In an effort to jazz up its image, Microsoft Corp. is hiring Jerry Seinfeld, the 54-year-old comedian whose last starring role ended 10 years ago.
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Seinfeld, who is now seen mostly in Seinfeld reruns and the occasional animated feature (2007’s Bee Movie), is Microsoft’s response to Apple’s popular Get a Mac advertising campaign, which paints Microsoft as the older, conservative and less hip choice.
Jerry Seinfeld
Ads featuring Seinfeld are scheduled to debut Sept. 4. Bill Gates will also be part of the new campaign, created by the Miami-based firm, Crispin Porter + Bogusky. The company will spend $300 million on the ads.
Microsoft’s ads had previously been done by McCann Erickson. While the firm will stay on to create ads for Microsoft products like Xbox, major advertising for the company will be done by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, which is also behind Burger King’s ads.
Microsoft has carefully considered Seinfeld as its newest spokesperson. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company also considered Will Ferrell and Chris Rock, but settled on Seinfeld because the comedian still ranks highly in consumer appeal, according to marketing company Davie-Brown. Microsoft will pay Seinfeld $10 million.
Microsoft wanted a celebrity who wouldn’t be a “flash in the pan,” and wouldn’t make the company look too obvious in its attempt to attract younger consumers.
But some may see its choice of Seinfeld as helping to illustrate Apple’s major advertising contention. In the Get a Mac ads, John Hodgman plays the part of the PC, the suit-wearing, un-cool, and older counterpart to Justin Long’s hip portrayal of the Mac.
Ironically, Hodgman is 17 years younger than Seinfeld.
Microsoft also plans to combat the negative portrayal of Microsoft’s newest operating system, Vista, in the Mac ads.
Microsoft’s new campaign will show video clips of consumers voicing their satisfaction with Vista after a blind test during which the consumers are told they are using a product called “Mojave.”
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1 Comments
#1. josh from america 08.21.2008
How about making products that don’t frequently crash, lock up, die, blue screan of death you every 6 months, soak up viruses, leave security holes, and waste oceans of your time?
They wont do that, because it would leave room for interoperability and their competition, often FREE AND FAR FAR SUPERIOR IN QUALITY would have more success.
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