Wait a second, are you trying to actually make this a conversation, Nick?

I don't think anyone could actually have a conversation about an empty tagline. (Unless they're getting paid.)

Nick
what I still don't get is why you're alleging product endorsement, most of these so-called endorsements are nothing more than wishy-washy vague motherhood statements based on a rough theme. If Microsoft is paying for endorsements they should ask Battelle for their money back.

Soylent Green is People Ready

People-Ready? Not so sure.

Wipe-Ready? You betcha.

[wipeready.co]

This is just getting more classic by the moment. And I'm "lovin' it".

:: YAWWWWN ::

Is it really fair to compare TC or VW or even PC Magazine to…the New York Times? I mean is it a realistic comparison?

Nick, I wouldn't necessarily "trust" you OR Michael as an arbiter of fair and unbiased *news* to begin with. Why would I? You're both very opinionated with your own agendas and mostly what your sites are about isn't journalism, but about what you guys think.

It's often quite interesting, and almost always entertaining. But journalism?

I do trust you and Michael to give your real opinions and whatever Arrington did with "People Ready" doesn't strike me as a breach as long as he actually uses any MSFT products in his daily life. I make no inference from that at all that TC is opposed to non Microsoft products and I'd go $100 that Arrington's favorite portable media player is a non-Microsoft product. The "people ready" nonsense changes none of my thinking on this.

I've seen this NYT comparison all day and it's dopey. This isn't the New York Times running a paid endorsement of a radical cancer treatment that winds up looking like a news story and not a paid advertisement. Whatever the bitching and moaning about over FM and Microsoft's "People Ready" campaign, I think it's as meaningless. If you can prove that Arrington never uses a Microsoft Operating system, or any of the Office products fine, expose him as a fraud. Otherwise like it or not (and I see that you don't like it) he is "People Ready", which is of course absolutely meaningless.

I think the biggest mistake in this circle is you people seem to think it's as important as the New York Times.

It isn't.

People Ready .... I am picturing a bunny, a drum and it just keeps going - no, its not the bunny, its Steve Ballmer banging the drum!!

@ rseidman,

Arrington has used MS products in the past but switched to Apple recently and is quite proud of himself for doing so.

[www.crunchnotes.com]

@ Nick Denton

Speaking of Arrington now, he's bitching about Battelle's position on this whole thing.

[www.crunchnotes.com]

Of course, it doesn't take long to find another CrunchNotes post where he contradicts himself, sorta -- [www.crunchnotes.com]

"The only scandal would be in a blogger who received a computer decides to keep it and then writes about Vista in a positive way and doesn't disclose the situation. Otherwise, there isn't much of an issue."

Perhaps doesn't completely apply here but my interpretation is "when speaking positively about an advertiser's product or offering, always disclose."

Sounds like a concocted line of BS that some Microsoft Marketing person @ thought they could coin into perpetuity. It's very lame.

Oh. Wow. Maybe like what God said after he made Earth and figured it would be cool to, maybe, put Adam Sandler and totally hot Eve on it?

like the IT equivalent of wonder bread.

it's fortified with objective opinions!