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Microsoft Vandalizes NYC
Brooklyn Bob writes "The New York Times (free registration etc.) is reporting that New York Tells Microsoft to Get Its Butterfly Decals Out of Town. Sure, it's "corporate graffiti", but the butterfly looks pretty good on the subway entrance." The story only covers a small part of their efforts to promote MSN, the "Microsoft operating system required" internet service. The first submission we got about the campaign described another part of it: Latent IT writes "I wish I had a link to submit with this, but strange things are afoot in New York City. At 61st and Broadway, 30-40 guys and gals in butterfly suits colored in the Microsoft colors, and carrying MSN banners just rollerbladed by, screaming at the top of their lungs down the middle of Broadway. Interestingly enough, this took them right near the under construction AOL Time Warner building. It seemed worth jotting down, but they were literally gone and down the street before I could reach my digital camera. (Place all bug on windshield jokes here.)"
from the IBM Linux grafitti fiasco in San Francisco.
Best Slashdot Co
Learned what? How expensive is advertising? How expensive do you expect the fine to be? Do the math.
:D
Now some Jail time would be welcome
This sort of thing makes for great corporate performance art, but honestly... does it make the average person want to choose them as their ISP? If not, then they might as well make origami out of their money and set it on fire.
Is there any cheaper method to get screen time and articles in newspapers than getting sued over nonsensical issues?
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
The feature they're so proud of is that they get your money if you subscribe.
Soma: because a gramme is better than a damn.
This is not a troll, but an observation: When it's IBM spray-painting Linux graffiti messages, it's free speech, but when it's Microsoft painting butterflies, it's vandalism?
"It's illegal," she said, "and they're going to get a lot of publicity for it."
I think that was the whole point of all of this.
it's not just SF, here in Chicago as well. you can still see the faint image of Tux at the Jackson street subway entrance to the Blue line.
Yeah, but tux is cool. Also, the graffiti was in black (against white concrete), not candy colored.
Most importantly, perhaps, IBM did it first. When they did it it was an original, innovative idea. Microsoft's gaudy re-run is simply so much tasteless, derivative kitch.
It is one thing to do something radical first, and to do it with a little style. It is another thing to copycat with little imaginatino and no style (a garish, gay butterfly logo no less). Promoting a network service even AOLers are smart enough to avoid doesn't help either.
It is considered vandalization for a kid to spray paint his name onto the subway wall, even though this doesn't damage the wall. So yes, "vandalizes" is the correct term for microsoft attaching little butterflies all over publicly owned property.
You read the article, right? Some anonymouse coward posted it, but it might be below your threshold, look for "courtesy of the NYTimes fake login generator" as the title
From the article: The law, Section 19-138 of the New York City administrative code, states: "It shall be unlawful for any person to deface any street by painting, printing or writing thereon, or attaching thereto, in any manner, any advertisement or other printed matter."
They broke the law, plain and simple. Microsoft implied that they had a "Permit" for it("There are permits for everything," said Colleen Lacter of Waggener Edstrom, a public relations firm representing Microsoft), but the source was not identified in the article...suspicious? ( But she would not tell a reporter what agency had issued the permits. After a brief huddle with two people whom she identified as being from McCann-Erickson, the advertising firm handling the account, Ms. Lacter said: "There's nothing else to say. They didn't want to get into a discussion about the details." ) It wasn't the people going nuts down the street. It was the gobs of butterflies they spewed all over a part of NYC.
find ~your -name '*base* | xargs chown
Did anyone else get the MSN ad with the silhouetted guy with the MSN butterfly suit IN the linked NYT article?
I did.
What's sad is that the extra publicity given by the NYT article, an angry NYC and Slashdot may be perceived as good. What's that marketing saying? There's no such thing as bad publicity? Makes me sick.
I like the title of this article. Vandlizing. Very "professional" journalism. LOL. Anyway.
For everyone in here having a little fit about "this is stupid" and "does this work" is falling into the whole genius of the marketing ploy. This isn't to persuade someone to buy the product, this is an effort to generate mass press for next to free (minus some self dignity). They are getting you to TALK ABOUT THEIR PRODUCT. Now you guys will run around to your fellow coworkers "Did you see the stupid Microsoft butterfly thing?". And they will tell another employee, who actually isn't technically savy, and might find it interesting, go look it up, and sign up for it. In effect, you, who disdain microsoft, are being used to help them secure customers.
Let's think about it, they have an entire article on slashdot, a pretty pro Linux group, to discuss the matter about them dressing up a bunch of people for a few bucks and putting them on rollerblades. But the old saying is true, the only bad press is no press at all. The IBM/LINUX graffiti thing proved that. They received TONS of press for just a few, inexpensive pictures of the Tux.
Marketing 101. Take a course, you may like it.
Yes, you beat me to it. Or his moth friend (Arthur?)
No, it's the principal of the thing. Why does /. not allow posting of articles from sites that require registrations to view the articles EXCEPT New York Times? THey say they are protesting the need for registrations, yet they make an exception for them why? It is so hypocritcal. Just like most of the other stuff that goes on around here.
Hey, you beat to the punch!
Say it was a "legal" permit for them to lay advertisements across midtown. Would it have been "illegal" if a bunch of Linux die hards when around cleaning it up? And yeah! Dressed as penguins would have been the kicker. Could almost carry a story line like "Linux cleans up after Microsoft's mess!" Talk about an advertising campain backfire.
Mothra was the good guy - and the winner, BTW.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
How about Mass Littering?
equally offensive.
Mind you, after the browser wars, which completely broke how version numbering should effectively be done, this is probably no longer true. Version numbering has lost out to commercialization; there's a lot of good examples of where software changes over a 'major' version number could really be classified as 'minor' version changes, at least to some people (photoshop, IE, to name a few), but marketing knows that customers are more likely to purchase an upgrade if its from "x.0" to "x+1.0", as oppsed to "x.0" to "x.1". Additionally, there's been a few hokey version jumps in some programs as to keep them on par with a competitors program (as the parent post alludes to) - just as AMD is trying to keep up with the Megahertz Myth with Intel in naming their new chips.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
Since when has Microsoft obeyed laws?
scorp1us wrote:
;)
;)
> I seem to remember a time when IBM went chalking
> the streets with Peace, Love, and Linux phrases
> and logos....
That may not have been legal either, but at least it was better intentioned. The hearts, peace signs and penguins were supposed to vanish by themselves with the next rain (alas, that did not happen, but they tried).
Microsoft is plastering plastic signs of some size (12 to 20 inches) on walls and pavements. Even if they are easy to remove, that is still a lot of (non-biodegradable?) plastic littering the city. I'd get them for being a bunch of litterbugs.
Today's weather for New York: a stiff tail wind as an angry Moth goddess blows the pretenders on their skates right out of town.
(Don't worry, with those plastic wings and skates, it won't take much of a tail wind at all. Good New Yorkers should enjoy a refreshing breeze.)
On December 14, 1996, Mothra resurrected a charred Apple sapling ("Mosura" 1996).
On December 14, 2001, Mothra returned to see its fruit ("Gojira, Mosura, Kingu Ghidora: Daikaiju Soukougeki").
OS X Jaguar: truly the Apple of Mothra's Aqua eye.
No, no, no. The penguin group comes along afterward and *cleans up* after the messy butterfly group. Now there's a marketing opportunity going to waste even as we speak!
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
(You can't see it in these pictures, but yes, he does have wings. Good pictures of him seem to be hard to find. images.google.com found a few, but none were really good ...)
It's the New York Friggin' Times, Bunky. Quit whining, register, and get on with your life.
jeezus...
Are you sure about that?
"And like that
Why do you advertise in you sig then?
If NY had been papered with *Linux* butterflies, we'd be applauding.
Whether or not it's imitative, this is a brilliant bit of marketing. They're getting millions of dollars worth of free press, risking only tiny fines.
I doubt the sidewalk butterflies are particularly dangerous to anyone--even wheelchair users. Given the real hazards of New York living, indignant city officials should probably find something more productive to angst about.
I'd never subscribe M$N or use Window$ on my own machines, but credit where it's due. Effective marketing.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
Hey, I registered for the Times. It's free, and they never spam me. Why not register?
That says that the fines aren't in line.
What they need to do is add a penalty for vandalism done in the name of a profit, and fine them the amount of money estimated made.
It's obviously getting more widespread, as advertising agencies realize that the damages are "worth the action".
May we never see th
Penguin suits tend to be a bit bulky for melee combat.
Now, daemon suits on the other hand...