Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft may Sanction the 'Switcher' PR-Rep
Nerull sent in a snippit from The Age saying "Microsoft may consider sanctions against a public relations consultant who tried to pass herself off as someone who had switched from the Apple Mac to Windows XP in a high-profile US advertising campaign, chief executive Steve Ballmer said today." Here is Monday's
Slashdot Story that this follows up to. Lots of amusing little quotes about
what it means to be trustworthy.
Who wouldn't 'Switch'?
But this 'action' begs the question. Are they going to act on the other 'testimonials' that are prefaced with stock photo images?
-S
We Apprentice Developers and Designers
so it was alright until the press got wind of it?
The above quote says it all!!
HallmarkOrnaments.Com
I come from an advertising & PR background with several small to medium sized agencies.
First off: I'd wager that 90% of the testimonials you see in advertising are manufactured by the agency using their own employees. I've done it, and just about everyone I've known in the business at smaller agencies have done it. We also lend our voices to TV/Radio spots on occasion, and also appear in photo shoots from time to time when the budget or deadline are too tight to solicit (read: pay) professionals/real people.
Secondly: This is always done with the client's complete knowledge.
MS is playing a big game of CYA right now, and the agency is falling on their sword and taking the blame. That's how it works.
Their little stunt backfired on them, so they're spinning the blame to the PR/ad agency.
This sort of thing goes on every day, although not usually as high profile (or embarassing) as this particular case, which delights me to no end.
MS has been steal^H^H^H^H^H emulating Apple for how many years now? And they still can't get it right. Betcha 'ol Steve is laughing his turtlenecked ass off about this one, not to mention the folks at Chiat Day (Apple's agency).
The article doesn't say that Ballmer is going to punish Mallinson. It says they may punish the marketing person who came up with this idea. That means, most likely, whoever tasked Mallinson's firm with this job. So many have written "It was MS's idea, and it's MS's fault, not Mallinson's" Of course, but MS isn't the borg, despite popular belief. They don't come up wiht ideas collectively and foist them on unsuspecting freelancers.
/.? Care to share?
Most likely, an individual in their Windows marketing group came up with that idea and outsourced it, simple as that. If anyone gets in trouble, it will be that person, or the head of that group. However, I doubt that anyone in that group will really be punished.
The other possibility is that Mallinson's firm came up with the idea. In that case, the firm is probably no longer affiliated with MS. NOW, what's really unlikely is that Mallinson came up with the idea, pitched it to her firm, got approval, pitched it to Microsoft, got approval, then wrote it herself.
Most likely a team was involved. They made a mistake. They got caught. It's over. I doubt anyone will get fired. If they do, that sucks because I think the collective hubris at MS is more to blame than any one person.
Valerie - are you reading
Yes, it's a blog. Sorry if that offends you.
They are relevant as to whether she is truthful, however. Credibility is destroyed at the outset.
What difference does it matter that her writing was straight out of the outlook manual?
It matters because she saying how cool it was that she had discovered all these things. Intuitively, because it was sooo easy. In reality, she just cut and pasted the manual.
Anyway, there's no reason they can't put up a bit of fiction about what it "could" be like switching from Apple.
None whatsoever. Label it as such and put the article up.
They do insist that she actually switched to XP.
Congratulations. I'm an XP user myself. Now tell the truth about how it happened...
Cheers,
Ian
While I don't necessarily think that two instances are indicative of a some downward spirialing pattern, one has to wonder how much may be out there we haven't found out about yet.
Additionally, "David Manning" raved about such winners as "Animal" "A Knight's Tale" and "Hollow Man." And now MS's fakie is raving about Windows XP...
I guess if the product you're promoting is bad enough... And hey, they're in good company, taking marketing leads from the movie studios, right?
~Mephie
"I am the spirit that denies forever..."
Buy the President
The way this article spells it out, it seems like the 'ad' was put up on MS' by the PR person without any kind of oversight. If this is true this speaks volumes about how the orginization is setup if a contractor can just stick fluffy content up on a major corp's web page with no approval process.
As a former political activist (who's seen at least one scandal occur close-up), it was immediately obvious to me from the original story that this, too, is a total crock. There's no way that this PR consultant was at any point intending to use herself as an example. Here's what had to be the case:
(1) PR consultant is directed to write a series of fictional "counter-switch" case studies.
(2) PR consultant's name gets recovered from the MS documents sloppily put on the web,
(3) The name is tracked down to the PR firm itself, and questions are asked as to the possible fictition of counter-switch examples,
(4) So the PR consultant in question is directed to take the hit for the company, and claim that the example is not fictional, it's her. Hogwash.
I'd challenge MS and/or the PR firm to prove that this writer/consultant in any way resembles the figure in the case study. I bet she doesn't look anything like that stock photo, nor would any of her personal information match up with the story, if forced out of them.
The case study is just total fiction and this chick wrote it, is all. Now she's jumped on the sword to mask that fact. I've seen practically the same thing happen at a place I worked before.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
This person is a patsy. Microsoft breeds this sort of shit with the culture it promotes internally. I know this because my wife worked there for 3 years. They don't care if someone does this sort of thing, they only care that they got caught.
It's the same way the approach secure software. They don't care if it's actually secure, they only care that no one finds the security problems. That's why they get pissed when people find holes in their software. "Well it wouldn't be a problem if someone didn't find out about it, now would it?"
That, and many other reasons, is why they will never open the source on their software. They know there code will not stand up to scrutiny and it wasn't designed to do so either. They make things to make money - period. Now I know some of you idiots out there are going to say, "Of course, Microsoft is a business that's why all businesses make software." My rebuttal is yes software companies make software to make money. However, there is this little thing called professionalism. It's where you do things for your profession because it's the right thing to do. Like when lawyers take cases pro bono or doctors help someone on the street who just got hit by a car. Software should be looked at the same way. You make software secure and reliable because it's your profession and your company should encourage you to do so. Microsoft does not encourage it's programmers to write quality code - it's not part of their culture. I am off topic now so I shall bid you farewell.
Sorry for going off, but the 3 years my wife worked at MS were some really difficult times and we love it now that she's free. It really is a horrible place to work, it's really fucked up.
LoRider
I attended an MS staff meeting with Steve today. This was in front of staff, not customers or journalists.
He was really upset about this incident and was personally handling it. He knows the way people perceive Microsoft and genuinely wants to change the company.
It's a company of 60,000 people, someone will always screw up. But he is trying hard to create a culture of honesty & integrity within the company.
I used to work in a couple of marketing/design agencies, and still work self-employed in design and marketing. I'd say it is highly unusual to use stock art to represent real people, especially if the people involved are officers of the company -- after all, corporate partners are most likely going to meet these people eventually, so it would make a strange impression on visitors to see that the people don't look like that at all.
I really wonder what your old employer's agency was thinking (smoking?). Using stock art for testimonials is already questionable (people these days are cynical and intelligent enough to notice the difference), using stock art to represent employees and officers is downright stupid.
This is, by the way, why the Apple Switch ads are so effective. The people look believable (especially Ellen Feiss ;-) ) mainly because they aren't rehearsed, look "average" and so on. As a result, they are more likely to be listened to that some celebrity or photo model. Maybe they are faked, but if so, it's a hell of a good fake.
Cheers,
Ethelred
Everyone wants to be Ethelred. Even I want to be Ethelred.
When I saw the Apple switch ads I thought they were well done but likely to be fake.
When I heard that MS picked up the idea I thought it was funny because they were showing how fake it was.
Now we find out they thought they were fooling us?
Last time I checked, all advertising is about telling lies to get us to spend money. Am I wrong? Is it actually possible that I can get a healthy and nutritious lunch at McDonalds this afternoon? All for one low price? Crafted by highly trained people who really care about me? That's what their commercials tell me!
This entire affair seems to be much to do about nothing. Yeah, yeah MS is the Evil Empire so let's laugh at them despite the fact that everyone else does it too.
Grimwell - old, cranky, mean, obsessive
Too bad most of the "criminals" getting busted on Cops are drug users and prostitutes. What a great use of tax dollars -- throwing peaceful civilians in jail for engaging in vicimless crimes. And look at the progress our government is making! At this rate, drug use and prostitution will soon be eliminated!
NOT.
They were allowed to interview two of them, but only with an Apple representative present.
According to the article, US News talked to three switchers, one without any Apple representative.
Furthermore, all of the Apple switchers were paid for their involvement. Who wouldn't switch if they were given a free Powerbook + expenses?
US News says one of the switchers says he was paid.
The magazine is the New Yorker. The amount of advertising is never mentioned. What USNews and this poster also fail to examine is whether the New Yorker prints ads for Apple competitors. Although I don't know, I can probably assume this safely.
It's just kind of interesting. Microsoft's advertising tactics have never been as unethical as what Apple has been doing with the switch campaign, and yet who bears the brunt of the attacks here?
I think the main difference here is that there is evidence that the Windows switcher works for Microsoft indirectly. I think anyone who appears in commercials should get paid for their time and effort, but the Mallinson woman was on the payroll for another reason entirely.
Raisinettes are my raison d'etre
The title "Microsoft may sanction the 'Switcher' PR-Rep" is misleading because the word "sanction" is misused. We're used to hearing "sanction" as a noun (as in "The UN-imposed sanctions on Iraq"), but when used as a verb, sanction has almost the completely opposite meaning - to approve of, condon.
So the title suggests Microsoft is pleased with the whole thing, not that the they going to punish anyone.
I dunno. I gotta think this all comes down to laziness. The switch testimonial was a piece of crap, it used a chunk of the Outlook manual and had a photodisc image and was written by a flack.
I went to journalism school. The guys/girls who didn't make it into journalism afterward became ad flacks. I think the ads are just pure laziness due to taking a large customer like Microsoft for granted instead of doing a proper campaign. I've seen marketing contracts and good god, they require huge retainers and have no acountability in them.
The ads were probably spun out in the course of an afternoon.
PS. I am not pro-Microsoft. I am just pro-realism. I imagine Microsoft people are just as lazy.
I'm sorry, but I just can't imagine what a "Microsoft Lager" might be like.
I can't resist to give you this link:
If Beer was like Operating Systems...