No matter what you think about PC/Macs, I have to share the new Microsoft ad with you. I can’t help smiling while watching it. There is so much emotion coming out of this ad that I can’t help loving those 2 characters.

Shoe Circus from Windows Videos on Vimeo.

If we study this ad on an animation point of view we can see so many great touches. It is obviously a bit wacky with Seinfield explaining that he has a shower with his shoes on to save time or when he asks if Microsoft will every gonna come up with something that will make our computers moist and chewie like a cake but there are some more interesting elements.

Secondary action:

1. Seinfield and the churro. He holds it, bite it, offers it to Gates. At the end they both walk out, each holding their churros.

2. Gates and Seinfield softening the sole. Seinfield has a very accurate gesture while Gates can only ackwardly mimic him.

Both action happen while they are talking about something else and are still not distracting but help them to look more alive. They are real characters in a real store, not two actors delivering lines.

Timing and pacing

The beats in the add are dictated by the delivery of the lines. There is a lot of talk but there are also some long moments of silence filled with emotions like the “what is it?” “the leather” sequence. The beats slow down, accelerate, stop and start again. Isn’t that a nice texture?

Now on a marketing point of view I think it is very clever. A lot of people are commenting negatively on it saying that they don’t understand it but the advert is not a soap advert hammering that the microsoft products are better and shinnier, it is much more clever than that. They have already tried the soap marketing campaign and it only partially worked so why not trying something a bit more “wacky”? Don’t forget that it is only the first one of a series of advert so let’s wait and see what else they have in store.

What they are trying to do here is to portray Bill Gates as a really simple guy, someone really down to earth with really simple values in which most people will recognise themselves.

He is a very rich person but still buys his shoes at the discount shop in the shopping mall because that’s the only place he can find the best price for value products. Shoes like computers are a commodity, they shouldn’t become a lifestyle and paying a high price for them is silly.The message is quite clear: he doesn’t like to be ripped off.

There is one little details than hardly anyone will notice and that the ad company probably placed there for a reason. I am not too sure why exactly. Maybe to show that Bill Gates hasn’t always been the straight guy we know but just like everyone made some mistakes in his life? If you don’t know, the picture on the Platinium Shoe card is the one from his arrest in 1977 for a traffic violation.