Bill Gates/Seinfeld Campaign: Second Ad Better Than First

 

The second installment of the Microsoft Bill Gates Jerry Seinfeld advertising campaign is surprisingly better than the first. It is just as confusing, but there is something about it which compelled me to watch and have real interest in what the characters are all about. After a short amount of time I admit I threw in the towel as to trying to understand some of the characters.

I should also mention the ad is two minutes and thirty seconds long, making it five times longer than a typical commercial.

TO SEE THE AD, CLICK HERE

I do agree that Bill Gates’ (News - Alert) acting is good and Seinfeld can't seem to be bad even if he tries. With the exception, of course, being the first installment of this commercial series.

I suppose the point of these commercials is to re-position Microsoft (News - Alert) as hipper and more interesting without responding directly to the Apple ads. I would think in this respect that the second ad succeeds more than the first.

One last thought: the ad actually casts Bill Gates — known worldwide as one of the most successful people around — as super-intelligent while simultaneously approachable person. To the extent that Bill Gates personifies the Microsoft brand, this is exactly what needs to be done and perhaps this campaign is only going to get better; after all, it couldn’t get worse.