Postmodern wriggle

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The self-appointed marketing experts of the blogosphere immediately pounced on the opening shot of what will probably be this year’s most discussed advertising campaign. Microsoft, the huge but boring software company that has been pummelled by the advertisements of its smaller and cooler rival, Apple, is fighting back. How? By having Bill Gates, its co-founder, chairman and arguably its personification, buy shoes with Jerry Seinfeld, a comedian, as his adviser. Just look, the bloggers are screaming: further proof, if any were needed, that Microsoft just doesn’t get it.

Admittedly, the first television spot of the campaign is bizarre. All that Messrs Gates and Seinfeld seem to talk about is, well, shoes. How they “run tight”. How best to stretch them. Windows and Office, Microsoft’s ubiquitous flagship products, are not mentioned at all. The word “Microsoft” is mentioned exactly once. Computers come up only insofar as Mr Seinfeld wonders whether they might someday become “moist and chewy”. Mr Gates replies with a subliminal hint, a subtle wriggle of his boxer shorts. What does any of this, the critics ask, have to do with the purpose of the ad campaign, which is to salvage the reputation of Vista, the latest version of Windows?

Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the agency behind the campaign, is known for risqué and off-beat humour. Sometimes it does the trick. When Crispin had a kinky German pair of engineers “unpimp your auto”, it revived the Volkswagen brand. When it had a decidedly mischievous “king” play all sorts of tricks, it arguably made Burger King as cool as fast food can be. But on other occasions its style seems to misfire. A campaign that made fun of the word “algorithm”, on the assumption that ordinary people don’t know what it means, did not help its client, Ask, a small search engine, but instead boosted the fortunes of Ask’s larger rival, Google.