Even though Windows XP is already three years old, Microsoft is launching a media blitz to promote the operating system for the next 15 months. The campaign, which will be launched in 11 countries, will use slogans such as "Start something curious", "Start discovering lost cities" and "Start feeding your brain".

Microsoft said there are 51 TV spots, 39 print ads and 250 online advertisements and the total investment in this campaign is about $200 million. At first look, the Microsoft decision to promote an already old operating system may be seem quite strange, but given the time frame and the fact that Allchin said last week that he expects a big ad reinforcement for Longhorn, is clear that this campaign it is only a "warm-up." A beta version of Longhorn is announced for this summer.

The new ad campaign, created by McCann Erickson, also aims to take some fire away from the launch of Mac OS X "Tiger" on April 29th.[via geekcoffee]