What? Microsoft -- the company which subjected the world to its unforgivable dinosaur ad campaign -- is drawing raves from the art house set for its most recent Zune TV campaign. Crazy but true: in the ongoing battle for the hearts and minds of the iPod genaration, Microsoft has scored a victory for its Zune by way of a whimsical, Edward Gorey-esqe animation backed by upbeat indie rocker M. Ward. Check it:



So what if the actual product-related message is easily missed says blogger Dr. Macenstein: "Sure, the visuals will likely scare the crap out of young children, and you have to already have heard of the Zune and be familiar with its song sharing abilities to even understand it, but it is a visual tour de force that I think one ups Apple's energetic neon nano ads."

On Digg, the criticisms are more technical. The ads' file sharing metaphor -- in which a small childlike creature gives away bits of an inexhaustible chocolate chip cookie -- fails to capture the reality of Digital Rights Management restrictions complain some Diggers: "If the ad was honest, the girl would only be able to give the cookie 3 times, and as the people walked down the street their cookie would disappear," writes one.

But DRM subtleties aside, the fact is Microsoft is tearing up the YouTube charts. And, funnily enough, Redmond's hit comes just as the normally pitch-perfect Apple marketers have been off key with their ubiquitous iMac ads.

The Browser says: Early Zune sales may be sluggish, but writing ads for the product with nothing to lose is always more fun than trying to try to hold on to a 70% market share.