I Just Do Not Get It

And, unlike many of my brethren, I like a lot of Microsoft's products.

I did not care for the TV show Seinfeld, and so maybe I just do not care about commercials that are about nothing.

Microsoft pays Seinfeld $10 million dollars to participate in $300 million dollars worth of ads to make Microsoft hip (kind of like Apple).  But, I tend to think there is a big difference in being viewed as hip and just plain idiotic.  Who wants to buy hardware and software from a company that comes across in this commercial as just plain retarded?  It is not cool to be stupid.

Besides, Microsoft will always have problems being seen as the new, sleek, uber cool tech for the simple reason that, unlike Apple, Microsoft does not control the end product produced with its software, as does Apple.  That has great benefit and a few drawbacks.  One of the drawbacks is that you are going to rely on third parties and lazy non-techies, like me, to pull the pieces together.

I guess the TV spot goes some distance to humanize Bill Gates, but I would think that he is better served allowing his actions through the Gates Foundation do that.

View the first spot for yourself.  It aired during the recent Giants and Redskins game.

Comments

[PerGynt]

You must be having an Andy Rooney moment. I think that's hilarious.

[Ken Doran]

I like Seinfeld, and I thought the spot was entertaining and did indeed humanize Gates; but it struck me as a riff with no clear point otherwise. BTW, my view of Gates (and by extension Microsoft) is that he spotted a new type of monopoly that the law could not effectively reach, and expoited it spectacularly; a business triumph for the ages. But I think his net contribution to society (pre-philanthropy) is minimal and perhaps negative. We would all have been better off with more Linux-type open standards from the start of the personal computer era.