Microsoft Begins Airing Its First Seinfeld TV Ads

Earlier reports that Microsoft's new ad campaign would kick off with Jerry Seinfeld as its OS pitchman turned out to be true, and so has the pre-release skepticism. It's hard to imagine being any more annoyed than when watching Justin Long portray the prototypical hipster for the umpteenth time, but like Vista when it first came out, general consensus is that Microsoft has dropped the ball and left eager PC fans more than a little underwhelmed.

How bad was it? Enough so that you won't find any pretense of unbiased reporting in this blog. Not only did the first commercial in Microsoft's $300 million advertising campaign appear to make little sense, but if it was aiming to be funny (and it was), it missed the mark.

"Today, we are kicking off a highly visible advertising campaign," wrote Microsoft's senior VP Bill Veghte in an email to employees. "The first phase of this campaign is designed to engage consumers and spark a new conversation about Windows – a conversation that will evolve as the campaign progresses, but will always be marked by humor and humanity."

Veghte goes on to explain that the first set of ads should be taken as an icebreaker, but if Microsoft was looking to make a good first impression with Seinfeld's debut, well, let's just say it didn't. See for yourself.

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