, is defining culture, and a more influential industry than the entertainment industry. V cool.

Here is the email I sent back.

"I commend Microsoft on their decision to be bold, to do the unexpected. However, people have been frustrated with Microsoft and they are now being asked to bear with an advertising plan that takes time to get to the point. There's an assumption in this campaign that people will put in the effort to go down the rabbit hole. People just don't have the time today to wait out a brand idea. To find out where it's going. A brand that makes an assumption that people care, are making a mistake. I see a campaign, I don;t know where it's going, I'm busy and I move on. I find the films amusing, just not particularly engaging. I don't have the time to invest, to find out where they are going. I get a vague notion they are trying to warm the brand up, but they aren't making any key points for the brand. They also end up being spots about Jerry Seinfeld not Microsoft."

Here is the Vanity Fair article.

Error Message: Are You Sure Want to Quit this Ad Campaign?
by Cassandra Handley

Recent Microsoft advertisements featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld were such a flop that the computing giant stripped the spots from the airwaves. But just how bad were the commercials? VF Daily asked seven advertising experts what they thought about the short-lived Windows campaign.

Comments

[Denise]

Good analysis, Scott -- I would add that it seems the objective of the campaign is to make Microsoft seem cool -- but we don't need, or want, to think Microsoft is cool -- we want to know its products work, its service is helpful, and it is innovating new platforms that will make our lives better.

Running a campaign to make Microsoft seem cool is about as pointless as the communications effort the government undertook a few years ago to try to win over people in Muslim-dominant countries. If the U.S. (and Microsoft) does things in the best interest of the people it is trying to serve, their hearts and minds will follow.