What is the opposite of an ad campaign? Thanks to Microsoft, I think we've found out.

Ads, of course, are meant to encourage people to buy or use stuff. That's Microsoft was hoping when it released a video touting SongSmith, a software program that creates a whole song around your original vocal track. It's a cool concept -- but the ad was so lame, it drew a deluge of attention for all the wrong reasons. In addition to being cringeworthy, the commercial also made it clear that Songsmith just doesn't work all that well. It spits out mostly cornball Muzak, hardly the stuff Microsoft needs to close the coolness gap with Apple.

This weekend, my colleague N'Gai Croal forwarded me a list of "Songsmith remixes" that have cropped up on YouTube. From Britney Spears to Nirvana, seminal hits have been fed through Songsmith to hilariously awful result. (Although one -- a rendition of Li'l Wayne's "Lollipop" that turns the oral sex anthem into a piano ballad -- is actually kind of hypnotic. College a cappella groups, take note.) You can find a bunch of them here.

One ad that drew parody was bad enough. Now Microsoft is suffering a whole series of derisive videos -- an entire bizarro ad campaign, uncontrollable and spreading. Its unmistakable pitch: Songsmith is junk, and Microsoft is tone-deaf.

Microsoft has shown real verve with its "Project Experiment" advertising, which is attitudinous and convincing, and early reviews of Windows 7 are promising. The company should get out in front of this Songsmith fiasco prestissimo.