If you are wondering where the $500 million dollars Microsoft has spent to fuel the marketing campaign for Windows Vista went, just take a look at the images included at the bottom of the article and you will be provided with an answer. From Toronto, to New York, to Copenhagen and to Shanghai, Windows Vista ads have got into every nook and cranny available for advertising. Well, this is an understatement. The fact of the matter is that Microsoft has managed to place Windows Vista ads in a manner that defies the meaning of subtlety.

A $500 million advertising budget is the engine that drives the saturation of Windows Vista ads. Microsoft has managed to make its Wow operating system ubiquitous. But not on desktops. Windows Vista only managed to get a hold of approximately 1% of the operating system market in its first month of commercial availability. This despite the half a billion dollars marketing campaign that Microsoft has embarked upon. Consumers are simply not responding to Windows Vista.

And Microsoft has spared no effort to drive the sales of the operating system. It has offered a trip to space, it has taken over the 421 meter high Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, China and it has even built a Windows Vista ice house in Toronto.

Below are images that I have come across while surfing Flickr. They illustrate how the Windows Vista marketing campaign has spread across the world. Still, for Microsoft seeing is not buying, and users - while doing a consistent amount of ad viewing - are not flooding the retail stores.