Contentinople - Eve Bergazyn - News Bits: Microsoft Is Seinfeld Cool

Written by Eve Bergazyn

Thursday, August 21. 2008 at 11:35 AM EDT Post a comment

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Microsoft embraces its nerdiness: The company has hired the king of snarky wallflowers, Jerry Seinfeld, to work alongside Bill Gates in an upcoming ad campaign, reports The Wall Street Journal. Seinfeld reportedly signed on for $10 million of the $300 ad campaign to be created by a new advertising agency.

The ads may be in response to Apple's Justin-Long-is-cool-and-Windows-isn't ads as WebProNews iterates. But if Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld are Cool 2.0, then nerd cool may be pushed past its peak.

Gawker slams the deal, pointing out that Seinfeld, the TV show character, was a fan of Mac. Whoops.

In other mentionables:

IAC breaks off into investment-sized chunks, reports PaidContent in an interview with CFO Tom McInerney. IAC is now five separately traded companies, each with its own board and management, although operational implications are unclear.

Along with the year-in-the-works breakup, the company raised $2 billion via debt. (Does anyone else smell a fire?) McInerney outlines strategy for future growth: investing in value-addable acquisitions; launching $5 million to $20 million startups; and continuing harsh judgment of execs (no bonuses last year.)

Napster continues its incentivizing approach to business -- in addition to its current seven-day free trial and the offer of a free (with a year-long subscription) MP3 player, the piracy-trailblazing Website is offering its six-month plan for nearly 50 percent off, according to PaidContent. The surprisingly long-lived company is throwing in 50 MP3 downloads for good measure.

EA has a sense of humor, and it's making lemons into (funny) lemonade. Thanks to Mashable for pointing this out.

Tags: Advertising, Apple, Napster

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