We feel like we need to defend Microsoft for a minute, which, admittedly, is not the easiest thing to do. The first commercial from its $300 million ad campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld aired last night during the Giants game. Reading the blogs and Twitter and Tumblr—oh, my!—you’d half-think Microsoft killed baby Jesus in front of a camera. “This sucks!” “$300 million for that piece of garbage?!” And so on.

But you know what? Not only is the ad working—who isn’t talking about it?—but it’s damn good, too.

The first thing to understand is that this isn’t the sole part of the campaign; many more commercials will follow. So to scream, “$300 million for that?” is foolish.

Second, this isn’t a blow-by-blow account of what makes Microsoft or Windows Vista so great. Again, it’s not meant to be. It’s simply an ad that shows two well known people talking about nothing. Do you remember the TV show Seinfeld? What was it about? Not a damn thing, just a bunch of friends and their daily lives. It’s an absurd commercial, that is, the absurd genre of comedy. You’re not supposed to laugh out loud, but instead to say, “Why the hell is Seinfeld eating a churro while talking to a Bill Gates who’s shopping at a discount shoe store?” with a wry smile on your face.

That’s all. No need to falsely claim that Microsoft is doomed forever and ever because this particular commercial never showed you the Vista login screen or the Windows logo till the end. It stars Bill Gates, what else would he be promoting, terrible haircuts? Heavens.

The wisest thing would be to wait and see how the rest of the ad campaign rolls out before throwing around phrases like “epic fail.”