KEY POINTS:
There are lots of theories flying around about the pulling of the so-called Seinfeld ads for Microsoft. Yes, they were baffling. Perhaps they were just designed for higher minds than mine, as I didn't get them. New ads have taken their place showing a bunch of really quite
diverse people who tell you they use PCs, and how. Good for them.
Microsoft has stated that the campaign has simply entered Phase 2, as if it was planned all along. Perhaps it was - but spokesperson for Microsoft Frank Shaw stated "People would have been happier if everyone loved the ads, but this was not unexpected." To most, it looks more like a Plan B than a Phase 2.
I didn't get the ads, as I stated at the time. And I loved the TV series Seinfeld, for the record. David Risley of PCMech (no, this is not an Apple site) went further than I did (I'm more sensitive to my readers!). Risley wrote "The ads outright sucked. I saw two of them on the air here in the Tampa Bay market. Neither had any real plot and there was hardly any mention of Microsoft at all. The only thing it accomplished was making Seinfeld and Gates look stupid. I kept thinking it might lead into something, but that is bad marketing on Microsoft's part." Erm, right. Risley also called the Mohave Experiment "asinine," for the record.
That's if the ads have actually been pulled - a Gizmodo article thinks not.
For a long time, Microsoft has created systems for people who were enterprise geeks (according to the FastCompany article linked below, anyway). But the fact is, you don't need a diploma to use a computer and you haven't needed one for a long time. While a few bemoan the fact that computers have become mere appliances, a perennial aim of Apple's, many people in the developed countries simply can't function any more without computers at work - or at home.
This means that for Microsoft to prosper in this changed world, it decided it must be all things to all people - and that's when Jerry Seinfeld got his curtain call.
The ultimate irony may be that the short-lived campaign was created on Macs, by maverick ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
Principal Alex Bogusky is revered in ad circles for reviving struggling brands. Way back, he helped strip the sexy gloss from cigarette smoking with his raw, award-winning 'Truth' campaign then, in 2001, subverted the SUV fad by getting consumers to embrace little cars with his media stunts for the Mini Cooper.
More recently, he resurrected Burger King's 1960s-era King character by turning it into an unlikely icon, which has since done everything from date reality TV pinup Brooke Bourke to appear in his own Xbox video game that has sold 3.5 million copies.
So if you can revere somebody for making people buy stuff they don't need, this is the guy. Woot.
Bogusky is also known for pushing his clients to the edge (you can read more about his exploits at FastCompany). So Microsoft stunned the ad world when, in March, it passed over safe choices like Fallon, JWT, and even its usual agency, McCann Worldgroup, to award its new $300-million consumer-branding campaign to Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
Of course, creative people like to work on Macs. Designers like to use Macs too, and so do those engaged in multimedia. Every ad agency I've ever been to has Macs in the creative departments and many of the advertising execs also prefer them. If ever there were Mac holdouts in the bad years for Apple, it was advertising agencies. And it's the same at CP+B. Bogusky's personal machine is a MacBook Air, and his proteges Keller and Reilly also have MacBook Airs.
In a campaign to get Americans to buy little VW Rabbit cars, CP+B captured digital video using four Mac Minis stored in a Rabbit set up as a free Manhattan taxi. The Minis captured footage and then broadcast it on the Gypsy Cab website.
CP+B's interactive producer for the campaign Marcelino Alvarez suggested the Mac Minis, saying "Most of the company works on Macs and I knew we'd be editing on Final Cut Pro systems."
This was all reported on Apple's Pro website which profiles how people employ Macs in a variety of fields across the US. This page has since been pulled but it's available, cached here.
In charge of the day-to-day workings for the recent Microsoft campaign targeted at Apple, Keller and Reilly started off using their team as an early focus group for learning how to persuade Mac lovers to embrace Windows. Keller said, to interviewer Danielle Sacks of FastCompany, "You've got a lot of passionate Mac people in here, and they've got to get their head around this thing - why Windows is genius."
Sounds like they couldn't. Sacks asked if they were going to make their team get rid of their iPods and PowerBooks. Reilly responded "It's not a matter of forcing people. It's getting them to want to use it. If you can't, you're not going to do great advertising." Right.
An analyst from Gartner was succinct about Crispin's chances: "Crispin probably has one chance to do something big with Microsoft, and if it fails, I think all bets are off for the agency."
Crispin knew the stakes were high. "From the outside, this looks like a strange marriage" said Crispin partner Steinhour. As the FastCompany posting says, "particularly since Crispin has been the Apple of ad agencies."
Well, good luck, Microsoft. There might be a turnaround for the turnaround yet.
