WORLDWIDE REACTION TO THE GATES/SEINFELD VISTA COMMERCIAL!

By now we’ve all seen the new 90-second Microsoft Ad for Windows Vista featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld.  Some have even blogged or been blogged about it as they puzzle over its significance.  But some of you may not have the direct pipeline into global taste-making that we at Collider have.  And so, here in a condensed, highlighted form are some of the opinions on this strange new promotional short film that have been cropping up outside the United States.

France – L’Express, Jules Croupier   

In offering Bill Gates a churro, a phallic object half-wrapped in wax paper, Jerry Seinfeld speaks for all computer-enthusiast males by symbolizing the deeply-repressed, not quite fully-revealed erection they all feel at the possibility of one day accidentally stumbling across the iconic figure of Bill Gates in the innocuous setting of a shoe store at a mall.  That Monsieur Seinfeld goes onto to ask Mr. Gates about his behavior in the douche (Editor’s note: that’s French for ‘shower’) only further reveals the techno-geek’s latent desire to see Bill Gates, aka the Microsoft Corporation itself, naked, vulnerable and wet.  Seinfeld’s reference to Mr. Gates as “a ten” is obviously more than a reference to a shoe size.

Canada -  Banff Gazette, Andrew Hockey

The Spanish-speaking family gazing through the window of the “Shoe Circus” establishment, all holding churros and wondering as to the fate of Bill Gates’ selection of the tight-fitting ‘Conquistador’ shoe are clearly meant to evoke the continued conquering and repression of native peoples by white businessmen.  They stare into the store, but are not allowed entry, as two rich Caucasian men stretch and bend shoes, more than likely made in China, to their specifications.  The question remains, then, why would a major advertising agency allow this subversive, anti-corporate message to appear in their commercial?  Because somewhere inside they are jealous of our lower crime rate and universal health care.  Now that’s what I’m talkin’ aboot. 

Germany –  Berliner Morgenpost, Hans Brandenburger

Bill Gates is a platinum member of the Shoe Circus’ ‘clown club,’ for which he is awarded ‘big top points.’  Is not life itself the very fools errand of a performing clown?  One who hides their angst in childish, absurd behaviors for the enjoyment of others in the hopes of gaining ‘big top points’ that will give them some sense of approbation and meaning, all the while knowing they are headed inexorably toward death?

East Timor –  The East Timor Picayune, Xanana Horta

Things that could have been accomplished with the money they paid Jerry Seinfeld for these commercials:

A new sanitation system

Roads

A Hospital

A school

4,652,821 bags of rice

Netflix

More worldwide reaction to the Vista ad as it becomes available. 

James Napoli’s new book The North Pole Employee Handbook will be released by Cider Mill Press in the fall of 2008.  He is an author and humorist who has also written and directed the award winning dramatic shorts “The Priests” and “Nobody Gets Hurt.” 

For more “I’ve Been Thinking,” check the sidebar menu on the left, or go to the Vortex Archives page.