Jerry Seinfeld and Superman for American ExpressI have been reading up on Jerry Seinfeld’s deal with Microsoft and this much seems very clear. Open source is not his target.

I don’t even think Apple is his target. These are not product ads we’re talking about, but high-end image makeover ads.

I have some small insight into this, having grown up less than a mile from Jerry in Massapequa. At that time the town was filled with commercial actors and Madison Avenue types.

Jerry respected them. He has always admired commercial work and thus set himself up as the “gold standard” in that area.

Jerry’s assignment this time is to do for Bill Gates what Fred Astaire did for Ginger Rogers. Give him class.

Back in the early 1990s, believe it or not, Microsoft was considered cool. Now comics like Ink Pen use it as a punchline, a synonym for evil.

There’s your problem.