The New York Times Calls the New Microsoft ‘I’m a PC’ TV Commercials Risky — Guru Calls Them Right On.

Last Thursday Microsoft switched to the next phase of its $300 million television campaign. Thank God.

I can’t imagine why the New York Times considers it both ambitious and risky. Risky is being so bland, BS-sy and boring that your chief rival Apple is allowed to brand-nap your product and millions of users.

While some found the quixotic commercials featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld in search of real people worth a watercooler chat, many (including moi) found them baffling. But after the many years I spent working on Microsoft projects, I have a pretty good grasp of why the company felt it needed to take a gigantic leap away from advertising as usual.

Happily, ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky could tap into local talent. In recent years, Bill has decidedly morphed away from being the Evil Dictator of the Evil Empire to becoming a kind of folksy spokes-geek. He always played that role in the playful company videos that typically first aired during his Comdex or CES keynotes. It suits him.

The new campaign, which carries the theme “Windows. Life without walls,” still features Bill, this time in a cameo role, with the humble-pie email address: bill@windows.com.  In the new spots, he is surrounded by everyone from celebrities like Deepak Chopra and Eva Longoria to everyday PC users, from scientists and fashion designers to shark hunters and teachers, showing off their individualism.  And their pride in using their PCs.

 But what it really does well is what everyone says Obama should do — hit hard at the competition.

The new “I’m a PC” spots are so right on, even for this proud owner of a glossy green Mac Book, that all I can say is ‘It’s about time.’

PS: The new ‘I’m a PC’ group on Facebook already has 527 members.

Update: Straight from Appleinsider’s Irony Files comes this tidbit — the ‘I’m A PC’ commercials were actually made on Macs. A Flickr user named LuisDS made the discovery. AppleInsider says he found traces of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system and Adobe’s Creative Suite 3 in the metadata files of the video.