NEW YORK After taking a pounding from Apple for years about the shortcomings of its PC products, Microsoft is fighting back -- with a much-anticipated 90-second commercial starring iconic '90s comedian Jerry Seinfeld and the software giant's chairman, Bill Gates, as its first salvo. The spot broke during National Football League coverage last night.

This is the tech giant's first work from MDC's Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami, and it marks the kickoff to a wide-ranging $300 million campaign designed to alert consumers to innovations made possible through Microsoft's Windows operating system.

"Windows is a product that's been around for a long time," said David Webster, general manager of brand and marketing strategy at Microsoft. "It's well-known and part of people's everyday lives. What people don't know is that Windows has kept pace with the changes in people's lives today. We thought it was a good time to catch people up with what Windows was doing."

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