14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft's Apple "Get a Mac" killer is live as of September 4, 2008. The new $300 million Windows campaign put together by advertising agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, has debuted with the first video ad featuring none other than Microsoft part-time Chairman Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Gates shopping for discount shoes with a trusty and voluntary Seinfeld sidekick is bound to put Apple out of business, but even if the Cupertino-based hardware company's "Get a Mac" ads catalyzed a reaction from Microsoft, the new Windows marketing campaign is, at least as far as the start-off is concerned, ignoring the noisy competitor, reducing the Mac OS X maker to an insignificant detail.
The video fragment embedded at the bottom of this article is by all means a teaser. Microsoft has admitted that Gates and Seinfeld playing around with discount shoes has nothing to do with software. It has, in this regard, very little to do with Windows, except, of course, for the ending: "the future – delicious – Windows."
"Windows is entering a new chapter in our history," commented Bill Veghte, senior vice president, Online Services & Windows Business Group. "We’re renewing our commitment to consumers and working with our partners to deliver quality and value on the PC, across devices and across the Web."
In the video advertisement, Seinfeld asks Gates: "Are they (Microsoft) ever going to come out with something that will make our computers moist and chewy like cakes so we can eat them while we're working? If it's yes, give me a signal. Adjust your shorts..." And Gates responds with a wiggle.
Brad Brooks, corporate vice president, Windows Consumer Product Marketing indicated that the Seinfeld and Gates ad is just the first out of a series of teasers designed to kick-start the new $300 million Windows campaign. "Microsoft has a couple of goals, in-goals with this campaign. Number 1 is to re-engage emotionally consumers around the brand Windows, and actually create that emotional connection again. A connection that we've had, we want to have again. It's also to actually drive a great customer experience for our customers at all levels, and all touch points, about how they experience the Windows brand today."