Microsoft pulls its Seinfeld ads.

Bill Gates: “Yes, our new XBOX controllers are shaped like shoes. See?”

Jerry Seinfeld doesn't have the heart to tell Bill that he's really holding a normal shoe.

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Microsoft pulls its Seinfeld ads.

I remember writing about the big hype over Microsoft hiring Seinfeld for a new set of promotions. Seinfeld hasn’t had a show on for years, yet they spent all this money on him to give a younger and hipper image to the company. Most people said, “Does Seinfeld really matter?”

Even though they spent all that money on the ads, they dropped Seinfeld like a hot potato.

This link digs a bit deeper into the ads. It seems the Microsoft folks are trying to spin this as their first phase of their new approach, but I don’t buy it. I think they knew the ads were shit and flushed them. Plus, there is a third ad that will probably never see the light of day.

From the link above…

((Microsoft insisted the doomed adverts had achieved their |primary aim of “getting talked about”. A spokesman also claimed that they had never been meant to remain on air for longer than a couple of weeks.))

No one will admit to failure anymore. It is all spin now.

Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates New Family: Uh, they paid Seinfeld 10 million for this thing? It runs about four minutes and I can see them editing this into various ads for TV. I just don’t think this was funny at all. Was this supposed to be like the “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” ads?

Shoe Circus and Seinfeld: There is nothing funny about this ad. Did they even let Seinfeld write the script? It doesn’t seem that way; Jerry is just phoning it in. This feels like a direct rip off from the Superman/Seinfeld ads, but less funny.

Hiring Seinfeld was a mistake from the beginning. But, it could have been much worst like Rosie or Dane Cook.