You can see "Shoe Circus" over on YouTube. This is the first ad produced from Microsoft's $10 million dollar contract with Jerry Seinfeld, and while I didn't have very high expectations (Jerry's day has come and gone), this ad fails to meet even my meager expectations.
The ad features Jerry interacting with Bill Gates in a shoe store, helping Bill buy a pair of shoes. About the only reference to computers or software is a tangential gag line at the end concerning edible computers. The ad works to humanize Bill, as if he has some horrible personal reputation that is in need of rehabilitation prior to a run for public office.
But he doesn't, and neither is he a charismatic visionary like Steve Jobs, so it's puzzling that Microsoft would make its former CEO the focus and face of the ad. The ad is more appropriate for a new company with a personable CEO that's trying to enhance its brand identity. Again, this isn't Microsoft, either, so I'm left very puzzled as to what Microsoft is trying to achieve. ("The softer side of Microsoft"?)
The ad campaign needs to address the very real issues surrounding the poor adoption of Vista and Microsoft's inability to be more than a minor player in Internet-era technologies like search and online advertising.
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