Microsoft is spending $120m to persuade the world it is not a big American company. The new advertising will be more tightly tied to local markets and will enhance the work Microsoft is doing in education and security.

Group advertising manager Mike Lucero told the Seattle Post Intelligencer: "We are often perceived as a huge American company. We wanted to be very specific about what we were doing in each country in education, innovation, economic opportunity and security."

The internet, print and TV ads will be run by McCann Erickson and are an extension of Microsoft's "realising potential" ads.

Broadcast ads, one including a voiceover from Fargo actor William H Macy, have already started showing in some US regions and will be appearing during large events such as the Winter Olympics and the Academy Awards.

For a company that is supposedly "all marketing and no technology", Microsoft produces some rather strange adverts. Its current broadcast adverts include lots of children and squiggles, while the print adverts include lots of grown-ups with dinosaur heads.

More from the Seattle PI here. ®

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