Comedian Jerry Seinfeld will star in a US$300 million marketing campaign for Microsoft aimed at burnishing the prototype 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 situation comedy, will seem with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, the person told Reuters.
The Wall Street Journal, which number one reported inside information of the marketing effort, said Seinfeld will encounter about US$10 million (NZ$13.9m)�for his work.
Seinfeld's representatives were not immediately available for comment and Redmond, Washington-based computer package giant Microsoft declined to discuss the matter.
But the source world Health Organization knew of the ad campaign said an immediate goal of the commercials is to counter populace perceptions that Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest PC operating system, is clunky and hard to use compared with rival products from Apple.
The overall objective of the campaign is to rejuvenate the brand image of Windows generally, the source said.
Devised by the Miami-based ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the spots will employ some variation of the motto "Windows, Not Walls" and the root word of removing barriers that prevent citizenry and ideas from connecting, the person said.
The ads will begin appearing September 4. The Wall Street Journal aforementioned the $US300 million marketing campaign is one of the largest in the company's history.
For now, Seinfeld is the only celebrity, other than Gates, pickings part in the political campaign, although others were considered, including amusing actor Will Ferrell, the source said.
The attempted ikon overhaul comes in the wake of Apple's "Mac vs PC" ads featuring a geeky PC guy rope who mistily resembles Gates being unable to keep up with a fine-looking, hip Mac counterpart.
Those ads, painting Windows as stodgy and unreliable, have reinforced criticism about Vista's public presentation, stringent hardware requirements and lack of support for other package and devices such as printers.
Despite selling more than 180 one thousand thousand licenses since its launch in 2007, Vista continues to endure from the perception the release was a washout, although Microsoft has aforementioned early problems with the operating system have been resolved.
The Windows operating system is the crown gem of Microsoft's US$60 billion software empire. It sits on more than 90 percent of the world's computers and profits generated from Windows bankroll the company's ventures into new businesses such as Xbox video game machines and Zune music players.
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