Jerry Seinfeld has been asked to do for Microsoft what Justin Long did for Apple – make it cool and hip with the young crowd. Or at least the middle aged crowd.

The $US300 million dollar campaign, which is one of the largest ever undertaken by the software giant, is aimed at establishing a cachet for the computer operating system and will feature Seinfeld along with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates.

The theme of the campaign will be “Windows not Walls,” the Wall Street Journal reported today, and will focus on “breaking down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting.”

The campaign is seen as Microsoft’s attempt to hit back at Apple’s long running series of Mac vs PC ads, which feature a nerdy PC guy losing out to a cool representative of Apple’s increasingly popular Macs.

Sydney Morning Herald

I think it makes perfect sense to hit back at Apple’s statement that PC users are dull – because it’s those dull, middle aged baby boomers with all the money to spend on new computer gimmicks. I know so many middle aged men who are indulging their inner computer geeks. You know the men I mean, they had cell phones in the mid 90s that were so large they’d pull their pants down if they put them in their pocket.

Of course, if you’re like me and been working with a PC for 10 years you really can’t be bothered moving all that stuff over to a new Apple Mac, even if it is possibly the better system, so Microsoft needs to recruit now to sell more computers later.

Jerry, who probably makes more money a minute on re-runs and syndications of his show than most people make in a week, has had success recently with his four year long project Bee Movie. He will be paid $10million for his role in the Microsoft commercials.

Note by Celebitchy: It seems incredibly fitting that Microsoft would pick such an annoying guy past his prime to represent their product. The next time my PC crashes with that too-long beep and the white text scrolling on the blue screen of death, I’ll think of Jerry Seinfeld. Now I have a face other than Gates to take my ire out on.

Here’s how to turn off User Account Control in Vista, which is one of the most annoying features of the OS.

Header image of Seinfeld was taken 11/2/07 outside the ‘Regis and Kelly’ show. Credit: Ray Filmano / WENN. That’s supposedly an actual Vista error message. Credit: Sensory Metrics