Microsoft finally gets it right. And wrong.

Since 2006, Apple has been hammering the PC market (and, in one degree of separation, Microsoft) with its brilliantly simple ‘Mac vs. PC’ campaign featuring Justin Long and John Hodgman.

The campaign instantly created a huge international buzz, and has been customized for markets outside the U.S.

Over the past two years, the campaign, created for Apple by TBWA/Media Lab, has won boatloads of industry awards and become beloved by ad wonks and consumers alike. With the spots still running and as iconic as ever, it’s interesting to consider the merits of the two recently released Microsoft campaigns.

The first features Microsoft’s own not-so-dynamic duo- Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates.

I think we could call this a launch pad disaster.

The spot debuted September 4 and has been criticized roundly for its lack of mentioning, you know, the product. Seinfeld’s famous show about nothing has morphed into an ad campaign…about nothing. It fails to entertain…and worse yet, it fails to sell anything. Ouch.

But the news isn’t all bad. Microsoft recently launched their ‘I’m a PC’ campaign, which begs the question- What took Microsoft so long to respond to Apple?

The spots, released September 18, use cameos of everyone from Vera Wang to Tony Parker and include clips of a variety of ordinary (and very extraordinary) people. Is it as entertaining as the Apple campaign? Nope. But does it provide an effective and reassuring message to the 95% of the world that currently works on PCs? Absolutely. With such a predominant market share on their side, it figured that at least a few cool people would be working on PC’s too- and Microsoft did a fine job of packaging that message.

Here’s hoping that they continue down this road and let Jerry & Bill wander off into the sunset.