Apparently, Windows Vista isan operating system consumers should invest in–at least according to Microsoft, which apparently views the OS’s failure as one of marketing and not technology. But there are those who disagree, particularly one snarky competitor who’s been mercilessly taunting Microsoft (MSFT) in a high-profile ad campaign for quite some time now. And so to silence them, or perhaps groan loud enough to drown them out, Microsoft is launching a $300 million ad campaign to explain why Vista doesn’t stink to the many folks convinced that it does. “We’ve got a pretty noisy competitor out there,” Brooks said referring to Apple (AAPL) and its biting “I’m a Mac … you’re a dork” commercials. “You know it. I know it. It’s caused some impact. We’re going to start countering it. They tell us it’s the iWay or the highway. We think that’s a sad message.”

Not nearly as sad as proposing to fix technology problems with advertising.

[Image Credit: Worth1000]

Windows Vista is a good product. The quiet majority of millions and millions of Windows Vista users out there are going to have a great experience. The message is ‘Move to Vista. The time of worry is over.’”

– Brad Brooks, corporate vice president of Windows Consumer Product, explains Microsoft’s decision to support XP until Windows 7 arrives at market in 2011.