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On the basis of this New York Times article, rumors were circulating that Microsoft was abandoning their Seinfeld ads outright and that 'beginning the next phase of the campaign' was code for moving to plan b. I'm glad to hear that the rumors seem to be off-base.

I like the ads. I've seen two, and I like them both, the second more than the first in fact.

'Shoe Circus', The first ad

'New Family', the second spot (This is the 'long version' and runs 4 min 30 sec).

Recently I posted a video to YouTube comparing the real world experience of using a 3G iPhone to Apple's misleading "Unslow" ad which pretends to demonstrate the speed of the iPhone operating on AT&T's 3G network running through a series of 5 common tasks.

For whatever reason the video caught on and enjoyed a brief popularity which led to quite a few comments and some discussion. One of the most common opinions expressed was that I was silly, stupid, or naive to believe any claim in an ad, and furthermore that we should expect to be blatantly lied to by advertisers.

Of course, I have seen my fair share of dubious ads, like anyone else but I was a little surprised to hear that many of us have abandoned the principle of truth in advertising altogether. To my way of thinking it raises a host of questions and concerns:

• Advertising is an important element in any capitalist and consumer driven economy. It is well established that consumer spending is a critically important factor impacting the US economy. What's more nearly the entirety economic model of the web is advertising. Is it not suspect to place so much faith in something which we consider to be absolutely baseless?

• Ads are a key component of national political campaigns. If we equate advertising with lying, then what does that say about our expectations related to these political ads and the people responsible for them? Ultimately it is our responsibility to elect one of these liars advertisers to be the leader of our country. Why are we surprised and outraged about the failures and deception of the Bush administration when we willfully elected the guy on the basis of his ability to lie to us effectively? What does that say about our choices in this election?

I would have considered my own standard somewhat lenient. Essentially it is this:

Any quantifiable statement or claim in an ad should be provably true.

In other words, a statement in an ad about the performance of a product (in terms of speed or some other quantifiable measure) should be independently verifiable.

That's it.

So a car that claims to get 35 MPG, should under some reasonable circumstance be capable of a measured 35 MPG. A roll of toilet paper advertised to contain 1000 sheets should in fact contain 1000 sheets. When the manufacturer demonstrates that their device is capable of downloading a webpage in 2 seconds, it should, under some reasonable circumstance be capable of achieving that level of performance.

Anyway, if we can expect nothing but lies in advertising then I'd rather skip the supposed facts altogether and simply be entertained. I find these ads as entertaining as a 2 minute sitcom can be. The message? Well right now it seems to be 'Microsoft = good-hearted and quirky'. I'm ok with that.

By comparison Apple's Mac v. PC ad campaign is starting to seem tired, petty and specious. The message? If you use PCs you're lame. That's ok too, but I've had enough of the shtick. That having been said, I don't think referencing those ads is going to prove to be a winning strategy for Microsoft.

From the same New York Times article:

One new Microsoft commercial even begins with a company engineer who resembles John Hodgman, the comedian portraying the loser PC character in the Apple campaign. “Hello, I’m a PC,” the engineer says, echoing Mr. Hodgman’s recurring line, “and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”

We'll see.

Getting back to the current crop of ads, if I were going to criticize Microsoft about casting it wouldn't be Seinfeld. Bill Gates seems like the odd choice to me. Gates has always been synonymous with Microsoft, the company he founded, and with Microsoft's success (whether or not that is an accurate assessment of Gates' involvement). This is the first major advertising campaign since Gates recently stepped away from his daily responsibilities with the company. I would have thought this an ideal opportunity to establish a new identity for the company. Strange to see them leaning on Gates as the face of the company so heavily.

I'm just glad that I can look forward to at least one more Gates/Seinfeld buddy short.

So I just saw the first Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft commercial.

I'm surprised they turned it around so quickly. It seems like weeks ago that word started floating around the web that they had arranged for Seinfeld to do these ads.

First, I think the tone of the ad is perfect. Playful and fun, not defensive or accusatory. They're not trying to challenge anyone or be argumentative. Personally, I don't like Seinfeld taking a gig doing a bunch of ads, especially ads for Microsoft, because essentially he's done nothing since his TV show and now he's getting a big payday for very little work. It's as if not only does he need to make ungodly amounts of money, but he can't be bothered to actually work for it. So a TV show - out of the question. But a 30 second spot for $10 million - sure. The other issue is that there was a Mac in his apartment for every episode of that show. There's a lot about this ad that reminds me of the TV show, so the association seems a little forced here. I guess we'll have to wait and see where they go with it.

That having been said, he's a good choice for Microsoft, at least as far as the quality of the ads is concerned. Seinfeld does a good job. He's funny and confident and there's just something about his delivery that works. And he's at his best when he's in a real world situation. I mean, the show was hilarious but I've seen his standup routine and like all other standup comics, 65% of it is just unfunny. Whether he's relatable or not to the audience that Microsoft is trying to reach, I don't know. I mean, I certainly get it, but whether an 18-24 or 25-year-old would, I can't say.

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