• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, October 11, 2010

With Microsoft's rollout of Windows Phone 7 ranking as one of Microsoft's biggest product launches in recent years, a lot is riding on the ad campaign that will accompany it. The software giant again tapped Crispin Porter and Bogusky, the vaunted creative shop that also developed Microsoft's "I'm a PC" spots and the "Windows 7 was my idea" campaign.

The new ads for Windows Phone 7, some early versions of which have already leaked onto the Web, will formally debut Oct. 12 in Europe and Oct. 25 in the U.S. , Microsoft announced today. The company called the upcoming ad blitz "the biggest TV marketing campaign in the history of the mobile business," with commercials airing on shows like "Hawaii Five-0," "Bones" and "Saturday Night Live." Microsoft hasn't provided any dollar figure, but reports estimate the company could be spending up to $500 million to promote the new platform.

But the huge media buy won't be worth much if the ad creative itself comes up short. If an initial spot Microsoft previewed online today is any guide, the ads are clever, amusing and well-executed -- what you might expect from Crispin Porter.

The one-minute ad shows people starting at their phones in a series of situations where they should be focused on the matters at hand--a surgeon in the OR, a man with his feet dangling over the side of a boat as a shark approaches, and another guy dropping and retrieving his phone from a urinal. (I hate when that happens.)

"Really?" asks the guy standing next to him, with the same question repeated in the other vignettes by disapproving onlookers, co-workers or lovers. The dialogue-free ad ends with a voice-over intoning, "It's time for a phone to save us from our phones."

A second spot set to Donovan's "Season of the Witch" shows a European-looking street scene where people are so engrossed in their phones they don't notice the surrounding mayhem, including a car crash, caused by their inattention. It ends with the same tag line.

After the first two ads, six other 30-second spots to be released will spotlight particular Windows Phone features such as Xbox Live, Bing and photos. But the first pair of ads do the heavy lifting of delivering the brand message that Windows Phone 7 is designed to let users get information quickly and get on with their actual lives. Both ads are visually engaging, and the first one keep viewers watching as well by creating a sense of anticipation about the next humorous scene of phone-staring obliviousness.

Yes, the concept is counterintuitive in that Microsoft is encouraging people to spend less time with their smartphone and more time attending to the wider world around them. (AT&T and Microsoft's other carrier partners should love that!)

Even if the ad scenarios tend toward the outrageous, everyone is familiar with the habit of becoming immersed in cell phone activity to the exclusion of everything else around them. That's why laws have been passed to keep people from using their phones while driving. In that vein, maybe the Microsoft ads can be viewed as really expensive public-service ads against texting or talking while driving.

Whether the company will encourage people to buy Windows Phone 7 devices with is another question. But from Microsoft's standpoint, the company at least hasn't screwed up the chances of selling a lot of phones because of a head-scratching ad campaign. Neither Bill Gates nor Jerry Seinfeld appear in either of the initial ads. These spots may not save Microsoft's mobile business, but they won't kill it.