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The first of several new Windows commercials premiered during the NFL season opener

After lackluster sales of its Windows Vista operating system, Microsoft has officially launched its $300 million Windows marketing campaign.  Relying on the popularity of standup comic Jerry Seinfeld, Microsoft reportedly agreed to pay Seinfeld $10 million for his services in a series of commercials to help change Vista's image.

The first Vista commercial featuring Seinfeld aired on TV last night during the first game of the NFL football season, with company co-founder Bill Gates also featured in the commercial.  The 90-second commercial employs typical Seinfeld standup comedy, featuring Seinfeld and Gates shopping at a discount shoe store.  

Windows was mentioned at the end of the commercial after Seinfeld asked Gates if Microsoft is working on a technology to help create "moist and chewy" computers, which is when the Windows logo was shown.  Seinfeld told Gates to adjust his underwear if Microsoft is working on the technology, and Gates does indeed adjust his underwear.

But initial reactions to the first commercial have left some viewers confused and disappointed, and critics who were not impressed with Microsoft choosing Seinfeld likely will have even more ammunition following the airing of the first commercial.

The commercial can be seen by clicking here.

Microsoft has sold at least 180 million Vista licenses since the operating system's launch last year, but the stigma of an overrated, hard to use OS remains, especially when compared to Windows XP or Apple OS X.

Microsoft recently had an advertising push with its Mojave commercials, where unsuspecting users who reportedly didn't like Vista were tricked into using a new operating system, Mojave, which really was Vista.

As the company continues to struggle to get new users to adopt Vista, research indicates Apple continues to gain market share against PCs over the past couple of years.  During the quarter ending in June, Apple had 8.5 percent market share, which is a 38 percent different compared to one year before.

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I think many people missed the point
By Targon on 9/5/2008 8:02:49 AM , Rating: 3
If this was the first commercial, it may be the introduction to the commercial series. Yes, it was weird, and by itself will do nothing, but the next commercial will probably be a more obviously pushing Windows.

On the issue of Vista, many users out there don't know the difference between Microsoft Office and Windows Vista. For people who read technical sites, we know the difference, but many end-users mistake people hating the UI for Microsoft Office 2007 and thinking Vista is the reason they are having so many problems.

I personally hate the new UI for Office 2007, and most people I know have really struggled trying to find where the features have moved to. Many have gone back to Office 2003 just because they know how to find all the features they have been using for years.

I think Microsoft needs to advertise that Windows Vista is NOT Microsoft Office 2007, because that is something that is lost on many people.




RE: I think many people missed the point
By Fenixgoon on 9/5/2008 8:34:58 AM , Rating: 5
i started using office 2007 finally, and after using it for a bit (word only so far, really), i must say that the menu system they created does make things MUCH easier. no crazy text menus to navigate in order to sub- or superscript objects, etc.

office2007 is win, now that i'm used to it (after all of writing one two page paper)


RE: I think many people missed the point
By cochy on 9/5/2008 9:23:12 AM , Rating: 5
Well two things that Office 2007 and Vista has taught Microsoft is that people are lazy and have no patience for learning new UIs.


RE: I think many people missed the point
By Mitch101 on 9/5/2008 9:33:31 AM , Rating: 4
Agreed. Office 2007 rocks to highlight text and hover over styles and watch it change is priceless.


RE: I think many people missed the point
By 67STANG on 9/5/2008 11:11:14 AM , Rating: 1
My company just pushed it to all of us a few months ago. The only priceless thing about it, is how much slower it is than Office 2003. I mean really... should office apps really take this long to load? And yes, I have all the updates...


RE: I think many people missed the point
By artemicion on 9/5/2008 11:28:28 AM , Rating: 2
Don't really have a problem with Word's load time but Outlook 2007 is just absolutely horrendous. It takes forever and a half to load, a million years to check my inboxes, and ages to switch from one folder to another. Granted, I never delete any of my e-mails, so there's about 40k messages distributed over two email accounts, but Apple Mail seems to handle it alright :/

Other than Outlook, I do like Office 2007 overall.


RE: I think many people missed the point
By MarcLeFou on 9/5/2008 11:33:03 AM , Rating: 2
Disable all add-ons under trust center.

It makes a world of difference - I was on the verge of getting more RAM for my laptop but its totally unneeded now.


By gamerk2 on 9/8/2008 8:24:36 AM , Rating: 2
My company PC is a 1.6 GHz Pentium 4. Why should our company upgrade again?

Besides, this might get more people to switch to openOffice. Small and quick, like an OS should be.


By jimbojimbo on 9/5/2008 3:05:24 PM , Rating: 3
Learn what folders are.


RE: I think many people missed the point
By CascadingDarkness on 9/5/2008 12:20:33 PM , Rating: 2
You must be working on a "Vista Capable" PC.

http://www.dailytech.com/Suit+Says+Microsoft+Knowi...


By 67STANG on 9/5/2008 12:51:43 PM , Rating: 2
No... actually they have me on a Dell Precision M6300 with an Intel T7800 (2.6GHz) and 3.5GB RAM...

I'm sure it's "Vista Capable" but as with many IT departments, they have chosen to stick with XP Pro...

And yes, I have disabled most of the add-ins....


By paydirt on 9/5/2008 9:59:11 AM , Rating: 2
Lazy? Maybe. Impatient? Yes. Got it pre-installed on a laptop and I want to do stuff in a spreadsheet right away and not being able to find stuff drives me nuts. Can't remember the feature that I use, but couldn't find it at all, but forgot to hit F1.


RE: I think many people missed the point
By mindless1 on 9/5/2008 10:04:19 AM , Rating: 2
It's not lazy to want to keep productivity up by not having to re-learn to do tasks you already do well. There's no "patience" factor except patience in tolerating a monopoly that refuses to give customers what they wanted.

What these two apps have taught MS is that we don't care what they want us to have, that we are more and more expecting something that improves on the prior version in areas it was considered practically universally deficient, instead of just changing things for the sake of change alone.


By MarcLeFou on 9/5/2008 11:31:34 AM , Rating: 5
The ribbon system is the best UI design of Microsoft since XP launched in 2002!

Sure I hated it for two weeks but you and I are not the ones who required change. It's the office workers that did.

Did you know that a good chunk of the top 10 most requested feature before 2007 were actually already IN the program (I forget the exact number but I believe it was around 6 out of 10) ? I think right there that screams a change was needed.

As for how well designed it is, we rolled it out about 6 months ago were I work (Small Business) and people were comfortable with it on day 1. Sure I'd get a call per week asking me where "x" feature was for about a month but everything is so much more accessible now, the staff discovered new ways to do things so it made them more productive.

The only drawback is Outlook is painfully slow but disabling unneeded add-ons fixes that marvelously.

As a side note, I kind of like the commercial. It's obviously a set-up that will run for a month or two than have a follow-up, most likely in the same "average joe" style which is the target audience. But I do have to confess I've always been a fan of Seinfeld.


RE: I think many people missed the point
By cochy on 9/5/2008 11:32:34 AM , Rating: 4
quote:
It's not lazy to want to keep productivity up by not having to re-learn to do tasks you already do well.


That is a pretty short sighted comment. Let's say for instance that learning a new UI might take some time in the near term, but this UI will allow for high productivity in the longer term (because it's more efficient). I'm not necessarily speaking of Office 2007 in this case, but in general.


By mindless1 on 9/6/2008 1:46:21 AM , Rating: 2
Let's also consider that the new UI may not actually improve productivity, or that by the time there was a minor gain there was already enough retraining time and cost that any potential gain may be completely offset, then welcome to the next version of windows where it may repeat.


By foolsgambit11 on 9/5/2008 1:20:03 PM , Rating: 4
Which is odd - why would people switch to a Mac then? I guess the number of people going to Apple is pretty small, and it isn't the same people who are annoyed learning a new UI with Vista and Office 07.


RE: I think many people missed the point
By The0ne on 9/5/2008 2:54:23 PM , Rating: 1
I use Word and Excel all day long. I don't have the patience to learn through the new UI. Hours spent trying to figure things out AND get use to where they are are hours spent away from getting any work done. I've tried 3 times now to learn to use the UI more effectively but it's just not working for me. All of my colleagues have already given up on it and gone back to 2003. I've done the same as well.

I wouldn't call it lazy considering we're all hardware/software engineers here.


By GoodBytes on 9/5/2008 3:31:26 PM , Rating: 3
That is a help documentation exists. So that you DON'T spend hours figuring it out.

Office 2007 and Vista help documentation is so simple, that a 5 year old kid can understand it. However, complete enough to explain the most advance features, troubleshoots. It also comes complete with diagrams and pictures.


RE: I think many people missed the point
By JoshuaBuss on 9/5/2008 4:01:07 PM ,