(Maybe we should have a section here about football game tv advertising?--B.P.) Critics Say Gates-Seinfeld Duo No Laughing Matter Microsoft Ads Draw Attention, Not Praise; Missing the Creativity? By NICK WINGFIELD and SUZANNE VRANICA September 8, 2008 Jerry Seinfeld's long-running sitcom is often described as a show about nothing. The same might be said of a baffling new Microsoft Corp. commercial featuring the comedian and Bill Gates -- not, as "Seinfeld" characters might say, that there's anything wrong with that. The first highly anticipated commercial in an ambitious $300 million campaign to burnish Microsoft's Windows brand was mostly panned by early viewers. The TV spot -- which began airing during an NFL game on Thursday and was later seen hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube -- follows Messrs. Gates and Seinfeld around a shopping mall as the Microsoft chairman tries on shoes, but doesn't mention Windows once. A blogger for Computer World wrote: "It's one of the worst, most pointless ads in history" while a headline in the Sydney Morning Herald read: " 'Bizarre' Microsoft ad misses mark."