Microsoft has recruited Jerry Seinfeld to appear in new advertisements promoting Vista. This is a rebuttal to Apple's successful Mac Vs. PC campaign (Mac accounts for 7.8% of the market, up from 6.2% a year ago).
Will this work? I'm not quite sure. Seinfeld's promotion for Bee Movie during an episode of 30 Rock was forgettable, although his appearance on the actual show was great. He also seemed to show up everywhere promoting Bee Movie, which got annoying.
The agency behind the campaign is Crispin Porter + Bogusky. A lot of people at ad agencies will talk this agency down, but in all reality, they have rolled out some brilliant campaigns in the past: Whopper Freakout, BK subservient chicken, Miller Lite Man Laws (although sales didn't hold up), and the Truth campaign.
One thing is for sure: Microsoft has an image crisis on its hands. They could use all of the help they can get to move away from the image of a company that isn't user friendly and not "trendy."
Success or flop?: Probably somewhere in-between. It would take one incredible ad campaign to get the idea of Macs being user friendly out of the consumers head.
Read an extensive article on this here.
Somewhat off topic, I love what Crispin has done with Burger King. From the subservient chicken to Whopper Freakout, they know how to get attention. Below is one of my favorite BK spots, parodying Helen Reddy's "I am woman."