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Video: Microsoft Airs First “Jerry Seinfeld – Windows” Commercial; Rips Off Apple

In response to Apple’s cut-throat “Get-a-Mac” ads, Microsoft announced that it was planning a huge $300 million dollar ad blitz, beginning with commercials set to star actor/comedian, and known Mac user Jerry Seinfeld. Tonight they aired the first commercial in the “Seinfeld-Windows” campaign.

The ad begins with Seinfeld walking through a mall, when he spots Bill Gates inside a discount shoe store. After talking with Bill for a while and helping him find the right pair of shoes, they get to the computer talk. Seinfeld asks Gates, [about Microsoft] “will they ever come out with anything that makes computers moist and chewy like cakes so we can eat them while we’re working?” He then proceeds to ask Gates to just “shake” if the answer is yes. Which Gates does, followed promptly by the Windows logo.

The ad marks the effective start of Microsoft’s claimed “edgy” ad campaign, which would see Seinfeld alone paid $10 million for multiple spots and the total campaign’s online and offline promotions costing as much as $300 million. Company officials have acknowledged that the TV effort in particular is designed to counter Apple ads which use a similar, two-man comedy routine format that has been partly credited for helping the Mac maker’s reputation. [via Electronista]

The commercials do demand attention, and by attracting buzz, Microsoft is attracting eyeballs, which is the end goal of any successful ad campaign. For all the recent talk about Microsoft’s monopoly slowly eroding, if Windows 7 is anything like Vista, it’ll happen faster than we thought.

Aside from pushing copies of Vista, the fundamental aim of these commercials is to clearly reposition Microsoft within a “moist and chewy” place in the consumer’s mind. The subtle placement of Microsoft’s logo at the end of the commercial is just like Apple’s. The “duo” routine of Seinfeld and Gates, just like Apple’s “Get-a-mac” ads. Both campaigns use celebrities, and both campaigns use metaphors and non-specific examples instead of specific technical information. Either way, it’s going to be interesting to see if it works for Redmond, and how Apple responds to all of this (if at all).