Microsoft debuted the first in a series of TV spots starring Jerry Seinfeld Thursday night – to overwhelmingly negative reviews.

The ad, a long one-and-a-half minute commercial that aired on NBC during the NFL season kick-off, features Seinfeld at a shoe store helping Bill Gates buy a new pair of shoes. The ad was the first of a series of commercials to star Seinfeld and Gates at a cost of  $300 million. Seinfeld was purportedly paid $10 million for his part.

According to Microsoft, the commercials are designed as a viral marketing campaign to change Microsoft’s image from an old, stodgy dinosaur into that of a younger, hipper company like Apple. The question is, can they do it?

Initial response to the first ad was overwhelmingly negative. Reviews from news organizations on the Internet and reaction throughout the blogosphere blasted the ad as an unfunny pitch about nothing and suggested that Microsoft has already lost this one right out of the gate. Perhaps they have. Then again, perhaps we were all set up and the ad was actually an overwhelming success.

A lot of critics who posted negative reviews of the ad would probably call me a nut case for suggesting such a thing and anyone who saw the ad could certainly understand why. Even Microsoft fanboys are blasting the ad, calling it everything from dull to dimwitted. Sure, I was not impressed with it either, but I also noticed the ad had more than one layer to it, contained some obvious metaphors, and actually attempted to be coy. I also picked up on the term ‘viral marketing’ that is used to describe the intent of the entire campaign. I suspect that something else is going on here and both traditional and new media types are being played.

The key to this is “‘viral marketing “.

To understand what I am trying to say, it is important to understand what viral marketing is. The term itself is somewhat new, having been coined circa 1996 and attributed to author and Harvard professor Jeffrey Rayport in an article for Fast Company, according to Wikipedia .The concept centers around the use of social networking and word-of-mouth campaigns to sell products and services and to create brand awareness. It is a type of stealth marketing that sells by popular suggestion and referral as apposed to a direct sales pitch and is considered to be more effective in some venues, particularly on the Internet.

Consider this. Microsoft generated a lot of industry buzz during the last few weeks when it first announced the campaign. They told us what they were going to do, who they signed on to do it and how much it would ultimately cost. They built up great (although skeptical) expectations, speculation and a lot of hype, most of which was actually created not by Redmond itself, but by the news media and bloggers.

Then came the debut and the let down. People heard the name Seinfeld. We heard $300 million. We heard Microsoft. We expected a lavish production , a great performance (from Seinfeld, not Gates) and  most of all, we expected it to be entertaining and funny. Our expectations, although full of scepticism,  were high. Then it aired. It was not exactly what people were expecting.

Of course, the reaction was immediate. The Microsoft fans were disappointed and angry. The Microsoft detractors had more fodder to feed upon. The net was alive with the cacophony that ensued.

Okay, the concensus is that the ad was a bust. Was it?

Think about this. What if the ad had been really, really good? What if it was in-your-face funny and the message was spot-on? Would it have had as much coverage the day after? Would people be talking about it as much as they are now? Even if it was a hilarious one-and-a-half minute stand up routine, chances are it would all be forgotten by now. The old saying that there is no such thing as bad publicity still holds true.

Remember, the word for today is ‘viral marketing’.  Good or bad, this was the overall intent of the campaign, was it not? The mainsteam media is mainstreaming it. The Bloggers are blogging about it. Podcasters are podcasting it. The buzz is everywhere.

It may not have been what people were expecting, or even what they wanted to watch. But from a viral marketing perspective, it was certainly not a bust. Au Contraire, it was very effective. It got noticed. That, I believe, was the real hook. Redmond played and manipulated the mainstream media and the bloggers and they hardly even noticed it. Good or bad, I think Microsoft definitely got their money’s worth on that one.