WHAT BILL GATES HAS IN COMMON WITH COMEDIAN SEINFELD?

- RELEVANTLY irrelevant TO ALL

I HAVE NO IDEA. Reading the latest snippets news on Google, I found this facinating advertisement , no intriguing. Is there meaning in meaningless advert? There must be some genius message in an idiotic advert. There must be! As the actors are the brightest minds in their own trade. One a comedian which gave us "Seinfeld" (mind you he is the only 1 of 3 other billionaires comedians in USA) and the other is one who locked us in with his Windows program that conquered 95% of "World's" software market. (For more details please visit : http://marcusong88.blogspot.com/2008/09/bill-gates-bad-role-model.html )






Pic 01: SEINFELD fame. A comedy about 'nothing'. Yep! Nothing!
I need your inputs. I really am very confused. As human, when we can't find logic in something, it drives us up the wall. Watch the video advert from Youtube (by the way, its fast becoming Youtube top viewers' favourite) and tell me please, no I implore you, what does the advert mean. Is there a secret code language they trying to tell us that our planet is invaded by aliens? Has the two men reached a pre-mature senile-dementia? Come tell me, tell me.

Below is the article (watch the 90 sec video beforehand):

Seinfeld and Gates' Microsoft misfire


VID 01: THE INTRIGUING VIDEO!

The new Microsoft commercial, featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates out discount shoe shopping, was unveiled Thursday night on TV. Today it's near the top of YouTube's most viewed list, and many of those viewers are leaving a trail of rancorous confusion all over the Web. People are asking, nay, demanding to know what the minute-and-a-half-long spot is trying to convey.
Seemingly anticipating the lack of enthusiasm, Microsoft offered an explanation for the commercial on its own site:

After seeing the new ad from Microsoft, which debuted today, some may wonder what Jerry Seinfeld helping Bill Gates pick out a new pair of shoes has to do with software. The answer, in the classic Seinfeld sense of the word, is nothing. Nevertheless, the
spot is the first and most visible sign of an ambitious effort by Microsoft's Windows business to reconnect with consumers around the globe.



Snippets, "Yes, you are (size) 10."

The post went on to explain that the campaign will show how Windows "has become an indispensable part of the lives of a billion people around the globe," not just on their PCs but also now online and via mobile devices.

But the commercial is not actually tapping into the "nothing" that Seinfeld was famously about. "Seinfeld" was about "nothing" because it showed everything that four friends did together. It was the "nothing" of, "What'd you do today?" "Nothing." But the Microsoft spot's little shoe-store vignette relies on unfunny far-fetched details: Seinfeld asking Gates if he ever takes a shower with his clothes on, for example.

The whole thing is chilly. It begins with Seinfeld walking past a discount shoe store called Shoe Circus. He is eating a churro. He reads out loud the store's name and a sign promising quality shoes at discount prices, then sees Bill Gates through the window trying on shoes and says, "Bill Gates!" and walks in to join the fun.

Let's start with the premise of these two famous rich people out discount shoe shopping. Ha, ha! They don't really have to shop at Payless like the half a million people who lost their jobs this year.

Gates and Seinfeld may both be schlumpy dressers, but their regular-guy qualities stop there. Neither is the Warren Buffett kind of rich, the frugal sort who knows the value of a dollar and doesn't put himself above the working man (or so we believe about Buffett). Instead the ad seems to be somehow making light of bargain-shopping, as if it's just a lark for these guys, or some kind of joke that we're not quite in on.

A bit into the ad, Seinfeld suddenly takes over from the salesman and is helping fit Gates' shoes, offering him the "Conquistador -- they run very tight." As Seinfeld feels around for Gates' toe he says, "Is that your toe?" Gates says no. Seinfeld asks what it is and Gates says, "leather." The camera lingers on Gates face as he says "leather," and he appears to be attempting to give a meaningful look. Are we supposed to be interpreting something naughty in that exchange? It's not unreasonable to go there, especially after we've witnessed the fondling of Gates' feet by a kneeling Seinfeld.




The most disturbing part of the commercial begins with a cut to a Latino family (picture above) standing outside the store and looking in the window as they too eat churros. "Es el Conquistador?" the woman says. The man replies in Spanish, "They run tight." There are English subtitles. These dark-skinned people stand close together and have befuddled expressions on their faces. They seem to take Shoe Circus very seriously.


Perhaps they're supposed to represent the consumers "around the globe" that Microsoft is trying to "reconnect" with, but the depiction seems condescending and borderline offensive. These are the kind of people who actually shop at a Shoe Circus, and not by choice. With their grim faces they look as if they have actual problems to deal with besides the tightness of the Conquistador, so the spectacle of them watching the two eternally boyish, care-free retired zillionaires try on shoes leaves a bad aftertaste. Jerry and Bill may well eat churros and buy cheap shoes just like the onlookers do, but Seinfeld goes home at night to his Hamptons estate and his dozen cars while Gates retires to his stadium-sized techno-mansion.

The Latinos are pressed up against the glass, fascinated by the action inside, but they do not appear to know who Gates and Seinfeld are. Are they too poor to own a TV? Do they represent the yearning Latino hordes trying to get in on the American consumerist dream?
Then back inside the clerk asks Gates if he has a Shoe Circus Clown Club card, which Gates produces, and it has the mug shot on it from Gates' juvenile arrest. This is the one comic touch that seems on the money.

As Seinfeld and Gates cross the parking lot after the purchase, the talk (finally) turns to Microsoft. Seinfeld asks Gates if they'll ever make computers "moist and chewy like cake, so we can just eat while we're working." If it's yes, Seinfeld says, "give me a signal. Adjust your shorts."
Then Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, chairman of the Gates Foundation, one of the great technology minds of our time, shakes his booty. It's seems meant to be humanizing -- the playful side of Bill Gates -- but comes off as one more awkward choice. This commercial has a double problem. It pulls none of the emotional strings that might have helped Microsoft "reconnect" with its audience (not that I remember ever being connected to them). And its main idea is a dadaist void. A decade after "Seinfeld," "nothing" has gotten old.
--Author Maria Russo

Mini-breaks :-

Have a break. Take 5 mins for Seinfeld.

Not enough? Have another 10.

Source: Maria Russ, 2008, Seinfeld and Gates' Microsoft misfire, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/09/seinfeld-and-ga.html, 5th September