Poll: Seinfeld and Vista, what gives?
News.com Poll
As CNET News reported earlier Thursday, Microsoft has tapped Jerry Seinfeld to star in a $300 million marketing campaign aimed at countering negative perceptions of its oft-maligned Vista operating system.
The comedian, best known for his eponymous NBC sitcom, will reportedly get $10 million for the campaign, which is expected to play off the phrase "Windows, Not Walls," and to stress the connection between people and ideas.
Comedians Will Ferrell and Chris Rock were also considered for the new advertising spots, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported details of the marketing push. The paper said Seinfeld will appear alongside former Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in some ads.
But is a '90s sitcom star really the best celebrity to help make Vista cool? Tell us what you think in our poll. And if Seinfeld shouldn't be the master of the Vista domain, who should be? Let us know in our TalkBack section.
Leslie Katz, senior editor of CNET's Crave, covers gadgets, games, and most other digital distractions. As a co-host of the CNET News Daily Podcast, she sometimes tries to channel Terry Gross. E-mail Leslie.
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I like Jerry though.
Other than that...
maybe Andre Dice Clay?
They got tired of paying Ferrari prices for Pinto parts.
Maybe 10% go back. The rest have been happy with the change.
Also does Microsoft really needs an advertisement for Windows?? I mean what are Dell, HP, and other manufacturers doing when they place the Windows logo in every ad they have?
Even if Windows "sucks", it will needs Apple, Sun, all of Linux distros to put a giant ad campaign, then Microsoft needs to place their own ads on TV
That will take effort and a competent development team that understands how to create a trimmed down, slick OS. MS only puts in an effort when they need marketers to polish their turds, and it is obvious that they don't have the right people in the the right places.
Jerry is an excellent choice. He is very good in revealing subconscious decisions and many people have been doing exactly that when they go for Apple with the ipod-iphone-macbook trio. Apple makes flimsy hardware and poor software with excellent user interface. I am just happy that their strategy of taking the software as prisoner will always keep them from domination of the OS market. Linux is good for us though, I wouldn't mind if it took over.
For example, Rainn Wilson, originally from Woodinville, (20 minutes from Redmond) plays Dwight Schrute on "The Office" would have been a the perfect person on so many levels!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msNbP5QW02U
Self-Proclaimed "Geek" Rainn Speaks at University of Washington:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC-xv-c9poU
For example, Rainn Wilson, originally from Woodinville, (20 minutes from Redmond) plays Dwight Schrute on "The Office" would have been a the perfect person on so many levels!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msNbP5QW02U
Self-Proclaimed "Geek" Rainn Speaks at University of Washington:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC-xv-c9poU
I wish Microsoft would make up its mind: Either decide to fully support Vista, advertise it, repair its reputation, and have a happy product cycle, OR Work your butts off to get Windows 7 up and at least beta testing by 2010 like they are speculating.
I feel like there is a great number of windows users who still cant make up their minds to upgrade or sit on XP till Windows 7. I am one of them, I am not convinced that Vista is really worse than XP when it first came out, BUT I most certainly am not going to plop down money for Vista if a new OS is coming out in half the time that Vista did.
Every time he tries to launch Vista with a new printer, camera or other device we get to hear him say, "Doh!"
In most cases on my machine, it automatically searches the internet and the computer and installs the drivers without any intervention on my part.
That's how it works for a large majority of people using Vista. This guy's roomate's, cousin's, nephew's, next door neighbor couldn't get his dot matrix printer to work though, so he hates Vista.
None at ALL.
The "downgrade to XP" phenomenon is something that Microsoft should really stop and listen to. I also have a new HP tower which came with both XP and Vista install discs. Vista has yet to be installed.
It appears that Vista is an answer to a non-existent request. Users never wanted, it seems, to upgrade the Windows interface to emulate the Mac OS X look.
The Vista eye candy is nice but in a curious way it typifies what went wrong... dealing with surface stuff and not overhauling the system to the degree it needs.
Ironically Microsoft might have done better by throwing out even more legacy stuff, possibly causing more pain on the customer side in the short run.
Apple bit this particular bullet by going to a UNIX-based system, stopping development and eventually compatibility as well with the old stuff... to great outcry at first... but now they have a solid system with a future path.
Since Microsoft seems to be on Apple's heels in the area of user interfaces, maybe they could consider emulating the OS strategy as well... move to some *NIX variant and build a layer for applications to run in.
Ballmer could take $300 million in $1000 bills, pile it in the parking lot in Redmond and it would not make a lick of difference. People will buy PCs at BestBuy and grin and bear it, then borrow XP install discs from Cape Verdean guys that work with their sisters-in-law.
MSFT might as well license clips of Marty Feldman running around like a maniac or just broadcast Ballmer headbutting busses. Everyone knows Vista is worthless. It's like trying to run a promotional campaign for AIDS.
From my experiences, testing on a clean XP system and clean Vista system as well..... the Vista system is anywhere from 10 to 20 times faster than the XP system, in almost all cases, especially with networking. On my old XP MCE system that my parents used, I barely got 50KBps speeds on the internet. Install Vista on the same machine..... 2 MBps speeds and sometimes, even faster than that.
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by sanenazok
August 21, 2008 8:51 PM PDT
- I don't remember a single Vista ad on broadcast media. There may have been one but it could have been for a pc maker. Who is in the commercial doesn't really matter, what matters is whether the ad is well written. The product that it's advertising isn't that important either, everything that's advertised sells better. It's the reason why advertising is done. Apple is really good at marketing (that and denying problems).
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