I must admit, I really did not want to like the new Microsoft campaign. I found
the initial
“Shoe Circus” spot to be silly and irrelevant — an
effort that came off as simply trying “too hard” to be funny and awkwardly hip. And, because
our firm is switching all
offices over to Apple, I am pretty intellectually invested in the superior
experience of hardware and software built to work seamlessly
together.
Then came the joyfully odd bit of suburban “connection” in the
latest spot for Microsoft.
I love it, have watched it
numerous times, and have forwarded it to many people. I have written this post about it. Apparently, I have been converted to a
Microsoft marketer, if no longer a customer.
The “accidental” meeting
at Shoe Circus has become the random intersection of characters — and the
rhetorical condition — that now clearly kicks off “Bill and Jerry’s Excellent
Adventure” into the real world of real people. It was the reason for a story, a narrative approach to brand positioning. We like that.
As pure content, the new spot is
the much-rumored return of Seinfeld in a series. That is a coup any day. As
advertising, it is the return of the
long-form ad. As "new media" it is a webisode without the typical amateur pendantry usually attached to such "revolutions." As corporate communication, it is an incredibly brave form of
self-awareness rarely seen from economic giants, let alone Mothership Microsoft.
As cultural currency, it grapples with the relevancy of aging superstars in
tech and media, as the next “hot startup genius” takes the stage somewhere we’ve
yet to learn about. Taken together, this all completely rehumanizes Microsoft, while not ripping off Apple’s cool or humor (which one must admit is
starting to age with all the scuffed hipness of one of Ian Schrager’s unbearable
pouty ho-tels).
I find that I am now looking forward to the “next
episode” from Microsoft, and to seeing where Bill and Jerry go next. I want the narrative to keep unfolding, to move forward. Isn’t that
clever: I suddenly am willing to see Microsoft as part of the future, instead of
the bothersome, boring, aggressive, nasty, controlling, frustrating, clunky,
commodity of the past. That would suggest a real repositioning is possible, if
the company also aligns operations, human interactions and products with equal
future-joy tenacity.
This all makes Seinfeld’s $10 million payday seem
like a bargain. And it once again makes Crispin seem so damn smart that I want
to jump for joy and spit at the same time. Bravo to all...I’m ready to tune in
again, in an age where tuning out has become the norm.
