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Seinfeld Makes His Debut for Microsoft

Jerry Seinfeld

BOSTON The intense albeit short wait for the first Microsoft spot from MDC’s Crispin Porter + Bogusky with Jerry Seinfeld ended tonight when a commercial starring the iconic ’90s comedian and the software giant’s chairman, Bill Gates, aired during National Football League coverage.

The 90-second clip employs quick-cut editing and the kind of “humor from nothing” approach that defined Seinfeld’s TV series. It tells the story of the odd couple’s day at discount emporium Shoe Circus in the mall, where Gates buys a snappy leather number called “The Conquistador.”

As they exit , Seinfeld asks if Microsoft is working on something to make computers “moist and chewy like cake, so we can eat ‘em while we’re working.” Seinfeld tells Gates to adjust his underwear if the answer is yes, and the software mogul does so, much to the comic’s delight.

The commercial closes with the words “The future. Delicious.” There’s no overt sales pitch for specific Microsoft products like the oft-maligned Windows Vista operating system, though the company’s logo does appear briefly.

“The Windows brand identity has gotten a little invisible,” said Brad Brooks, vp for Windows consumer product marketing, in an interview with Bloomberg.com. “We want to make sure Windows goes from being invisible to something that becomes indispensable.”

Immediate reaction on the Web was almost as intense as the run-up to the clip’s debut — and generally just as negative. Gizmodo said the spot “makes no sense,” while Seeking Alpha trotted out a well-worn line from Seinfeld and opined that the ad “is about nothing.” CrunchGear, possibly the first blog to post the work online, noted: “While this ad doesn’t really tell us anything about Microsoft or its products, it does tell us that someday computers will be edible. So there’s that. Gates is kinda funny, too.”

Adweek’s ad critic Barbara Lippert, writing on Aug. 27, a week before the effort broke, was none too enamored of Microsoft employing Seinfeld as a pitchman: “The pick is so preposterously unhip it’s as if the company had unconsciously internalized all of Apple’s knocks against the poor, frustrated PC guy.”

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft is expected to spend an estimated $300 million on the overall push. The marks the first work for Microsoft by Miami-based Crispin.