When $300 million dollars is spent on advertisements involving Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates shopping for shoes, it makes me think, “What’s this got to do with Microsoft?” Well, Microsoft wants you to know that it’s more hip than Apple.

The two things that make Jerry Seinfeld cool in this video:

1. He’s eating a churro.

2. He showers in his clothes in the morning, “You’re dressed, then you’re clean. Open the door, go about your business.”

The sad thing about the ad is it takes an entire minute before they even mention the word “Microsoft.” And when it is mentioned, it’s in the middle of a Jerry Seinfeld ramble that makes little sense.

“You know, I imagine over the years you’ve mind-melded your magnum Jupiter brain to those other Saturn ring brains of Microsoft.”

Then it goes on to joke about an edible computer.  Is it funny? When I’m stoned, sure. But it’s not funny in the way where I have the sudden desire to go out and purchase Microsoft merchandise.  I am not sold.

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Microsoft no longer wants to sit idly by as Apple’s advertising campaign bashes it, making it look like an old geezer in front of all those hipsters who watch TV. Everything about Microsoft’s $300 million advertising campaign has been quite ‘hush hush’, that is until now.

“They are not seen as cool,” says Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys, a New York branding firm. “Apple is cool. Can anyone even recall a Microsoft ad? No.”

So, Microsoft recruited Jerry Seinfeld as their key celebrity pitchmen to tell you that he thinks Apple’s products just plain stink. Jerry Seinfeld is cool. Therefore, whatever he says or believes, I’ll follow blindly. He’ll appear in several ads with the big man himself, Bill Gates and will receive about $10 million for the work. The ads will debut September 4th and marks it as one of the largest ad campaigns in the company’s history.

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Combine the urban security suit with the augmented reality mask and you get the future outfit of pro-tennis. A recent Lacoste ad, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the brand, shows a player dressed in a ridiculous garment, playing tennis in a fictional, digitally-enhanced room. The racket has robotic features and assembles itself right out of the bag.

The walls measure the speed of your slice and even returns the ball to the player.  Seems pretty intense for a tennis game but I’d be willing to play if I could ditch the ridiculously queer outfit.

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Russia has been known to take their gadget advertising to the extreme, featuring everything from the gigantic to the dangerous. BMW has launched a new billboard in Moscow to showcase their M model which falls under both of these categories.

These new 65,000 square foot billboards feature full-sized vehicles mounted on the ad, complete with working lights. This makes it look like the cars are actually driving on the walls, somthing usually only done in cheesy action flicks. (more…)

SpikeTV is advertising their presentation of Star Wars in the sexiest way possible. By featuring lightsaber glow-stick lights on a specially designed bus stop ad, of course. Sexiest way possible? I think so.

The Dark Side is strong, my son. But using the power of The Force and your bus toll, you too can be a Jedi. Or at least in the presence of a cleverly launched corporate ad campaign. (more…)

Having seen them selling cellphones with a girl in a tub, here comes another marketing stunt from Japan. How ’bout a spectacular cartoon epic on a weird-looking mouse that does acupuncture? Jump to find out more.

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Japanese company Frepar has announced the commercialization of their almost-teleporting communicate-Pod. What this thing does is that it allows the real-time teleporting of full 3D image of objects between both parties, so essentially it “looks” like teleporting. When you want to show your friend your new hamster, simply place it on the Sci-fi looking device, let it walk around in the capsule scanner and your friend at the other side would be delighted to see the 3D image of your hamster walking around in their receiver. You don’t have to worry about ionizing your beloveds and reconstructing them at the other side, that’s the beauty of safe simulation.

The Pod can be put horizontally or side ways, it can also do the image spin-around trick, just for the effect. The company predicts that the communicate-Pod would be mainly used for marketing purposes, in fact Microsoft Japan is already using them for their 2007 Office System campaign in, they’ll be showing 3D images of concept prototypes as well as a model introducing the new features of the Office System. For the rest of us, the Pod will be on sale in the fourth quarter this year for $250. — Sam Chan

Pod [Freparnetworks]

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This is actually the third time Samsung is doing this, first they hired the face for Anycall (Samsung’s brand of mobile phones in Korea and a couple of countries in Asia), then they sponser and film the music video, so that the phones will be featured there, and the song will be featured in the TV ad. The music video will also be pre-installed onto phones the models featured there. I guess this is a win-win deal for both the singers and Samsung, and it worked really well for the first 2 attempts, so much that Samsung is doing it now for the third time. This song is called Anystar, sung by Lee Hyori, one of the top female singers in Korea. Actor Lee Junki is also featured in this video. — Sam Chan