microsoft is rebranding

just saw the first sally in microsoft's much ballyhooed new ad campaign. MS dashed many account managers' wet dreams when it passed over the major players to hand its $300 million consumer branding budget to Crispin Porter + Bogusky, an agency that primarily uses... macs. bogusky then enjoined jerry seinfeld (another mac advocate) to front the campaign.

if you haven't seen the first ad -- maybe you've been painting buffalo and horses on the walls of your cave -- it's on something called YouTube. this week i caught it during The Daily Show.

- ooh, you gotta see this - D told me - it's great.
aside from a couple stifled snickers & snorts he remained respectfully quiet while i absorbed. digested. furrowed. finally i spoke.

- i don't get it.
- you don't GET it? you didn't think that was funny? the shoes, clothes in the shower? "adjust your shorts"... ha ha!
- no, i DON'T get it. what's the point? what's it trying to say?

he looked at me with great pity, as though i'd confessed i'd forgotten how to multiply.

- it's saying - he pronounced slowly, with grrrrrrrrreat emphasis - that microsoft's new computers will be made from cake.

as someone who requires hand-holding to use iTunes, he might actually believe that. but he certainly GETs more than i do.

UPDATE:
and here's the 2nd installment. the humor's more accessible than the 1st, but funny personable ads boost a brand only if there's a seed of truth there to start with.