Analysis - Yesterday, Microsoft launched its second Seinfeld ad in support of Microsoft and its Windows ecosystem. While there are some carryover aspects from the previous ad, this 4m32s "episode" could essentially stand on its own and is at time quite humorous and, in our opinion, very intelligent. The entire commercial is glued together by a Steve Jobs in a walker and his reality distortion field home.
As it was the case with the previous video, the messages in this lengthy commercial are virtually invisible at first sight. There are countless references to Apple, its leadership and products that are very subtle and are only apparent if you watch the ad multiple times. Here is our brief dissection of the ad and no, we do not make any claims that we caught everything and that we interpret everything as it was intended by the ad’s creators.
The overall arc of this episode involves the way Microsoft sees Apple, Macs and related products in terms of connectivity with “real people”. In this case, the real people, however, are represented by a family who represents Apple and a story that describes the narrow boundaries this family chose to live in.
There is the 1960s style house (an overall impression of Apple), which is old. It has wood paneling in the basement, typical 60s styling on the outside, and yet there is the fundamental belief system that what they have is very nice. This is exemplified by the fact that the family is very much focused on visuals – they don’t like the look of the car in their neighbor’s driveway, they keep the property clean and there is fancy (a bit too much perhaps) paint in the children’s room. Message: Apple in its core is old, but has some nice, clean touches here and there.
There are also those “fancy” symbols that go along with the overall theme that the surface matters, not the inside. A “leather” toy giraffe, cheese on the same old potatoes that are served everyday and a limited supply of Dijon mustard to spice up your life – a supply that Apple limits uses to lure Windows users into the Apple world. But the supply will run out eventually.
There are so many little jabs at Apple in this commercial. We originally set out to write another dissection article, but the commercial itself is 4.5 minutes long. Such a dissection would've been a dissertation and, out of respect for our readers we decided against it.
There are some humorous bits though would like to highlight. We'll go briefly through the video and bring them out for discussion. In the comments section you can relate to these parts by number.
(1) The scene has a typical, regular average income family sitting around a dinner table. Everyone is passing out food and beginning to eat when the (2) wife begins making comments about appearance. She refers to a car that's been parked in the neighbor's driveway for a while now and how it's inappropriate. After Seinfeld complains that there was some gum in his dinner roll, (3) the wife says she has mustard with white wine sauce. There's a comment made by the father after the grandmother says to Seinfeld, "You're in my seat funny man." He has an almost "please kill me now" look on his face saying, "She's been here 12 years." (4) This is a reference to the time Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1996. And finally, (5) Gates asks, "Didn't we have this yesterday" after being handed his meal. Seinfeld replies, (6) "Put some cheese on it." Note all the visuals provided in this part – the fancy China and glasses, but missing essentials such as ketchup. Gum in a roll that can be patched with Dijon mustard and potatoes that can be fancied up with cheese. Message: It’s all about the facade.
When we finally see the outside of the house, (7) the yard is so full of bushes and plants that it's just cluttered and has no real practical use, just appearance. Just like the (8) pool scene with the slow flowing water that never warms up making the pool experience less than it should be and the (9) grandmother cleaning up the yard with a leaf blower, all for appearance purposes. In addition, there's a (10) table tennis set downstairs in the basement. The wife has no real ability to play as is indicated in a few scenes. Again, it's something that's not really used and is just there for appearance. The table tennis scene can also be interpreted in a way that you just can play with a Mac.
There are (11) two scenes whereby the father and son are eating the “mustard with the white wine”. They are doing it secretly and for “the booze”, and are trying to escape the reality of their situation, which (12) could be likened to an Apple user's limited ability to expand their product base with lots of third party software. Of course, that “booze” will be gone eventually and what you are left with is an empty glass.
There are (13) two scenes where Jerry is accosted separately by first the wife, then the husband, on issues of money that the other knows nothing about. These are very likely related to the recently settled lawsuit between Apple's shareholders and board members about questionable stock option practices.
There's also a scene with the son, Gates and Seinfeld. They're hovering around a monitor that's flashing pretty, bright colors. We don't see what's on the screen, but the son asks, "Woah! When's this coming out?" Gates replies, "Never. And if anyone ever asks you where you got it, you don't know." This scene is a little confusing because it (14) appears to indicate that Microsoft has some cool stuff that they themselves are using internally, stuff that the public will never see. This would only serve to harm Microsoft, unless the perception here would be that Microsoft is capable of doing more than they're letting on, (15) as if the future might include at least some aspects of this currently undisclosed, hidden, super-cool thing.
At one point, we find the entire family summoned and sitting together while the dad and mom ask their children where a leather giraffe that was place on the fireplace mantel went. The daughter had taken it and planted it in Gates' backpack hanging on Seinfeld's bed. She did this so the parents would believe Gates and/or Seinfeld attempted to steal the toy, and ultimately kick them out of the house. This symbolism is also somewhat confusing, though we believe it (16) may be an attempt created (by the mind of a child) to get Microsoft out of the way, overstressing the importance of a simple and useless product with a fancy surface.
But in truth, this one leaves us a little stumped. It does take up a considerable portion of the video though as this is one of the longest non-dinner table scenes and part of the arc which ultimately speaks throughout the rest of the commercial. That giraffe is also mentioned as (17) being obtained in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, continuing in some ways the Spanish theme from the first commercial.
In the end, the final scene once again has Gates and Seinfeld walking together. This time they've been forced out of the "real people's" house – a “Mac” house that poses as a real people house but in fact is loaded with constraints, secrecy and negativity. They tried to adapt (check the Pizza delivery scene), but were inconvenient in the end. Both were forced out due to the planting of the leather giraffe by the daughter who just wanted her room back.
And now we find them discussing the future of computing, "frog with an email, goldfish with a website, ameba with a blog." This time, however, (18) Seinfeld gets Gates to do the robot, including the powering down phase. And finally, (19) the message: "Perpetually Connecting ... PC." The Mac is left behind.
Kind of leaves us scratching our heads to be honest. We do believe this is an extremely humorous commercial. Parts of it had us laughing out loud, like the father saying "She's been here 12 years," Gates still folding his The Conquistador shoes from the first video, and the grandmother at the end, "Yup, like I told you, you've got a blown head gasket."
Adding up everything, we always came back to thinking about the highlighted visuals and grandma who has been with the family for 12 years. So, we know that Steve Jobs is represented throughout this somewhat aggressive and delusional grandma. In one scene, she is described by Jerry Seinfeld as “That is real!” and Gates responds “I got that.” This very scene solves the picture of Steve Jobs and his character of made up and deceiving reality. Microsoft clearly points to Jobs’ reality distortion field.
But we believe these commercials are too complicated to understand. But if you take the effort to dive into it, the story told is very sophisticated, more comprehensive and more elaborate than what Apple does. The problem is, that watching TV is passive activity and we rarely find people who want to think about an ad. Much of the creativity in these commercial may actually be wasted.
As it was the case with the previous video, the messages in this lengthy commercial are virtually invisible at first sight. There are countless references to Apple, its leadership and products that are very subtle and are only apparent if you watch the ad multiple times. Here is our brief dissection of the ad and no, we do not make any claims that we caught everything and that we interpret everything as it was intended by the ad’s creators.
The overall arc of this episode involves the way Microsoft sees Apple, Macs and related products in terms of connectivity with “real people”. In this case, the real people, however, are represented by a family who represents Apple and a story that describes the narrow boundaries this family chose to live in.
There is the 1960s style house (an overall impression of Apple), which is old. It has wood paneling in the basement, typical 60s styling on the outside, and yet there is the fundamental belief system that what they have is very nice. This is exemplified by the fact that the family is very much focused on visuals – they don’t like the look of the car in their neighbor’s driveway, they keep the property clean and there is fancy (a bit too much perhaps) paint in the children’s room. Message: Apple in its core is old, but has some nice, clean touches here and there.
There are also those “fancy” symbols that go along with the overall theme that the surface matters, not the inside. A “leather” toy giraffe, cheese on the same old potatoes that are served everyday and a limited supply of Dijon mustard to spice up your life – a supply that Apple limits uses to lure Windows users into the Apple world. But the supply will run out eventually.
There are so many little jabs at Apple in this commercial. We originally set out to write another dissection article, but the commercial itself is 4.5 minutes long. Such a dissection would've been a dissertation and, out of respect for our readers we decided against it.
There are some humorous bits though would like to highlight. We'll go briefly through the video and bring them out for discussion. In the comments section you can relate to these parts by number.
(1) The scene has a typical, regular average income family sitting around a dinner table. Everyone is passing out food and beginning to eat when the (2) wife begins making comments about appearance. She refers to a car that's been parked in the neighbor's driveway for a while now and how it's inappropriate. After Seinfeld complains that there was some gum in his dinner roll, (3) the wife says she has mustard with white wine sauce. There's a comment made by the father after the grandmother says to Seinfeld, "You're in my seat funny man." He has an almost "please kill me now" look on his face saying, "She's been here 12 years." (4) This is a reference to the time Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1996. And finally, (5) Gates asks, "Didn't we have this yesterday" after being handed his meal. Seinfeld replies, (6) "Put some cheese on it." Note all the visuals provided in this part – the fancy China and glasses, but missing essentials such as ketchup. Gum in a roll that can be patched with Dijon mustard and potatoes that can be fancied up with cheese. Message: It’s all about the facade.
When we finally see the outside of the house, (7) the yard is so full of bushes and plants that it's just cluttered and has no real practical use, just appearance. Just like the (8) pool scene with the slow flowing water that never warms up making the pool experience less than it should be and the (9) grandmother cleaning up the yard with a leaf blower, all for appearance purposes. In addition, there's a (10) table tennis set downstairs in the basement. The wife has no real ability to play as is indicated in a few scenes. Again, it's something that's not really used and is just there for appearance. The table tennis scene can also be interpreted in a way that you just can play with a Mac.
There are (11) two scenes whereby the father and son are eating the “mustard with the white wine”. They are doing it secretly and for “the booze”, and are trying to escape the reality of their situation, which (12) could be likened to an Apple user's limited ability to expand their product base with lots of third party software. Of course, that “booze” will be gone eventually and what you are left with is an empty glass.
There are (13) two scenes where Jerry is accosted separately by first the wife, then the husband, on issues of money that the other knows nothing about. These are very likely related to the recently settled lawsuit between Apple's shareholders and board members about questionable stock option practices.
There's also a scene with the son, Gates and Seinfeld. They're hovering around a monitor that's flashing pretty, bright colors. We don't see what's on the screen, but the son asks, "Woah! When's this coming out?" Gates replies, "Never. And if anyone ever asks you where you got it, you don't know." This scene is a little confusing because it (14) appears to indicate that Microsoft has some cool stuff that they themselves are using internally, stuff that the public will never see. This would only serve to harm Microsoft, unless the perception here would be that Microsoft is capable of doing more than they're letting on, (15) as if the future might include at least some aspects of this currently undisclosed, hidden, super-cool thing.
At one point, we find the entire family summoned and sitting together while the dad and mom ask their children where a leather giraffe that was place on the fireplace mantel went. The daughter had taken it and planted it in Gates' backpack hanging on Seinfeld's bed. She did this so the parents would believe Gates and/or Seinfeld attempted to steal the toy, and ultimately kick them out of the house. This symbolism is also somewhat confusing, though we believe it (16) may be an attempt created (by the mind of a child) to get Microsoft out of the way, overstressing the importance of a simple and useless product with a fancy surface.
But in truth, this one leaves us a little stumped. It does take up a considerable portion of the video though as this is one of the longest non-dinner table scenes and part of the arc which ultimately speaks throughout the rest of the commercial. That giraffe is also mentioned as (17) being obtained in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, continuing in some ways the Spanish theme from the first commercial.
In the end, the final scene once again has Gates and Seinfeld walking together. This time they've been forced out of the "real people's" house – a “Mac” house that poses as a real people house but in fact is loaded with constraints, secrecy and negativity. They tried to adapt (check the Pizza delivery scene), but were inconvenient in the end. Both were forced out due to the planting of the leather giraffe by the daughter who just wanted her room back.
And now we find them discussing the future of computing, "frog with an email, goldfish with a website, ameba with a blog." This time, however, (18) Seinfeld gets Gates to do the robot, including the powering down phase. And finally, (19) the message: "Perpetually Connecting ... PC." The Mac is left behind.
Kind of leaves us scratching our heads to be honest. We do believe this is an extremely humorous commercial. Parts of it had us laughing out loud, like the father saying "She's been here 12 years," Gates still folding his The Conquistador shoes from the first video, and the grandmother at the end, "Yup, like I told you, you've got a blown head gasket."
Adding up everything, we always came back to thinking about the highlighted visuals and grandma who has been with the family for 12 years. So, we know that Steve Jobs is represented throughout this somewhat aggressive and delusional grandma. In one scene, she is described by Jerry Seinfeld as “That is real!” and Gates responds “I got that.” This very scene solves the picture of Steve Jobs and his character of made up and deceiving reality. Microsoft clearly points to Jobs’ reality distortion field.
But we believe these commercials are too complicated to understand. But if you take the effort to dive into it, the story told is very sophisticated, more comprehensive and more elaborate than what Apple does. The problem is, that watching TV is passive activity and we rarely find people who want to think about an ad. Much of the creativity in these commercial may actually be wasted.