While Jerry Seinfeld broke new ground with Seinfeld, his Show About Nothing, by proving that a story could be woven around no particular plotline, the advertisements for Microsoft's troubled Vista OS in which he stars do, it turns out, require a plot.
While television advertisements are essentially just sixty-second stories, the very purpose of a spot - to inform as well as entertain - makes the idea that advertisements need to have a plot self-evident. (Or at least evident to this self.) While a show about nothing is entertaining, the Seinfeld-esque ads starring Bill and Jerry were roundly critcized and accomplished nothing in the way of brand-building.
It didn't take long (just days, apparently) before Microsoft itself got past the infatuation with their sudden hipness (albeit borrowed from one of the hippest people of... 1994) and recognized that the ads were, in the end, about nothing, and would likely result in, well, nothing. They've now pulled them.
Microsoft's take is that because media buys are done months in advance, it 'proves' the ads were meant to be discontinued. Except we all know that cancellations are done with a phone call, so the idea that the end of the Seinfeld campaign was planned is, in my view, preposterous.
Wunderkind Alex Bogusky of Crispin+Porter+Bogusky has been profiled as a creative savior to the stale Microsoft, so what impact this will have on the agency's hold on the historically transient Microsoft account - and Bogusky's luster - has yet to be seen. As for me, I think Alex and team will prove resilient and go on to perform exceptionally well.
Too bad the same can't be said of Microsoft's Vista OS.
No comments:
Post a Comment