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This is a pretty awesome mini micro-musical that many Hollywood actors recently released to protest California’s recent vote on Proposition 8 which banned gay marriage. Aside from the fact that it’s spot on, it’s also hilarious and worthy of a watch. And like most good web videos, it includes Neil Patrick Harris.

So if you care about equality or just want to save the economy, get involved at Join the Impact.

Brilliant campaign video:

Not so brilliant campaign video:

The second installment in Microsoft’s $300M ad campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates has been released. It’s not really funny but the theme of the campaign has been introduced, namely that Bill and Jerry need to connect with “real” people.

Like the churro in the first ad, there’s more strange symbolism in this TV spot. The grandma is seen throughout the ad doing work while the rest of the family, well, who knows what they do. Does this old lady, who’s “been here for 12 years”, symbolize Windows NT/2000/XP¹ and the fact that it’s still the workhorse in the Windows family? More importantly, what’s the significance of the fancy mustard?

I think we could really dive into this ad and find lots of things to analyze, but in the end, it’s just a weird commercial.

And Bill Gates doing the robot is just creepy.

¹ Windows NT was released in 1996 and Windows 2000 and XP were built on the same kernel as NT.

Apple has been running their “I’m a Mac. I’m a PC” ads for years now. All the while, Microsoft has basically been holding their hands over their ears saying “I can’t hear you!” over and over. So it was big news when they announced they were actually going to fire back with a new $300 million ad campaign starring none other than Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates.

Unfortunately, the first new video ad is out, and oh-my-gawd is it awful. The Apple ads are short, to the point, and for the most part pretty amusing. The Microsoft ad is rambling, confusing, and not really funny.

Somewhere in here there’s a good analogy to recent Microsoft software versus Apple software. But at this point I feel too bad for Microsoft to keep ripping on them. Just watch the video and be amazed (in a bad way):

You’d think millions of dollars could buy you a laugh, or at least a chuckle. I’ll say this, they have definitely brought the “wow“, but like Vista, they just didn’t do it in a good way.

This actually has nothing to do with Appian (the company where I work) and everything to do with the new iPhone App Store. But I still thought it was so damn close to be pretty funny:

From the TUAW article:

Appien isn’t for everyone. Side effects include nausea, projectile Zune ownership, and dry mouth.

Talk to your doctor about Appien.

Indeed.