Ever think you’d see this phrase: Crispin Porter + Bogusky just did a montage spot. On purpose.
Yeah, neither did I.
But a montage is exactly what they did for Round 2 of their $300 million campaign for Microsoft. See the spot below:
This spot comes on the heels of the two perplexing mini-movies featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. Personally, I thought these short films were fairly funny. They just had absolutely no marketing value whatsoever. I love wackiness. I own the url wackinessensues.com (it redirects to my bio, which is appropriately wacky). But wackiness for the sake of wackiness just doesn’t fly in advertising. Especially when the wackiness is applied to a company that ranks somewhere between Enron and Fannie Mae in generating public affection.
And why only two spots in the much-hyped Seinfeld campaign? Did they bow to critics in the blogosphere? Were two spots their original intent (as has been argued). Or did they realize that having a guy who always had an iMac in the background of his TV show as your company spokesman just wasn’t the best idea? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
The new spot begins with a misstep and continues the awkward dance of disingenuousness for a full 60 seconds. The opening shot of a John Hodgman (“PC” in Apple’s “I’m a PC / I’m a Mac” campaign) wannabe opining “I’m a PC and I’ve been made into a stereotype” is off-putting from the get-go. It assumes that we, the sheeple of Consumerville, never realized that Apple was creating a caricature in their ads. I know I disassociated myself from all my PC-using friends once Apple’s campaign started. I mean, sure, John Hodgman is funny, but Justin Long is a sweet and stubbly boy wonder.
Indeed.
From there the spot just goes wheels off. A few celebrities with zero tech credentials here, a ton of awkward transitions there (“I wear glasses.” “I wear glasses, too!” and “I wear jeans.” “I study genes.” leap to mind), and we’re supposed to believe that a ton of ordinary and/’or pampered people are out there everyday just livin’ life to the fullest thanks to their PCs running Windows Vista.
Yeah. Duh. I know this already. And restating the obvious doesn’t exactly compel me to hurl my MacBook Pro into the trash (I mean, the Windows recycling bin) and buy a Dell, dude.
Maybe next time, they should call Ridley Scott.
Later,
Fox
Yeah, neither did I.
But a montage is exactly what they did for Round 2 of their $300 million campaign for Microsoft. See the spot below:
This spot comes on the heels of the two perplexing mini-movies featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. Personally, I thought these short films were fairly funny. They just had absolutely no marketing value whatsoever. I love wackiness. I own the url wackinessensues.com (it redirects to my bio, which is appropriately wacky). But wackiness for the sake of wackiness just doesn’t fly in advertising. Especially when the wackiness is applied to a company that ranks somewhere between Enron and Fannie Mae in generating public affection.
And why only two spots in the much-hyped Seinfeld campaign? Did they bow to critics in the blogosphere? Were two spots their original intent (as has been argued). Or did they realize that having a guy who always had an iMac in the background of his TV show as your company spokesman just wasn’t the best idea? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
The new spot begins with a misstep and continues the awkward dance of disingenuousness for a full 60 seconds. The opening shot of a John Hodgman (“PC” in Apple’s “I’m a PC / I’m a Mac” campaign) wannabe opining “I’m a PC and I’ve been made into a stereotype” is off-putting from the get-go. It assumes that we, the sheeple of Consumerville, never realized that Apple was creating a caricature in their ads. I know I disassociated myself from all my PC-using friends once Apple’s campaign started. I mean, sure, John Hodgman is funny, but Justin Long is a sweet and stubbly boy wonder.
Indeed.
From there the spot just goes wheels off. A few celebrities with zero tech credentials here, a ton of awkward transitions there (“I wear glasses.” “I wear glasses, too!” and “I wear jeans.” “I study genes.” leap to mind), and we’re supposed to believe that a ton of ordinary and/’or pampered people are out there everyday just livin’ life to the fullest thanks to their PCs running Windows Vista.
Yeah. Duh. I know this already. And restating the obvious doesn’t exactly compel me to hurl my MacBook Pro into the trash (I mean, the Windows recycling bin) and buy a Dell, dude.
Maybe next time, they should call Ridley Scott.
Later,
Fox
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A bunch of dorks shilling for Microsoft. Too bad Linux doesn’t have millions to blow on ads… “I’m not a computer, I’m a free man, oh and I use Linux, it’s free too.