Microsoft's new Windows ad: No Seinfeld, no Mojave

Depending on your measure of success, Microsoft's has had a mixed strike rate in its history of creating advertisements to spruik Windows.

To me, their ads have never really penetrated the pop consciousness as Apple's Mac and PC guy have.

And there's been the frankly weird efforts, such as employing M.A.S.H. star Tom Skerritt to spruik Windows Vista, or Mac aficionado Jerry Seinfeld's trip to a shoestore with Bill Gates, or the infamous Mojave Experiment.

Microsoft's latest vids, called The Rookies, are actually, dare we say, pleasantly lacking in marketing hype or gimmicks (well, depending on whether kids are a gimmick).

In this one, a 4 and a half year old girl named Kylie uploads a photo to her notebook, uses Windows Live Photo Gallery to edit it, and emails it.

While most PC users got that concept, say, several years ago, the ad at least does a good job of distilling down Microsoft's cloud computing platform into about 35 seconds.

The only weird bit, Microsoft seems to want to continue the whole "I'm a PC" thing in their ads. Is it really necessary?

<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=533e05d2-9f12-4a86-bdda-efd0455fcd36" mce_href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=533e05d2-9f12-4a86-bdda-efd0455fcd36" target='_new' title='Kylie'>Video: Kylie</a>