Remember about three posts down how we were asking you what you thought of the Microsoft/Seinfeld effort from Crispin? And remember how we said it was The Ad Campaign About Nothing? And how they didn’t actually have anything to sell?

We would have liked to have been surprised.
We would have liked for the whole thing to make sense.
We would have liked Microsoft to have had a rationale.
A rationale that goes a little something like this:

STEP 1: Take One Or Two Of Those Dusty Pallets Of Cash We Have Lying Around, And Make Ads That Show People We’re Not Evil.

STEP 2: Now That People Know We’re Not Evil, Let’s Sell Them Something That, For Once, Does Not Suck.

Nope. This is Microsoft we’re talking about. So something as relatively simple as the Mortar Two-Step Plan becomes as complicated as Parking With George. They went and killed the campaign. According to Valleywag,

"Microsoft flacks are desperately dialing reporters to spin them about "phase two" of the ad campaign — a phase, due to be announced tomorrow, which will drop the aging comic altogether. Microsoft’s version of the story: Redmond had always planned to drop Seinfeld. The awkward reality: The ads only reminded us how out of touch with consumers Microsoft is — and that Bill Gates’s company has millions of dollars to waste on hiring a has-been funnyman to keep him company. Update: In a phone call, Waggener Edstrom flack Frank Shaw confirms that Microsoft is not going on with Seinfeld, and echoes his underlings’ spin that the move was planned. There is the "potential to do other things" with Seinfeld, which Shaw says is still "possible." He adds: "People would have been happier if everyone loved the ads, but this was not unexpected.""

We’ll see. Perhaps they’re smarter than we give them credit for. In the meantime, enjoy some classic Seinfeld.

Here’s the Obama campaign with a two-minute ad on the economy. Two minutes? But we’re Americans! We have short attention spans – the TV says so!
What do you think? Can you watch a politician talk for 120 seconds?
Mortar is big into the idea of trusting the audience not to be idiots. And we appreciate it when someone else trusts us not to be idiots. We’re just more nervous than a moose on the first day of hunting season when we think of trusting everyone not to be idiots. Let us hear your thoughts.

Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.

Skip to about 2 minutes in to see beautiful HD video of a coupla lunatics bombing Berkeley’s Claremont Avenue on their longboards. They pass. A freaking. Car. We are not only impressed by the riders’ cojones, but by their skill with the camera and the quality of the video itself.
We are also glad this didn’t turn into a St. Mary’s ad.

Via Daily Kos and our bud, Bud.

There’s a concept in this business we call "ad," known as "malicious obedience." Here’s how it works:

CLIENT: "Make the logo bigger."

CREATIVE DEPARTMENT: "Oh yeah? You want the logo bigger? We’ll make the freakin’ logo bigger..."

…And then the logo covers the whole ad, making nobody happy.

Malicious obedience is not a practice we generally advocate. It’s childish (we don’t mind that part,) and it solves nothing. (Well, it feels good for about a minute…)

This poster, however, would be an exception. The MPAA thought Kevin Smith’s original poster for Zack and Miri Make A Porno was too racy. So he resubmitted the one on the right, which we like much better, and not just because it keeps us from having to look at Seth Rogen’s overexposed, undershaved mug. Just look at all that copy! 

Yay, malicious obedience!

Yay, Boing-Boing!