Gates and Seinfeld Selling What Exactly?

Thank you for the explanation. I haven't been able to understand the commercials at all. Having read and heard much about them, all I was able to glean was that people were paid a RIDICULOUS amount of money to appear in them. I am a Mac user, but might have found humor in the PC commercial had I been able to understand it. By the way, I think the Mac commercials are really funny. I don't consider myself to be dense at all, but maybe the commercials were inside jokes for PC users. Anyway, thanks for the clarification

It's nice to see Bill Gates in this way.  I think most people have already divided into the computer camp they believe in and a whole lot of us don't use our computers to their maxmium capacity so...

I enjoyed and was surprised by the commercial I saw - it won't do anythign in terms of what I'll buy when I buy a new computer.

blog.candelariasilva.com

Good and plenty!

is a factor for me, too. I don't hate Windows–I've worked with it a lot and other family members have it. But all my personal software is Mac and switching all that would more than make up for the savings of a cheaper PC.

Liking an ad doesn't lead to buying changes for me, either.

Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor ( http://www.blogher.com/blog/virginia-debolt )
Web Teacher ( http://www.webteacher.ws/ )
First 50 Words ( http://first50.wordpress.com/ )

. . . but I wouldn't touch Vista if they gave it away free.

I LOVE the Mac/PC ads. And these new Seinfeld/Gates ads are amusing and kind of charming and it delights me to see that MS appears to have, a long last, developed a sense of humor about itself. 

But there are some other things I think that aren't so postive. Seeing these things makes me think a little bit about seeing the monster bands of the 70s and 80s on the county fair circult. Both guys were wildly successful - in their time and are now out of the picture, mostly. Gates handed MS to Ballmer (restraining myself from editorilizing about Ballmer) and Seinfeld? The Bee Movie? Um, yeah, not so good and I'm a sucker for cartoons.

So are they on some kind of nostalgia tour? Because nostalgia isn't something I want in my technology, unless its for smaller, more effiecient applications that don't hog the RAM and rely on fat internet connectivity to work well. (I'm talking to you, Outlook! And MS Word thinks it knows what I want more and more with each subsequent feature packed release. A-hem)

They're really cute ads. Amusing. But get this. We make our tech decisions based on research and budget, not on how much we love John Hodgeman or that cute boy that plays the Mac. 

For the record, we have both flavors, but I've never fully embraced the Mac because most of my software, which I won't upgrade until my clients require it, is PC. It woulda cost a packet to get my Mac where my PC is now. 

Nerd's Eye View ( http://www.nerdseyeview.com )

Haha, I just watched the video.  I am a fan of both Seinfeld and Microsoft so it's no surprise.  I love the Mac ads, but I don't know that I would ever by a Mac.  The only thing I can see influencing it is if someone Ipod's worked better with Macs and I don't know that they do.

Even Jerry Seinfeld couldn't come up with a line that would make me laugh harder than that one did. You just made my day. :)

Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor ( http://www.blogher.com/blog/virginia-debolt )
Web Teacher ( http://www.webteacher.ws/ )
First 50 Words ( http://first50.wordpress.com/ )

Those commercials were lost on me. But then, so was Seinfeld, so I guess that explains it. But I shouldn't be surprised that he and Gates would "get" each other. They're both masters of their domain. 

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor ( http://blogher.org/blog/kim-pearson )|Professor Kim ( http://professorkim.blogspot.com/ )|

http://techdirt.com/blog.php?tag=bill+gates
http://www.techmeme.com/080905/p31#a080905p31
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=A_rsW675JNA&feat...

 http://www.alternet.org/story/9378?page=1

( this one is a six page article on peoples obesessions with hating him) 

Some of it's ludicrous. I have a bunch of websites also that are anti microsoft,anti bill gates and some of those people seriously have it out for him, it gets pretty petty.

Yes, grandma does refer to Windows 95, hence the "she's been here for 12 years" line. The other issues highlighted in the ad refer to the security issues (Gram's missing teeth, the leather giraffe), lack of privacy (the daughter wanting her room back), lack of communication with other applications (Seinfeld asks for ketchup, the mom gives him mustard).

Gates and Seinfeld are supposed to represent Vista, and how it's addressed all those concerns.

Did I mention I laughed at the robot moves? ;-)

Dimple and a Smirk (dot) com ( http://www.dimpleandasmirk.com )

"After someone explained to me that each member of the family represents the older versions of Windows and the issues people had with them, the ad made sense."

Can you point us to a deconstruction of who is who in the family? The grandmother was my favorite--don't tell me she represents DOS or Windows 95, please.

Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor ( http://www.blogher.com/blog/virginia-debolt )
Web Teacher ( http://www.webteacher.ws/ )
First 50 Words ( http://first50.wordpress.com/ )

I haven't seen the anti-microsoft emotion rear it head on the blogs I've looked at.

Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor ( http://www.blogher.com/blog/virginia-debolt )
Web Teacher ( http://www.webteacher.ws/ )
First 50 Words ( http://first50.wordpress.com/ )

I saw the latest 4 1/2 minute spot yesterday. After someone explained to me that each member of the family represents the older versions of Windows and the issues people had with them, the ad made sense. On a lower level, I also laughed out loud at Bill Gates doing the robot...well!

That said, I recently started using a Mac in the office and now come home looking at my PC laptop with sadness.

Dimple and a Smirk (dot) com ( http://www.dimpleandasmirk.com )

I've seen this posted on other peoples blogs and there is so much hatred for these commercials and Gates especially. I don't understand all the hatred, the man came up with an idea, no one  has thought of a way to compete with his ideas so that makes him the bad person? Yeah the programs can be a little frustrating but I don't personally hold Bill Gates responsible for it, machines aren't perfect. I did a double take when I saw the first one with Gates twitching in his pants. And I almost died laughing when he does the robot in the second one.  I think it's all in good fun, whether they are trying to seel something or not.

Nelle2nelle- I hate google so much I won't even use it on my computer at home. 

and have to admit the commercial got my attention. Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld teaming up? If you think of Bill in terms of gazallionaire-who-aggravates every time Word or Excel or my pc does something it should not or which won't let me do what I wish to do - what led someone to pie Bill a decade ago.

Of course our aggravation is irrational, but it can be fun if kept within that realm, not some full blown hatred. This is what the commercial is tapping into, and it is a huge reservoir of people who will set up and pay attention as Bill fumbles his way through some fabricated everyday life.

Good concept, and I'll laugh. Since I'm a pc user, I'm an existing customer... but Microsoft has been the big bad bully in the eyes of most for a long time (when in fact I'm more skittish of Google than Microsoft) and this is a way to make the company more human. Good for them.

nelle ( http://refractivethoughts.org/ )

&

llhaesa ( http://llhaesa.org/ )