puffy shirt

there's  lots of talk about the seinfeld / bill gates campaign for microsoft by cp+b launching in september... 

(and the $10 million they paid a guy who spent 8 years on tv using a mac...)

hard to have a constructive comment about the creative as no one we know has seen it...

but from a strategic standpoint...

there are many reasons why it will struggle... some funny... some obvious...

(in fact we think the whole thing sounds like a seinfeld episode... with peterman playing bill gates...)

but in reality... you have to look at the objective... 

what is it? 

looking at the hiring of seinfeld, his age and the demo he will work hardest against... 

the best we could figure the goal seems to be appealing to 30-something and 40-something vista resisters...

...in some combination that brings mac down while boosting vista up...

we think both are going to be challenging in the real world of apple v msft product.

microsoft needs to deal with the fact that it's operating system is under-delivering to the same people who were seemingly happy, loyal customers of xp.... 

as opposed to trying to convince everyone it's just some crazy mis-understanding...

microsoft leadership needs to take some personal inventory and focus on the future of their os... make real changes/fixes... 

assuming people don't outright hate you... if you make things better..people will come (or comeback)... it's a fact.

xp customers with little ill-will don't suddenly turn on you because justin long says so...

just like we seriously doubt a talented funny man from the 90's is going to bring them back...

this is bigger than some perceived pr war engineered by steve jobs and tbwa... 

there are real issues... and our guess is it's better to blame msft central marketing than the engineering culture in redmond.

all that said, the ironic thing is... this has happened before... 

when mac "got bad" (remember os 8?) in the 90's people left... 

people that had been seemingly happy, loyal customers left for something they perceived was better... windows.

what did apple do?

plan a advertising response to microsoft's rolling stones powered "start me up" campaign for windows 95!?!?

no... 

they re-embraced design delivering the imac... developed os x... the os at the core of everything they are today.

it's not like apple didn't advertise during this period... 

but more importantly they learned from their mistakes and responded with products that beat the competition... moved the bar forward in a way the consumer could see and feel...

if we were microsoft right now we would be a bit more concerned with getting cp+b involved with windows 7 development and launch than crying over the spilled milk that is vista...

it's not a mis-understanding... a pr bumle... or those poor bastards at mccann... 

the customer has spoken... and they're just not that into you... (or vista)