Microsoft to spend $120 to show it’s not “huge”

This article came to my attention today:

Microsoft ads aim to erase ‘huge’ image

Microsoft Corp., the world’s biggest software maker, will spend $120 million a year on an advertising campaign to fight its image as “a huge American company.”

The campaign, using television, print and the Internet, highlights Microsoft’s education and economic development projects in 32 countries, including France and Taiwan, according to group advertising manager Mike Lucero. Actor William Macy of the movie “Fargo” narrates the ads.

“We are often perceived as a huge American company,” Lucero said Friday in an interview.

“We wanted to be very specific about what we are doing in each country in education, innovation, economic opportunity and security,” he said.

I forwarded this on to Scoble, who had a good reply - I’ll let him post it.

My take - is this really a good investment? I mean, sure, positive exposure is always a good thing. But unlike blogs and CES, this doesn’t seem very… well… personal.

It seems to me that this $120 million might be better spent offering some great free service to potential customers around the word, and to rely on word of mouth instead.

I haven’t seen the ad campaign yet - so I guess I’ll have to wait and see how this turns out.