After seeing the first Seinfeld Microsoft ad I'm totally sold! I went out and bought eight licenses for Windows Vista Ultimate right after viewing! I'm muking and paving my Linux boxes, and upgrading my XP ones. I even bought copies for my two PPC Mac laptops. It doesn't work on them, but I just stick the little license tags on them to because it makes me feel so good to see it.
Seriously, WTF? A 90 second ad for a computer software company that doesn't mention computers at all until the 75-second mark? I figure the standard 30 second spot will be the last 30 seconds (The first 60 seconds is the throwaway gag), but once again, it's Microsoft talking about all this wonderful software they'll make "someday".
The ad itself is mildly amusing, but these are the kind of ads that are supposed to make people buy Vista? At least the Mohave thing was about their actual products. This is a brand-building ad of the kind a new 90s internet startup would spend half their venture capital on to air during the Superbowl. Does Microsoft really need to have their name out there more? Well, yeah, brand-building is an ongoing task, but last I heard Microsoft is having product affinity problems, not brand-awareness issues. Hell, people are only too aware of the Microsoft brand, and the word on the street is "avoid their new thing if you can. XP is better." I'm not saying that viewpoint was or is accurate. I don't know enough about Vista to judge[1]. But, at least in marketing, perception is reality.
I do have to say that between the "Bill's last day" video and this one, he's shown that he's got a pretty good sense of comedic timing. But I know lots of funny people. It doesn't mean I'm buying an operating system from them.
[1] - I know XP is better for me because I have a driver for some music hardware I own that is XP only[2].
[2] - Well, It's been a while since I checked: Digitech GNX4 drivers are available for Vista now. I'm getting a free copy of Vista Ultimate later this month, so maybe I'll give it a whirl. So I guess the ad sorta worked after all. :-) Note that only because Microsoft is giving it away to me, and my hardware is now supported will I contemplate the upgrade. The features of Vista are not compelling enough to me on its own merits to justify the $110 gray-market upgrade price, much less the >$200 price that MS charges.