Microsoft allowed their brand to be diminished, remained quiet for too long, then came out with ineffective, inconsistent ads according to Therese Poletti at MarketWatch on Thursday. Given the current economy, one way for Microsoft to save some money is to just kill the whole campaign.

In March, Microsoft hired a rebel but hot ad agency, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, in a reported US$300M ad campaign to counter the extremely successful "Get a Mac" ads from Apple. "This agency had to create a major campaign for an arrogant client that is still mostly viewed in the computer industry as a monopolist bully, developing products with too many features -- and thus too many bugs," Ms. Poletti wrote.

The "Get a Mac " ads were so successful that PC analysts believed that Microsoft needed to take their brand back, and they were certainly getting under Microsoftis skin.

While the perception of the Apple ads was that they were simple and to the point, few in the professional advertising world thought the Microsoft ads generated much buzz. "In advertising, we discuss every single campaign," Jerry Della Famina, a famous New York ad exec noted. "No one wanted to say, iI donit get it.i No one talked about it."

The net result is that Microsoft is still playing defense with the ads. Even a long-time Microsoft observer pointed out that the ad campaign "stands as an example of why you donit want to be quiet for so long."