Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates, together in a commercial for Microsoft... not that there's anything right with that!



Bill Gates goes shopping for new shoes, and Jerry Seinfeld comes into the store and helps him out. Sounds like a winning plot for a new commercial for Microsoft, doesn't it?

Confusion is an understatement for the reaction most people seem to be having to this commercial. Is it supposed to be Microsoft's answer to Apple's "I'm a Mac"--"And I'm a PC" ads? If so, what was the question? Does this make you want to buy a PC? Or update to the new version of Microsoft Office? (Or install Vista?)

To be sure, it's a few steps above the vicious duplicity of the "Mojave Experiment" ads. (Come on, Microsoft, no one said Vista didn't look good—after all, you stole everything in it from Mac OS X!—but looking at an operating system and its user interface for a brief period while sitting in a room is very different from using it over time, and as we know, that's the point where Vista really klunks out.) But it's not even funny how not funny this new ad is.

Alternatively, they could do an ad with Gates' successor at Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, and Seinfeld's "successor" in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David. Wouldn't you just love to see those two having a dialog? Now, that's entertainment!