Round 2 of Microsoft’s “We’re not as lame as you think we are” campaign aired last night during The Office. Check it:
Ok. It’s better than the Seinfeld ads. I’ll give it that. But that’s not that much.
Not sure quite where to file this but my brain is definitely not the right place…
I was at Radiohole‘s benefit on Monday and saw Liz LeCompte – fearless leader of the Wooster Group. (if none of those names mean anything to you you can ignore this one. I realize this post only targets a niche market of like 2 people).
While the show wasn’t really my bag, I have to say the pre- and post- shows were unforgettable.
The post-show consisted of Kate Valk MC-ing the benefit auction. I can’t even begin to describe it. Hypnotizing. That woman can really do anything.
In my mind the pre-show consisted of Liz LeCompte walking in, making a B line for the bar, grabbing a bottle of Charles Shaw (Chuck to his friends) Red and waltzing right back out the door.
On the way out she paused and (I guess feeling a slight twinge of guilt) shouted to one of the women running box office, “Hey, how much for this? Will $10 do?” Not particularly waiting for a reply she slid her hand into her pocket, pulled out a crumpled $10 bill and tossed it on the counter. She then continued out the door, stopping only to collect a couple of friends before heading across the street. For the next 20 minutes the patron saint of avant-garde theatre could be found on 19th St. on the stoop across from The Kitchen hanging out with some friends and throwing back a bottle of wine together.
Sometimes I really love this city.
My pre-emptive response to the next phase of Microsoft’s ad campaign:
It comes in regular and extra-snarky:
Ok. It’s now been generally accepted that Microsoft’s Seinfeld-powered ad campaign was a major bust (although to give them a small amount of credit, the edited version of commercial 2 was better than the full 4:30 disaster).
This morning I thought it’s perhaps time to get to the bottom of this: which ad firm has the monumental task of trying to make Microsoft look cool.
The answer? Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Apparently the go-to people for when your company is completely out of touch but you want to be perceived as being ‘with it.’ (you can read more about them on Ajax Blog)
While I have to say they’ve been doing a pretty pathetic job on the Microsoft campaign so far, I was at least curious enough to check out what else they’d done. Turns out many things. This was my favorite:
I hadn’t seen that round of VW commercials — the only ones I’ve seen are the talking car/brooke shields ones which are not as funny.
So they can do something right, I guess. We’ll have to wait and see how the Microsoft campaign goes. I can’t imagine any other outcome than the commercials being kind of ok — at best — but mostly serving as an excellent set up for a hilarious Apple counter-attack.
A Microsft engineer who looks like John Hodgeman whining about how ‘I’m a PC and I’ve been made into a stereotype’? Come on! Does it get any easier than that?
BTW – Apple’s market share is up to 10.6% in North America.
HooTow: Stanford's Requisite Ivy League Style Phallus
Stanford University has launched a series of 10 free, online computer science (CS) and electrical engineering courses. The courses span an introduction to computer science and an introduction to artificial intelligence and robotics, among other topics.
Come on! Free online courses in artificial intelligence AND robotics? Can your college do that? You can even download them to iTunes and watch them on the train.
I know, you thought your institute of higher learning was the coolest, but maybe you should think again.
It’s all part of Stanford School of Engineering’s Engineering Everywhere project
Full story on Device Guru
What? What on earth does that mean? The fundamentals of the economy are the workers. In a sense that’s both incredibly obvious and seriously thickheaded… unless I’m missing something. I’m sure he’s just trying to rescind his statement by simply rephrasing it (oh politics…). But logically I’m not even sure what he’s trying to say.
A Fundamental of the Economy
1. The workers aren’t the problem! It’s the system that’s screwed up! (to which we say… nobody thought the workers themselves were the problem)
2. America’s workers are in great shape and they will power the recovery of the economy! (which seems more than a little delusional. How low is minimum wage? How high is unemployment? How many jobs get sent overseas each year? How many workers is Lehman about to lay off?)
3. Capitalist society is awesome! (seems like what that statement means in isolation, right? The fundamentals of the economy are the workers. … Except you can apply that statement to communism too, can’t you? Maybe not that, then. Republicans have never liked those galdern Reds.)
Any guesses anyone?
And I have to say… can someone please call him on the fact that he’s part of the ‘greed and corruption of Wall Street’ that is, in his view, the actual problem?
First off, he’s part of the same greedmongering system that got us into this in the first place. Yes? Maybe a little oversight isn’t such a bad idea after all. (although, being a republican, McCain cannot call for more oversight. he instead can only appeal to ‘Wall Street’ to try to be less greedy. good luck with that.)
Second, how is he not greedy himself? He doesn’t even remember how many freaking houses he owns! How many of those houses could he possibly need?
