NEW YORK Two weeks after Microsoft debuted spots pairing chairman Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld, the company revealed that those ads were designed to tease a branding effort that strives to redefine the image of PC users and wrestle the conversation about Microsoft's products from arch-rival Apple.

The latter since 2006 has effectively lampooned Microsoft in its "Get a Mac" campaign. The new Microsoft work from Crispin Porter + Bogusky kicks off today with an ad called "Pride," presenting an actor who resembles John Hodgman ("PC" in Apple's ads), a cameo by Gates and quick-cuts of real people who use Microsoft-powered PCs in their daily personal and professional lives.

In the 60-second clip, the averages Joes -- and Gates, actress Eva Longoria, author Deepak Chopra, basketball star Tony Parker and musician Pharell Williams -- all declare, "I'm a PC," including Gates, who says, "I'm a PC and I wear glasses."

The spot closes on the brand's new tagline, "Windows. Life without walls."

Seinfeld, who co-starred with Gates in two eagerly anticipated but mostly derided ads infused with the surreal humor of his '90s sitcom, does not appear.

"We needed to gently say to people, We're back, we'd like to talk to you,'" explained David Webster, general manager of  brand and marketing strategy at Microsoft, of the Seinfeld effort. "When you have been out of the public conversation about a brand for a little bit of time, there is a point where you want to warm people up and get into the conversation a little more smoothly."

This next phase of the campaign "is taking back the PC brand and telling the truth around what a universe of nearly a billion users love about the product every day," said Webster. "While it does build on the caricature that Apple created around the PC, this dumpy guy who does not do anything interesting, after that initial point, it's really not about them, it's about us and our users."