Microsoft has traded in comedian Jerry Seinfield for music man Pharrell Williams for its newest campaign. Just weeks after debuting its quirky, yet ambiguous television spots featuring Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Seinfield discussing everything BUT the software giant’s revamped version of its Vista program, it was announced on Thursday that Microsoft was pulling the ads in favor of new ones featuring Pharrell, Desperate Housewives actress Eva Longoria and hubby NBA player Tony Parker and author Deepak Chopra.
The second phase of the “Windows. Life without walls” campaign is part of Microsoft’s $300 million plan to counter Apple’s highly successful “Get a Mac” spots. Despite the fact that $10 million of that budget had already been earmarked to secure Seinfield, the ads did not seem to go over well. The first spot, which featured Seinfield and Gates running into each other at a shoe store, made no mention of Vista’s updated and supposedly more-user friendly version, a fact which left consumers confused about what exactly was being promoted. The second spot, which debuted just a few weeks ago, were longer and depicted the two men invading the house of a family. Although it made mention of Vista at the very end, the commercials still seemed to be overly ambiguous for the average consumer.
A spokesman for Microsoft insists that the Seinfield commercials were not scrapped due to the lukewarm response, however, instead saying that the newest phase was “completely in accordance” with Microsoft’s initial plan. The new spots are expected to begin airing immediately.
This is not the first time Pharrell has lent his face to promote technology. In 2007, he helped promote the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game “Halo: 3,” while in 2006, he appeared in Hewlett-Packard’s “The Computer is Personal Again” campaign. –ivory m. jones
