All These Moments

All These Moments

Random ramblings in writing.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

The Seinfeld/Microsoft Commercial

So Microsoft released the first of their ambitious new campaign in "response" to Apple's "I'm a Mac" ad campaign. People are unusually furious about the ad. The general reason is that they think it just doesn't make any sense and dislike it as well for not actually responding to, or attacking the Mac ads. Uh-oh, it looks like Microsoft made the mistake of not trying to copy Apple by giving their fanboys a hearty pat on the back.



I personally thought the commercial was pretty funny. What strikes me as odd is how furious people are about the fact that the commercial is about nothing. They hired Seinfeld! What did people expect other than a commercial of weird things like talking about how a shoe size runs small?

The L.A. Times seems to not be content just to trash the ad for not being funny, but must also insinuate that the ad is both racist and belittling of poor Americans. Is it racist for a hispanic family to speak Spanish to each other? Is it racist because they're eating churros? Is it racist because they curiously watch two incredibly famous and rich men in a shoe store? No, apparently the L.A. Times thinks it is racist because the hispanic family represents the kind of people who have to shop at a discount shoe store because they're too poor. What the fuck?!

What about the family caused the L.A. Times to come to the conclusion that this family was impoverished? Middle-class Americans also notice celebrities in public and aren't ashamed to buy a churro at the mall. The L.A. Times assumed this family was poor either because they were hispanic or because they were speaking Spanish, or both. In their shameful attempt to invent a high ground for themselves the L.A. Times actually makes a pretty egregious comment.

The L.A. Times also links to one of their own articles about the half a million people who lost their jobs this year. That's right, Bill Gates and Seinfeld are so arrogant that they will shoot a 1.5 minute commercial about shopping at a discount shoe store without addressing the unemployment situation in the current economy. The L.A. Times did hear that the commercial was supposed to be about nothing right? A political issue would be perceived more as 'something' to most Americans.

I really couldn't care less about the fact that most people don't appreciate the humor in the commercial. There is a point to be made, which is that Microsoft certainly does need to find a more mainstream sense of humor than the one in this commercial if they intend to keep running the Seinfeld ads on TV.

Even though I thought this ad was pretty much hilarious it still doesn't come close to comparing to the Demetri Martin ads. The Demetri Martin Finds Clearification web series he made was funnier than most TV comedies I watched last year. (Yeah, it was miles ahead of the latest season of The Office.)

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My name is Jared and I'm an English major at UT. Politically I'm a mix of libertarian and neocon with a heavy dose of sarcasm. Otherwise I'm just a typical nerd.

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