Circuits: A New Microsoft Blunder
Circuits: A New Microsoft Blunder
- Subject: Circuits: A New Microsoft Blunder
- From: Tunc Akman <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2002 08:42:30 +0200
From the Desk of David Pogue: A New Microsoft Blunder
=====================================================
People accuse Microsoft of devious tactics all the time.
Microsoft generally denies the accusations -- after all,
they're flanked by the best lawyers that money can buy.
This week, though, Microsoft gave itself a big, goopy pie in
the face. On Oct. 9, the company posted a testimonial on its
Web site called "Confessions of a Mac to PC Convert." It was
a first-person account by a "freelance writer" about how she
had fallen in love with Windows XP. She compared the
operating system to a Lexus. "I was up and running in less
than one day, Girl Scout's honor," burbled the attractive,
20-something brunette in the photo.
There was only one problem: She doesn't exist.
A with-it member of Slashdot.org, the popular hangout for
articulate nerds, happened to notice that the woman's picture
actually came from GettyImages.com, a stock-photo agency.
Associated Press reporter Ted Bridis took it from there. He
tracked authorship of the article to one Valerie Mallinson, a
public-relations woman hired by Microsoft to write the story.
Microsoft was caught red-handed.
I was dying to find out how this public-relations fiasco
came to pass, but Microsoft spokesman Tom Pilla would speak
only in Officialese. "The article was mistakenly posted to
the Microsoft Web Site," is all he would tell me. "Once we
realized that it wasn't part of the Windows XP marketing
activities, we pulled it. It's an unfortunate situation, and
we take responsibility."
No wonder Microsoft has become a laughingstock online. "Once
we realized . . . ?" Hello? Exactly how disconnected are the
right and left hands of Microsoft's marketing organization?
And then there's the feebleness of the ad itself. Not only is
it a childish attempt to mimic Apple's "Switch" campaign, but
Microsoft's bogus customer is hopelessly misinformed.
"AppleWorks pales in comparison to Microsoft Office XP.
There's no equivalent for the versatility of Microsoft Word,
Excel and PowerPoint," she writes, evidently never having
heard of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Macintosh.
Then she makes it worse: "Internet Explorer 6 does more for
me than Netscape Navigator ever did . . . I can name and
organize my Favorites any way I want." First of all, Internet
Explorer is on the Mac, too. Second, had Ms. Fictitious ever,
in fact, used Netscape Navigator, she might have realized
that it, too, permits naming and organizing bookmarks.
To be sure, the online community is wasting no time in
rubbing these gaffes in Microsoft's face. But nobody's
mentioning the most disturbing part of all this: That it's
part of a longer string of fraudulent Microsoft marketing
efforts.
In 1998, the Los Angeles Times reported that Microsoft,
during its antitrust trials, hired PR companies to flood
newspapers with fake letters of support, bearing ordinary
individuals' names but actually written by Microsoft PR
staff. Payments were funneled through Microsoft's PR company
so that the checks couldn't be traced.
Later, during the antitrust trials, Microsoft attempted to
prove the inseparability of Windows and Internet Explorer by
showing the judge a video. There was only one problem: The
government's lawyer noticed that as the tape rolled on, the
number of icons on the desktop kept changing. Microsoft
sheepishly admitted to having spliced together footage from
different computers to make its point.
And now a phony testimonial illustrated by a photo bought
from a stock-art agency.
What does all of this say about a company's corporate psyche
that it feels the need to fabricate evidence of the public's
love?
Maybe Microsoft is jealous of the genuine affection Mac fans
seem to exhibit for their machines. Or could it be that the
company somehow feels rejected by the quirky (and as far as
anyone can tell, real) people in Apple's "Switch" ads.
But more likely, Microsoft's latest blunder demonstrates
neither jealousy nor wounded pride -- it's pure arrogance.
The company thinks it can get away with anything. This time,
at least, it's wrong.
A screen shot of the original Microsoft ad can be viewed at:
http://www.scripting.com/misc/msSwitchAd/lies.jpg.
Visit David Pogue on the Web at:
http://www.davidpogue.com
_______________________________________________
augd mailing list | email@hidden
Help/Unsubscribe/Archives:
http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/augd
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.