Valleywag
With the leak of an internal sales video, Microsoft is having its ironic cake and pretending not to eat it too. Its marketing team produced an awful spoof of Bruce Springsteen singing about Vista. One should note: Companies do this routinely to motivate their salespeople, but the innocents in engineering normally aren't exposed to the cheerleading routines. Microsoft's spin on the video: It's a gag! We're being sly! And incredibly, CNET editor Charles Cooper bought their line, quoting an anonymous flack: "They thought folks internally would get a kick out of not taking themselves so seriously all the time."
There you have it: Microsoft gets to produce an awesomely cheesy video to pump up the sales troops — but in a way that lets them pretend to be air-quotes cool, resistant to such straightforward come-ons. PR then strategically leaks it, lets the blogosphere react predictably, and finds a gullible square of a tech reporter to declare victory on Microsoft's behalf.
Gizmodo has it right: Why is Microsoft wasting money on staging fake concerts? To which I'd add: Why are they then thumping their chests about how they "fooled" bloggers? Unembarrassed, Microsoft is now challenging competitors to make an even more ironic-fake-bad-but-not-really video. To see the Microsoft spin machine at work on such a worthless cause should give Google new hope.
Comments
1:10- "See what's on employee's laptops!"
I know it's nothing new, but it's the first time I've ever seen it celebrated in song.
they buy everything, they're idiots. krazy tom krazit wrote a whole story about psystar without calling the fuckers. meanwhile, everyone else was figuring out that they're not for reals.
Call it spin if you will, but every single person that has clicked on that video knows that Vista SP1 is somehow better than the original Vista. Mission accomplished.
@WagCurious: Really? I clicked on the video and stopped watching about 30 seconds in. The only think I learned is that I just lost 30 seconds of my life that I can never get back. I think you're overestimating the power of bad marketing.
@WagCurious: ...as George W. Bush would say. That cinches it, I guess.
1. It's not a true satire like the Daily Show making a campaign commercial to mock the conventions of campaign commercials.
2. They can claim "goof" only in the "we wanted to do something silly and not take ourselves seriously" vein. They CANNOT claim this as a true joke that mocks internal pep-rally videos, as I'll give anything this was actually played at a pep-rally. And the MS sale force is probably not very self-reflective.
3. It's a goof in the same way that playing a video of the development team doing a karaoke version of "Summer lovin" (boys on left, girls on right) is goof. That is: it's not high art and it's intolerable to those not involved, but it's certainly meant to be charming in some specific circles.
4. It's not different ENOUGH from internal morale videos. That is, it's a particularly grievous example of a known genre. All internal morale videos are gut twisters. This one is bad, but it is not in class of its own.
I guess I'm having trouble with the idea that MS is crafty enough to knowingly create a video that is A) packed with info about Vista SP1 and B) so ruinously horrible it goes viral and "tricks" people into learning about the benefits SP1.
Microsoft should own it. Cheesy jokes aren't half as bad as, say, Vista slamming shut on you with that evil blue circle when you're on the phone with an important client and you try to open a spreadsheet quickly. THAT sucks…
"Call it spin if you will, but every single person that has clicked on that video knows that Vista SP1 is somehow better than the original Vista. Mission accomplished."
The only mission accomplished is the proof that Microsoft is a 2 digit company.
@WagCurious: Speaking as a Vista user, I clicked on the video and all I can remember is "Our Ecosystem Rocks." I have no idea what that means.
Apple's internal video was much more non-conformist. Take that, Microsloth.
+ Watch video
"Call it spin if you will, but every single person that has clicked on that video knows that Vista SP1 is somehow better than the original Vista."
hahahahahahah!!!
No, every single person who clicked on that video knows now why Vista was late/not ready for prime time/disappointing: Microsoft employees were wasting time making crap videos.
Vista, gotta get me some!
Seconding 1:10 "See what's on employee's laptops!" ROFL
Opensource will eat your soul M$
valleywag, valleywag, valleywag
why you always got to rag
about what msft has in their bag?
they put up a fight
Yang is so uptight
and all they get is abuse in your mag
The CNET editor was duped. Inside line: Windows Client Communications PR team is trying frantically to spin their own offspringsteen as bastard child. Originally conceived as a"fresh, hip and funny" viral video, this sales video gone wrong has turned into a showcase for the creative talents of Microsoft's own internal Windows Marketing Team. The latest spin from Gizmodo: Microsoft has Started Something special with a new contest for "stupid internal videos." Apparently, one of the stars of their "fine specimen" - Kevin Turner - has been on the phone all weekend with Flagler Productions, trying to get a copy of one of his infamous Wal-Mart videos to submit. Brilliant!
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