While the new MS ads are much, much better than the bizarro Seinfeld ones, I think Don Reisinger has it right: they are targeting the wrong crowd:

Playing nicely with the mainstream means nothing in this industry unless the niche is happy. And if Microsoft wants Windows 7 to be a success, it better create a product that appeals to that niche and start playing nice with it. If it doesn't, look for Microsoft's PR troubles to continue indefinitely.

I think that's right. A tremendous amount of the surge in Mac sales is due to word of mouth out of the tech geek crowd. Jump back 3 years, and you saw the leading edge: tons of Macs at conferences. You still see that, but you also see the word of mouth from that edge hitting the mainstream.

With the new ads, MS is targeting the center - but they aren't giving the geeks anything. The mainstream user isn't going to be out talking about how cool WIndows 7 is - but impressed geeks would. Apple recognizes that fact; MS is still wasting money with these clowns.

They seem to think they're selling soap or something....

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