Anyway, back to the point – Apple did a stellar, albeit somewhat dishonest, job of defining Vista. Microsoft’s biggest problem is that they waited too long to answer back and now they are playing catch up. It will take a Herculean effort to overcome the negative perception. I’m not sure Jerry Seinfeld is the right guy to do it. But, we’ll know more as the campaign progresses. It sounds like it is a much more broad-based effort than ads though, with Microsoft also (at least) executing in-market activities at retail stores to put MS “geniuses” on the floor, much as Apple does in their stores.

$300 million is a lot of money and you can bet some of it will have an effect. Windows 7 is not likely going to launch next year (as some have reported). So MS needs Vista to succeed and needs to rebuild the company’s tattered reputation.

I was thinking when I read this about how square Seinfeld has become, even as he hasn’t really changed his image that much. Think about how edgy Larry David is (and the brand associated with him would be Prius, I guess). Remember Jerry’s last ad campaign for American Express (I think) where he hung out with Superman. Two of our father’s brands. Vista is actually a step forward for the guy.

But we must pity the poor marketing people at Microsoft handed a lame-duck product they have to somehow pitch. At least they can have some fun while doing it, since it can’t possibly make any difference…