Word on the street is that Microsoft will announce the end of the Seinfeld phase of Microsoft's recent ad campaign on Thursday. The Microsoft PR spin is that this was planned and the ad campaign will move on to another theme. Riiiiiight.

Ten million dollars. That is how much money Microsoft reportedly paid Jerry Seinfeld for those two ads. They were ads supposedly meant to rehabilitate the reputation of Windows Vista, but they never mentioned Vista. The Seinfeld choice was appropriate in one way, since these were certainly Ads about Nothing. Is that really what Microsoft wanted, though? There has to be some message the company wants to communicate about themselves or their products, and these ads were tragically uncommunicative.

Perhaps this really is a clever plan. Start with completely non-sequitur ads featuring two 1990s stars in their respective industries, but don't talk about Microsoft, Windows, or Vista. (Well, there was that Windows logo at the end of the commercial, but does that really count?) Where will the ad campaign go from here? That's right, up. Even if Microsoft creates a dull, boring follow-up ad, it's got to at least have a message. They could go sappy ("Vista can help you connect with your family") or appeal to the wallet ("Vista lets you get things done faster, and that's better for the bottom line"). They can say anything they want, it's all up from here. Yada, yada, yada.