“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.” explains Microsoft SVP Bill Veghte, in an internal email to all employees.

That explanation is as lame and as boring as the ad itself. I hope CPB has something better than celebrating what Windows can do for consumers at work if the campaign is supposed to be compared to the hilarious Mac vs. PC ads.

Microsoft is launching a $300 million ad campaign starting September 4th, says the WSJ. The ad campaign will star comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates, and it was developed to combat the negative image that many consumers have about Windows Vista and also to finally push back against Apple’s popular Mac vs. PC campaign. Really interesting move by CPB, which after winning Microsoft back earlier this year finally shows the big idea.

A new video featuring Jerry and Bill showed up yesterday in YouTube, and my first reaction was WTF! I’m sure CPB has something really good planned, they always do, and perhaps this is intentional, but seriously, what is this?  Read More »

My heart goes out to the people who live in Louisiana who are probaby waiting in shelters and hotels in the surrounding areas praying with their families that their house is there when they get home.

I lost a home in 1992 to Hurricane Andrew and I can safely say it was devastating experience. I’ll never forget driving back into the area and how it looked like a bomb had gone off. Nothing was familiar except the odd street sign that let me know I was on the right track. The pictures I’ve seen from the damage Katrina did the last time it powered up through the gulf put even Andrew to shame (mainly through the flooding damage).

Reporting the news on location during these times is difficult to say the least and it’s hard to get first hand information, but a small group of Twitterers are online micro-blogging their way through the storm. It’s pretty interesting to watch people use this platform as a secondary news platform.

I’ve been watching http://twitter.com/MarkMayhew, although there are lots of others updating each other he’s the only one that appears to be riding the storm out. Good luck Mark Mayhew!

UPDATE: Visit http://search.twitter.com/search?q=gustav to check out all the inputs coming in on the storm. They were coming in at a rate of almost 15 a minute when I wrote this.

Today was a great day! I spent the whole day on a client off site on South Beach in perfect Florida weather and we got to discuss some really fascinating new approaches to their strategy while in a great outdoor atmosphere. I love being in the company of bright people!

Beyond that I had two interesting updates on previous posts to the site.

First, I was tipped off my friend, and Sapient Creative Director, Juan Morales that Deep Focus apparently knocked some sense int AMC and they turned the twitter accounts back on for most of the Mad Men characters. I haven’t had this officially confirmed and I’m not sure how they’re managing the accounts right now, but hopefully they’ve come up with an approach that keeps the fans and the management team happy.

Second, I got an email from a friend at Google who contacted me after the blog launched and sent back some nice feedback on the site. He was able to get me onto the Friend Connect beta. That mean’s we’re going to be able to test out Friend Connect functionality right here at “Take Me To Your Leader”.

I would like to thank Ryan, Sami, and Mussie at Google! You guys made my day!!!
PS – Sorry about the late post everyone. Rob and I are going to be more conscious about posting in the morning.

I fancy myself a bit of a music fanatic. I’m one of those obsessive compulsive types that organizes his music by genre and sub-genre and then decides the next week to sort my music by the order in which I first heard it. Think of the book/movie High Fidelity and then replace the record collection with an MP3 collection. (Sadly, I did have the records once too, but opted to digitize them all.)

I hope you enjoy this cross section of 5 albums you probably haven’t hear but should be listening to. It covers the full gambit of musical taste and should satisfy any night out unless you’re a country music fan. If you are a country music fan, please leave my blog now.

Cut Copy  – Ghost Colours

Cut Copy, an Australian band, have brought one of my favorite sounds to the modern age: new wave. This fun album mixes a bit of New Order, older The Cure, with a healthy influence of modern electronica and house. It hit #1 on the Australian charts and has proved to be a slow starter here, but everyone I show it to loves it. The song below is titled Out There On The Ice from the Ghost Colours album.

Santogold – Lights Out

You may have heard of this one. If you haven’t you don’t read up on music very often as she’s been called the artist to watch in 2008 by the BBC, Spin, and Rolling Stone. My favorite thing about this album is that it seems to have so many different styles from songs that remind of Siouxsie and the Banshees to dirty bassy funk. She toured with M.I.A. at one point and you might hear a track that let’s you understand why that pairing would make sense. If you’re looking for something fresh and new then this is a good album for you.

The song below is called L.E.S. Artists and it’s one of the first singles off her debut album.

She Wants Revenge – This Is Forever

She Wants Revenge’s last album was one of my favorite releases of the last two years. It’s like Bauhas reborn, but in my opinion bigger, bolder, and better. Their debut single Tear You Apart really got my attention. The new album which came out this year is equally worthy with a slight evolved sound. Something about the singers voice really appeals to me and this band easily fits onto my gothic guilty pleasure list.

The video below is from the single True Romance off the new album.

CSS – Donkey

CSS, like She Wants Revenge, was one of my favorite releases of last year. This quirky band from Brazil released a raw unapolagetic album filled with electric riffs, fast beats, and dirty vocals. It was crude and amateurish and I LOVED IT.

The second album, Donkey, is far more polished. It’s obvious that they got the attention of a top quality producer now that they’re so many records. I missed the rawness of the first album, but after taking the time to listen to it a couple more times I’ve come to the conclusion it’s a great album. You’re just better off if you don’t compare the two…

Rat is Dead is the first video single from the album Donkey.

Etro Anime – See The Sound

In the interest of not being predictable I’m going to mention an album that is three years old. Somehow it slipped past my radar so I’m going to guess it slipped past yours too. Etro Anime featuring Lissette Alea’s exquisite vocals can be described as a kind of electro-trip-hop smoothed out with a few jazz elements.

The album rounds out my top 5 list with something you want to play laying in bed as easily as you’d want to hear while entertaining friends. I love the sound and I think they’re just one of those unlucky bands whose album came out at the wrong time, because it’s lack of recognition is not for a lack of matching talent.

Watch Endless from their 2005 release. It’s probably one of the poppier tracks of the album. If you want to get a little deeper search for some of their other songs.