Microsoft hired Crispin Porter & Bogusky for the consumer-focused advertising campaign. Advertising Age cited unnamed sources saying the campaign could spend up to $300 million.

The ad to air tonight is the first of a series and is meant to be humorous, said a company spokeswoman. She would provide no additional details about the campaign.

People have termed the upcoming advertising effort Microsoft's "fight back" campaign in reference to the company's near silence in the face of Apple's successful and biting "I'm a Mac. I'm a PC" campaign. So far, this campaign has done more to shape the popular perception of Vista than Microsoft has.

As I reported earlier, I've heard from multiple sources that there was heated debate within Microsoft over whether to even launch a counterattack against Apple, which still has a small fraction of the market share for personal computers compared with Windows.

This Fast Company story from June explored the challenge Crispin faced in making Microsoft "cool."

Update 5:30 p.m.: So the ad just ran. Did you see it? What did you think?