Was Microsoft Ditching Seinfeld Part of Its Plan?

(MoneyWatch)  On Friday, I offered the hesitant sentiment that perhaps Microsoft wasn't completely making of hash of things with its series of ads depicting Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld bumbling around suburban USA. This evening, the news that future Microsoft ads will no longer feature Seinfeld seemed to confirm that I was very much in the wrong. As Valleywag's Owen Thomas writes:

Remember those awful Microsoft ads with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? Well, now you can forget them. Microsoft flacks are desperately dialing reporters to spin them about "phase two" of the ad campaign -- a phase, due to be announced tomorrow, which will drop the aging comic altogether. Microsoft's version of the story: Redmond had always planned to drop Seinfeld. The awkward reality: The ads only reminded us how out of touch with consumers Microsoft is -- and that Bill Gates's company has millions of dollars to waste on hiring a has-been funnyman to keep him company.

So the question is, was the New York Time's Stuart Elliot spun, or is he more clued in than Valleywag? He writes in the NYT today:

The campaign, which begins Thursday and carries the theme "Windows. Life without walls," will move away from the enigmatic teaser commercials that featured Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld in offbeat conversations about shopping, shoes, suburbia and the potential of computing to improve life. The teaser ads have generated considerable discussion since they started on Sept. 4, not all of it positive.

In other words, the Seinfeld & Gates spots were meant to prime the pump for a much larger push -- with a reported $300 million behind it -- to reform the image of Windows. My opinion is that there's evidence to support this view. All Things D, Kara Swisher's influential tech blog, had the internal Microsoft memo that said that the ads were meant merely as an icebreaker:

This first set of ads features Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Think of these ads as an icebreaker to reintroduce Microsoft to viewers in a consumer context. Later this month, as the campaign moves into its next phase, we'll go much deeper in telling the Windows story and celebrating what it can do for consumers at work, at play and on-the-go.

Looking at what Microsoft plans to advocate in its upcoming ads, it's actually a somewhat inspired ad campaign. By displaying the fact that the great majority of people who use a computer are Windows loyalists, from shark divers to medical researchers, it's a neat counteroffensive against Apple's wildly successful "I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC" ad campaign.

That said, is it over kill? Creative Beef has perhaps has the best summation of the whole kerfluffle:

What are they trying to do? Get us to buy Windows-based computers? We already do. In droves. Oh sure, there's the Cult of Apple. But their numbers don't even come close to Microsoft's. Apple's advertising IS better. But so what? There are tons of small companies that do great advertising. But you don't see massive corporation ns freaking out about it. If a small chain of sandwich shops puts together an award winning print campaign, you don't see Subway changing their whole marketing plan[...]

I do hope that Microsoft finds their way. $300 million is a fuck of a lot to spend on therapy. But hey, they can afford it.