Self indulgent personal statements are not marketing.

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People ask me all the time why I think marketing should be invisible. Here's one of those examples.

Did you see the 2008 Microsoft/Seinfeld ads? (If not, time for a quick trip to youtube.)

This campaign illustrates why many innocent young creatives go into advertising: to get their personal creative statements funded.

Now, the agency sounds reasonably intelligent and businesslike when talking ABOUT the campaign.

But just look at the ads. Pick someone who you think represents their target audience for those ads (say, a colleague in your office or a friend's college-age kid). Ponder the actions the company probably wants the audience to take. Contemplate what Microsoft wants us to believe about their company and products.

After seeing the ads, what do you think Microsoft achieved?

If you answered, "Awareness," who discovered Microsoft's existence through this campaign?

Here's what I think. Either Microsoft has nothing interesting to reveal, which I doubt, or Bogusky (the agency's creative leader) failed to understand Microsoft and their mojo, which I suspect. Perhaps Microsoft could not get behind a clear message strategy. Perhaps Bogusky's people failed to execute.

But I think the agency's responsibility to make the value of a company more visible through the marketing it creates. Or to bow out.

If Microsoft had spent the $30 million on direct response ad testing with niche markets, niche messages, and niche media where they think they have growth potential, would they have come out ahead? Maybe.