Are Microsoft and CB&P's Seinfeld Ads Really a Disaster?

(MoneyWatch)  As anyone following any bit of the ad industry knows, Microsoft has been rolling out a series of ads starring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates yukking it up together. Produced by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the response online has been anywhere from tepid to outright hostile, especially within tech circles.
Today, a four and half-minute version of the second ad, set to run on CBS (in a no-doubt truncated version) this evening, debuted, to further puzzlement. While the response has been a bit warmer, with the Guardian giving the backhanded compliment of: "[I]t's much funnier that the first advert, although it would have been pretty hard to go downhill from there."

But, despite all the harrumphs and raised eyebrows, I have to question whether this is truly a failure. This, after all, is an exercise in branding, not in direct action. Ultimately, the ads will succeed or fail not because bloggers and journalists like or dislike them, but whether the person sitting at home watching CBS tonight finds their mental image of Microsoft shifting a bit as they watch Bill Gates bumble through social interaction. Microsoft is attempting to shake up an image of stolid competency for something a bit lighter and (if the inclusion of precocious French director Michel Gondry is any indication) friendlier. And the ads, which do a nice job of humanizing former CEO Bill Gates, seem to be doing that. The raft of media attention hasn't hurt either.