Fire up the rumor mill
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I’ll make myself very clear up front: This is an unsubstantiated rumor at this point. I’ve seen nothing official.
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, read what MediaBistro wrote today about a recent FishBowl LA rumor:
FBLA Exclusive: Inside the New Microsoft Campaign
. . .
Our insider says the whole campaign is focused on ‘everyday’ people using Windows in real situations. Some of the options the agency has been floating around have been a reporter on Humvee, an Obama/McCain speech writer, a DJ – a blues musician. There was a crew that traveled all over the world filming humanitarian workers.
Not to be out done by ‘real people’ there are tons of celebrities that the campaign may also feature. At the moment the names that have been put into the mix are Sarah Silverman, Willie Nelson, motorcycle rider Travis Pastrana, Matthew McConaughey and Ralph Nadar. Also in what seems like a direct answer to the Mac campaign – Rob Corddry and Stephen Colbert may also do a spot.
. . .
I have no idea whether this will ever come to pass, but it could be amusing. Would Stephen be the John Hodgman to Rob Corddry’s Justin Long, or vice versa? What do you all think?
Me, I’m just thinking how memorable those “Get a Mac” ads are. How geekily amusing was John Hodgman in this one?
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15 Comments
August 21st, 2008 at 2:53 pm
PLEASE let this rumor be TRUE!! The Mac/PC commercials are the ONLY commercials I actually like (and that I have on my iPod because I love them so much) and potential similar commercials featuring Stephen would forever live on my DVR.
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August 21st, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I think Rob would be a Mac and Stephen would be an Intel Mac with Windows installed in addition to OSX.
:D
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August 21st, 2008 at 6:22 pm
OMG this would be amazing! I agree with Lisa, these are some of the few commericials that are worth watching. I really hope this happens.
I really hope Stephen is a Mac. Mac beats a Windows any day, especially if its Vista. *shudders in disgust*
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August 21st, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Not on topic, but ALERT
The Colbert Report and The Daily Show were mentioned again on Jeopardy tonight. It was teen Jeopardy. The question was what channel is The Daily Show, The Colbert Report on? A few other shows listed too. Comedy Central
These teens must be it-getters to know that.
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August 22nd, 2008 at 1:22 am
I can so imagine Stephen doing an absolutely awesome hilarious parody of bill gates.
Rob could be… Steve Jobs? I dont know that Ive ever seen Rob in turtleneck and glasses, but… meh. He would be awesome spokesperson no doubt.
On other note about mac ads, I read an article (that I very much agreed with) that asserted that a lot of ‘geeks’ tended to not like the mac character and much more preferred the pc character. iirc, one guy said although his wardrobe was more like justin long’s, he wished it was more like john hodgman’s. I agree there for sure. Now I do have an ipod, and an iphone, and itunes everywhere, and use a macbook at work, but I’d hate to imagine myself as a “mac person”. they always seem super condescending to me, and i get the same feeling from the commercials.
but theyre still amusing
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August 22nd, 2008 at 11:20 am
Yeah. I always preferred the PC guy.
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August 24th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I too prefer the PC guy, and I own a Mac. :) And if I’m condescending in any way about it, I can’t help it, because Macs just work better than PCs overall, imo. In a lot of ways, it’s still a Windows world, so many applications are closed off to me, but there are far fewer glitches than what I experience with my PC at work. [/Apple commercial]
But still, doing a Microsoft commercial wouldn’t be so bad– there are worse things Stephen could do commercials for…
On a different note, the title of this entry reminds me of the line “According to the vicious rumor I just started…” from “Strangers With Candy” (and I think it was used a couple of times on TCR) and that makes me laugh. :)
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August 22nd, 2008 at 6:37 am
I don’t think Stephen would do a commerical like this simply because he has principles. I’d like to think he has too much class to sell out just because Bill Gates threw a couple $million at him. Plus, he’s been such an iPhone promoter for the last year and he totally slammed the Zune last week, so it would be totally out of character to be the face of Microsoft.
The only way I’d accept his acceptance of an offer would be if he donated the paycheck o some charity. THAT’S in character.
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August 22nd, 2008 at 8:30 am
Now, now let’s not be too hasty. Remember Amy Sedaris did an online Microsoft comercial that was adorable. Sometimes a commercial is just a commercial.
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August 22nd, 2008 at 5:49 pm
How is it any different vs that godawful movie this summer that he lent his voice to?
Also, liking / using Microsoft products and having an iPhone aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, I don’t really see what one has to do with the other!
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August 22nd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
On a side note re Windows, anyone else lose video viewing functionality on CC after installing the recently released MS service pack III to Windows XP? It used to work fine and I watched the TDS/TCR full episodes there but now it won’t work at all, the vids won’t come up when I click and I can’t find any info on it. The horror.
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August 22nd, 2008 at 5:31 pm
I think that Comedy Central changed something on their end because I can no longer watch individual videos on CC web sites using Safari. I can still watch the full episodes though. I tried installing a plugin that was recommended when I right clicked on the white space that appeared where the video used to be but I still couldn’t get it to work. I can open videos using IE but the page looks different than it used to.
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August 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Thanks for the info Jenny with a Y, that’s very helpful. I use Firefox. IE and Opera didn’t work either. I can’t get the whole episodes to work either and I don’t have cable, WAH. Thank God for hulu.
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August 24th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
I tried installing the plugin after right-clicking on the white space as well, but that didn’t work for me either. I was using IE as well. I hope things are fixed before our personal Super Tuesday!
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August 25th, 2008 at 11:37 am
There’s a thread about this issue on the Colboards, it seems a lot of people suddenly can’t get the site to play vids. They need to fix this stat!