For most small businesses, advertising is a matter of trial and error. And by that, we mean trying strategies used by big companies who have the bucks to pay for an ad agency until you find something that works for your start-up.

Fair warning: here's one advertisement not to take any cues from.

Microsoft, who's struggled in the hip department as late (or maybe always), recently paid comic/actor/bee suit-wearer Jerry Seinfeld $10 million—and ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky $300 million—to star in a series of ads with company chairman Bill Gates. The second ad in the series came out today, which you can watch below.

While that kind of money should buy you a lot of ad, we're going to go out on a limb here and state the obvious: it kind of sucks. We get the edgy, hip, not-a-traditional-ad vibe they're going for. The problem is it doesn't work. It's not until the last ten seconds of the ad that you get what they're selling (presumably the buzz around the ad and Bill Gates' appearance is enough to imply the product). And while that's not necessarily a huge problem since we're talking about Microsoft, what is a problem is that when the ad's over you're just left scratching your head, awed by what a bad actor Bill Gates is. Goes to show a big ad budget isn't always what's it's cracked up to be.

What do you think of the ad?