Over the past 24 hours there has been much debate online as to whether Microsoft’s new ad campaign is any good or not.  The general view across many of the major blogs is that Microsoft have wasted a huge amount of money on a dud.  There’s Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Gates, a discount shoe shop and a bit of banter about footwear and turning computers into cakes and that’s it.  If you haven’t seen it yet, voila…

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The main complaints about this advert have been that it says nothing about Microsoft’s products and that the only thing it can possibly say about their brand is that Microsoft seem to be associating themselves with cheap shoes.  So, is that all there is to it, or could they actually be onto a winner here?

Let’s face it, the ad is only the first in what’s sure to be a long series.  As the first episode, all it needs to do is set the tone for what’s to follow (a kind of Seinfeld / Curb Your Enthusiasm-type thing, unsurprisingly) and introduce the relationship between Seinfeld and Gates.  It does that with wit and humour and that’s all that’s needed.

Only one person seems to agree with me that this might be worth giving a chance, and that’s Chris Baskind.  The ad might not scream “Vista is better than OSX! Buy a Zune!” but it does make you want to see the next ad in the series.  In fact, thay’ve even stated that the first ad is simply there to “engage consumers spark conversation”.  That’s all it set out to do and it’s certainly succeeded.  The rest of the series might turn out to be absolute rubbish, but let’s give them a chance.  At least they’re trying to stop looking like the most boring company on the block.