{"id":1779,"date":"2008-09-12T11:13:24","date_gmt":"2008-09-12T15:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=1779"},"modified":"2008-09-15T16:32:41","modified_gmt":"2008-09-15T20:32:41","slug":"microsofts-seinfeld-gates-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/12\/microsofts-seinfeld-gates-ads\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft’s Seinfeld-Gates Ads"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniel Jalkut<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

\nThe prevailing thoughts on the internet seem to be that these ads are ridiculous, that they make no salient point, that they are barely funny, and that they are a pathetic, misguided attempt by Microsoft to rekindle affection from a public that has grown quite accustomed to viewing the company as a stodgy old curmudgeon.\n<\/p>\n

\nI think these ads are genius. Or if not genius, as close to genius as Microsoft could ever dream<\/em> of coming. If I was one of Microsoft’s competitors, I might not be quivering in my boots quite yet, but I’d be thinking, “my god, I am wearing boots!”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think “genius” is a bit much—but, then, Apple also throws the word around lightly. However, I agree that the ads are much better than the Internet reaction would lead you to believe. And I say this as someone who doesn’t find Jerry Seinfeld very funny. Apple’s own ads<\/a> portray Mac users as smug. The Microsoft ads let Gates use the sympathy capital that Apple built up for PC guy. I think they’re an OK start at rebuilding Microsoft’s image, making them relatable and reminding people what they’ve accomplished over the years. Microsoft isn’t going to out-cool anyone, and they’re be mocked for trying. This is much better than corporate gibberish like people_ready<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Update (2008-09-15): Jesper’s take<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel Jalkut: The prevailing thoughts on the internet seem to be that these ads are ridiculous, that they make no salient point, that they are barely funny, and that they are a pathetic, misguided attempt by Microsoft to rekindle affection from a public that has grown quite accustomed to viewing the company as a stodgy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}