seinfeld

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Adored by Seinfeld, Fonzie and David Lynch, Frances Bay was Hollywood’s grandmother

Unlike Larry David’s previous show, ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ is based on a moral code

Sacha Baron Cohen may be the star but the person pushing the comedy envelope is often director Larry Charles

Stockwell Day, Minister of International Trade, took questions on that file

The first Seinfeld-Gates Microsoft ad didn’t go over very well (see Steve Maich’s column from the current issue of Maclean’s). Gates was criticized for his bad acting. But worse than that, the ad didn’t try to sell anything. In true Jerry Seinfeld form, it was an ad about nothing. Well, the latest installment is more of the same. Gates is even stiffer (literally, he does “the robot’ at the end) and there’s still no mention of Vista or any other Microsoft products. But I’m sticking with my first review. This is a terrific pretty good ad. It’s funny. It’s entertaining. And I don’t care what it is (or isn’t) selling. It makes me feel good about Microsoft. And for a guy who swore off Windows five years ago in favour of a Mac, that says a lot.

The new MSFT ad campaign for Vista featuring Jerry Seinfeld debuted last Thursday, to arched eyebrows and mixed reviews. The strategy is pretty obvious: Apple has cornered the  urban-hipster niche, and has done a good job of portraying Windows users as corporate drones. So Microsoft has decided, instead of trying to directly counterbrand against the negative campaigning from Apple, to strike out into the land of quirk. 

A few weeks back we came down hard on Microsoft for its misguided Vista-Mojave ad in which it attacked its own customers for not liking its buggy operating system.