I RATE ADS

jtherkal: Part two of this mysterious campaign is hitting the airwaves. The above video is actually a 4+ minute webisode, which is miles better than the initial shoe store commercial (F). Whether this one works when cut down to :30 or :60 remains to be seen. You start to get a glimpse of the direction they might be taking with this campaign–trying to humanize Gates and Microsoft, make it seem like Vista is designed with average people in mind. I don’t know if I’m buying it.

Rumor has it, the next spot released in this campaign is going to pay off this setup. The expectations are rocket-ship high for Crispen to nail this, so I’m expecting the payoff to be brilliant; otherwise this’ll be seen as a monumental failure. I don’t know why they didn’t start with this one, the family makes it way more likable. C+.

sjbooher: I’m writing this after seeing 30 seconds… you know, the standard length of an ad? And why would I watch more? There is deafening silence, no jokes, and nothing interesting going on. Seinfeld is still not funny so far, and Bill Gates is still boring. And the rest of that family is absurdly boring. The only interesting aspect is that one of the newspaper guys from the best television show ever made, The Wire, is the dad. F.

sjbooher: Update: I made it through the whole thing. Guess what? There is still nothing being advertised, and they have not even piqued my interest. I don’t care what’s next and I hope never have to see anything else in this series ever again. The “joke-in-the-can” robot dance was halfway funny, maybe, but if I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen the “nerdy white guy does the robot” joke, I’d be… Bill Gates. Still and F.

jtherkal: Ever since CP+B won the Vista account, perhaps almost a year ago, the ad world has been buzzing. What genius concept will come out of the hottest shop on earth for a brand with one of the worst reputations on earth. So you can imagine how utterly and entirely baffled I was when this piece of garbage hit the air. Pointless, boring, horribly written. Did Seinfeld write his own material? Did someone forget to do quality control? The jokes are bad, the acting is typically Seinfeld bad. I can’t really think of anything about this that I like. The jokes they make at the end, about the cake computer and then Bill Gates shaking his shorts? All I can do is shake my head.

The only possible silver lining is that Crispen probably has some sort of twist up their sleeve. Something like, “Look at that commercial. You thought it was terrible, but look at this new version of it, look at how good it is. It’s just like Vista, it can get better.” Or maybe their point is that you can’t judge something by its reputation alone. Like thinking that putting Seinfeld in a commercial would make it funny. “We heard that people would really like a commercial where Seinfeld and Bill Gates meet in a shoe store. So we just went ahead and made it. I guess you have to try it before you can really judge.” Either way, unless the punchline is solid gold–or at least has something to do with why this ad sucks–this can’t possibly get anything better than a D-.

sjbooher: Full discretion alert. As a software engineer, I despise Windoze. As a lover of comedy, I am not in Jerry Seinfeld’s demographic. I will not be changing my Facebook status to contradict either of those facts any time soon. This is boring, un-funny and does not really advertise anything. On top of that, it’s annoying with that cringe-worthy hip twist from Gates at the end. Whose idea was it to feature one of the most non-engaging men ever to walk the Earth in a minute-and-a-half ad? To whom does this even appeal? The ironic part is that is exactly like Windows products — bulky, over-priced and crappy. Guess they went for a little truth in advertising? F.