More on the offending ad here.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld will star in a $US300 million marketing campaign for Microsoft aimed at burnishing the image of its computer operating system, a person familiar with the effort said.

The centerpiece of that campaign, to debut next month, is a series of television advertisements in which Seinfeld, 54, best known for his eponymous sitcom, will appear with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, the person told Reuters.

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported details of the marketing effort, said Seinfeld will receive about $US10 million for his work.

Seinfeld’s representatives were not immediately available for comment and Redmond, Washington-based computer software giant Microsoft declined to discuss the matter.

But the source who knew of the ad campaign said an immediate goal of the commercials is to counter public perceptions that Windows Vista, Microsoft’s latest PC operating system, is clunky and hard to use compared with rival products from Apple.

I can just imagine the campaign now – Windows: Not that there’s anything wrong with it.