Pharrell Williams has become one of the faces in a new Microsoft Windows UK advertising campaign, going some way to replacing the less cool Jerry Seinfeld across the pond. 

The uber-cool music producing, model dating, skateboarding fashion designer has a longish standing relationship with Microsoft. Pharrell helped Bill Gates launch the Xbox 360's Halo 3 game in the UK last year and now he and his band NERD feature in the latest slice of Microsoft's marketing onslaught - the "Life without Walls" campaign.

In the advert, Pharrell, who presumably doesn't conform to technological fashion trends asserts, "I'm a PC, just like BG" - we expect that Big Daddy Bill appreciated the effort at rapping. 

Deepak Chopra, the noted author is also in the campaign. Chopra tells us that he is a human being, not a human doing, or, we assume, a human waiting for something to restart, in his five seconds of Microsoft fame.

Also in the UK we lucky Windows users get the opportunity to contribute to the campaign. A join-in button lets you see a number of other lucky punters share their experiences while also encouraging you to send in your own message to the site. As well as this, we are advised to go on the look out for a magical mystery tour bus that Microsoft is wheeling around the country. Inside the bus are videopods in which you are encouraged to voice your messages and opinions about the software.

The envelope-pushing advertising agency behind the campaign said that it is designed to help people express their positive experiences of using Windows, so please don't throw yourself in front of the vehicle when it is moving. No matter how tempting that might be. 

13 Oct 2008