Can Jerry Seinfeld Renew the 'Wow' for Microsoft?

Published: August 27, 2008

by Alex Woodie

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld will reportedly accept $10 million in exchange for being Microsoft's next celebrity spokesman. The TV funnyman is expected to appear in ads with chairman Bill Gates pushing Windows Vista, and will be part of a larger $300 million campaign to combat Apple and its aggressive anti-Windows marketing. The question for Microsoft is: Can Seinfeld bring the 'Wow' back to Vista marketing?

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Seinfeld will play a role in Microsoft's new "Windows, Not Walls" advertising campaign, which is slated to start next week. The campaign was put together by Crispin Porter + Bogusk, the posh New York ad agency behind the creepy (but successful) Burger King ads and Miller Lite's "Man Laws" campaign, which were clever but didn't boost sales.

Exactly how the campaign expects to utilize Seinfeld remains a mystery, except for the obvious: He will be expected to make people laugh. But times have changed. Seinfeld hasn't produced a new TV show in nearly a decade, and although his show remains popular with reruns, it's competing for eyes and ears in a very different market than the one Seinfeld left back in 1998.

For example, do today's teenagers know who the "Soup Nazi" was? Do popular Seinfeld terms (sometimes called "seinlanguage"), such as "mimbo," "close-talker," and "yada yada yada," resonate with today's youth? Do they have the capacity to appreciate the delicate comedic balance displayed by Seinfeld in shows such as "Bubble Boy" and "The Marine Biologist"? These are questions that have yet to be answered.

While Seinfeld may not have the draw he once commanded, one thing is certain: The hype surrounding Microsoft's new campaign--not to mention its huge budget--virtually guarantees that it will receive very wide viewing, at least initially. The first clips of the ads will probably hit YouTube within a few minutes of their original airing, which will be key to its success.

The campaign's success may rest entirely upon its viral impact. Despite the fact that Apple is kicking Microsoft's you-know-what on the airwaves and on the YouTubes, Microsoft still maintains a huge monopoly in the PC market. In other words, it can't expect the ad campaign to boost revenues in the same way Apple got a boost from its ads, but it can regain some credibility from its rival.

Microsoft has a lot it can do with Gates and Seinfeld. The chairman showed his comedic range at the 2005 Professional Developer's Conference, where the company aired a spoof of the hit film "Napoleon Dynamite," titled "Bill Gates Goes to College," that stared Napoleon star Jon Heder.

More recently, Gates and Microsoft showed a sense of humor with "Bill Gates' Last Day", which featured a host of characters, including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Al Gore, Jon Stewart, Brian Williams, Matthew McConaughey, George Clooney, Bono, Steven Spielberg, and Jay-Z, giving tips to Gates on what to do after his retirement from day-to-day operations.

In any event, it will be interesting to see what Microsoft can do with the combination of Gates and Seinfeld.

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