Microsoft's goal with the campaign is to make people rediscover Windows XP, the company's director of advertising for its consumer marketing group, Scott Lennard, noted in news reports.

The company has not released figures on how much the advertising campaign will cost, but did say it would be a global campaign covering television, print and online advertising.

Theme Park

The campaign will be focused around different themes in an attempt to draw the attention of broad consumer interest.

Themes include music, science, art, cooking, education, travel, gaming and sports. In the print ads, a person is shown with a window over the heart, with images like musical notes and instruments flowing out.

Each ad emphasizes how people use Windows XP to explore their interests, with the tagline "Start Something" as a unifying message.

UPDATE: Hoo-boy. Via Kris: This kind of thing just keeps happening, doesn't it?

Microsoft so thoughtfully posted one of the new "Start Something" ads that's part of the new global awareness campaign for Microsoft Windows XP and invites users to click the image for high-res version.

Well, various MacDailyNews readers clicked to view the image, downloaded it and checked the file's info by using iPhoto's "Get Info" and other methods to view the file's EXIF information which shows it was created with "Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh."

As one reader wrote, "Isn't it ironic? A picture launching their big campaign designed to steal the thunder from Apple - is made on a Mac!"

First WeHaveTheWayOut.com, Microsoft's anti-UNIX astroturf site, turns out to be hosted on FreeBSD (and now it's hilariously misconfigured); then Microsoft counters Apple's "Switch" campaign with an "I Switched to Windows" site featuring a "writer" whose likeness in the banner image was licensed from Getty Images. Now this. (Nor is that all—I could go on.)

Of course this kind of self-parodic incompetence won't result in any actual backlash from the consumer base—Microsoft knows this by now, which is why they allow it to keep happening. But if they're as spooked by industry trends (and Tiger) as the XP ad campaign would seem to suggest, perhaps they might like to look inward for reasons why their grip is slipping.