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Microsoft’s Seinfeld campaign has been this month’s temple-scratcher.

I like it. I think it’s the only thing Microsoft can do. Let’s face it:

• They can’t be “cool”. “Welcome to the social” and “Hello from Seattle” still makes me shudder. No one is genuinely thinking the Zune is a cool product, although nowadays it’s capable and less embarrassing that if it weren’t for the Windows Media shit, I could probably even recommend it. It’s more of a designed product than most of the crap SanDisk and Creative pushes.

• They can’t be educative. “Mojave” just proves that Microsoft thinks that Vista’s got a bad rap (which is true) and that that’s why no one wants to use it. Wait what — most people that have formed a strong opinion have used it and reverted, and many have been impressed and hopeful going in. They didn’t just get out because they watched a Get a Mac ad and it was the hip thing to do, they got out because they encountered real problems, whether actually triggered directly by Microsoft or not. Punking your customers is not a good way to attack this.

• They can’t sell their business products, because their business products are not the problem. (Which doesn’t stop them from carrying complete slush. People ready my ass. (That was not an invitation.))

• They can’t sell their productivity products, because they just spent several years calling their customers dinosaurs (and therefore stupid and outdated) before they switched the entire UI (which I actually think was a good move) and file formats. And this is not the problem either, because they still outsell a blockbuster Hollywood movie each week.

• They absolutely can’t stay the course. No one’s buying Vista’s “Wow” anymore, if they ever did. Live Search is not better than Google.

So what can they do? Very little. If you consider that, poking fun at yourself and at your ubiquity isn’t a bad place to start. The two ads that have aired may be weird, but the actual, real comedy is subtle. (Bill Gates shopping discount shoes, Bill Gates’ discount card, Bill Gates’ “Jupiter brain”, various shorts-adjusting, object-oriented good night tales, and of course “OK, power down”.)

They do try to soften up the attitude. Microsoft has recently been seen as an assertive dominant buffoon, but it’s always been filled with smart people. The problem has always been like the company’s acting as if it was the only thing that mattered everywhere they entered. Focusing on mostly-retired Bill Gates as a straight man is a good move (like Windows and like Seinfeld universally recognizable) and not making him seem like a complete dork (nerd, yes, dork, no) is laudable.

However, it looks like I’m standing alone in thinking this is not building into something special. Eventually, the ads will stop running and, say, Windows 7 ads will start running, but I don’t believe it is their place just to be a lead-in to another campaign.

It’s about more than that.