Microsoft hurdling sharks with "Gurus"

There’s a point where Microsoft goes from annoyingly copying Apple’s best stuff well enough to grab marketshare, to today’s news where you almost have to pity the lack of any type of real innovation happening there.   The Seinfeld commercial is pretty sad.  While it borrows heavily from the light hearted interaction of the recent Apple commercials, it really doesn’t make us want to see any more….ever.   And this is from some Seinfeld junkies.

Microsoft tried to quell the fear/embarrassment from its own internal employees by sending out this email:

This first set of ads features Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Think of these ads as an icebreaker to reintroduce Microsoft to viewers in a consumer context. Later this month, as the campaign moves into its next phase, we’ll go much deeper in telling the Windows story and celebrating what it can do for consumers at work, at play and on-the-go. At that time, I’ll be back to share more information about our plans to further strengthen the bond between consumers and Windows–one of the most amazing products, businesses and brands of all time, and, with the right tenacity, passion and agility from all of us, a story that has many great chapters to come.

But it gets much worse.  That wasn’t even today’s most embarassing moment for Microsoft.

Case in point:  Microsoft Gurus…

Microsoft is paying people to hang out at Best Buy and Circuit City (and WalMart?) to try to help people navigate through the quagmire that is Windows Vista.  They of course won’t be able to fix any hardware issues…or do much on the software side….but will otherwise be useful. 

We can actually see one really helpful area which they can provide assistance.   They will be able to help choose which brand of Windows to buy – there are 6 to choose from!

Oh, in case you aren’t shockingly embarrassed for Microsoft yet, does Guru sound like anything you ever heard of from any of Micorosoft’s consumer competitors?  Ugh, it is hard to watch.

Why not spend some of that time/$/energy bringing that Photosynth software to the Mac?