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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.)"
That might be little strong. They didn't do any damage. Get over it.
Check out my journal on the subject from last week. I was going to submit it, but for the life of me couldn't figure out where it'd go, assumed it would be rejected and blogged it instead. :)
Triv
Anyone notice the comercials that just started playing for the NEW version of MSN, simply called "MSN 8"? Hmmm, now I admit I have no idea what version they were on before, but it seems a little suspiciouse that MSN 8 is being released on the heals of the new AOL version 8.0. My only real question is, why didn't MS go ahead and call it "MSN 9" just to get one step ahead?
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
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.
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx
You really think Microsoft would have learned after doing this before and having it backfire on them.
When the Xbox launched here in Australia, Microsoft spent obscene amounts of money on the advertising campaign (it actually began a few months prior to launch). Part of this was to spraypaint the green Xbox X on the sidewalk at pretty much every bus stop in central Sydney. Needless to say, the relevent local councils were not amused.
As far as I know, the responsible parties were ordered by the court to pay for council workers to clean every single spray. However, Microsoft is nothing if not careful, and instead of doing the original grafitti themselves, they'd contracted it to a local, well-known (in the industry) PR company.
Last we heard, poor [company name omitted] were stuck not only with the bill for councils to clean up the Microsoft grafitti, but also the responsability to clean it off themselves (the more they got to, the less council had to do and thus the less they paid).
Janie took my gun...
I saw a lot of these in lower Manhattan the other day, and all I could think was "since when does M$ have punk kiddie followers that do this?" Good to know it is adult PR firms just acting like them...
I've read on a couple sites that during the video Gates showed at the MSN8 release he was in a butterfly costume doing something... anyone have a link to this?
sig.
From the article:
/. anti-MS sensationalism.
The butterflies found on vertical surfaces were made of flimsy plastic, held in place by static electricity and easily removable. The sidewalk decals were a heavier plastic, with a roughly textured surface. Though they were stuck to the pavement, they too could be lifted off fairly easily.
Since the article specifically says the butterflies can be easily removed, I don't know if I'd call this vandalism. It's certainly less damaging than what IBM did in San Fran. Typical
Of course, it is dispicable for a company (MS, IBM, whoever) to just take over public property for the purpose of their advertising campaigns. There are proper ways of advertising, and this isn't one of them.
Besides, with a little luck these rollerblading people with butterfly wings are cute girl. And who never fantasized about cute elfs... Oh, wait... that would be just me... did I say that out loud?
"A single summons was issued, with a $50 penalty, though each butterfly could have been subject to a $50 fine" (emphasis mine)
what?! good lord! if any individual had done this, say with something as simple as a "hello, my name is:" sticker with an email address, they would be fined thousands. sure, it's not as permanent as ibm's spraypaint, but it's not like microsoft can't afford the fines.
not to mention the fact that it is environmentally friendly. Why did I brought up this point?
Well, because I've seen some poor form of advertising from a rising star of the PC industry . Why do I call it poor? Because they think that it is a good idea to include a pamphlet of their latest offering on every issue of free daily newspapers in Singapore. Basically it's an ad sleeve covering the paper.
Most of the time people simply pull it out and throw it into the bin. Which is OK in my opinion except that 1/2 an hour later, almost all the bins in the MRT (mass rapid transit) station gets filled to the brim and adverts are flying everywhere. And those marketing guys from that company doesn't seem to bother, or perhaps they are all so bloody rich and never use public transport anyway.
Before you mod my rant as offtopic, think of the essence of this post which is about advertising (what MS and hyperlinked company are doing) and it's implication on people and the environment.
P/S: I do not work for neither company, and all opinions expressed are my own.
Welley Corporation - SLM Scammers
On Several web-sites, most notably www.weather.com, if you get to certain page(s), your icon turns to an MSN(tm) butterfly. I have no problem with Microsoft per se, ip so facto, but that's annoying.
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
Oh, stop! That ridiculous-looking penguin is *NOT* cool, by any stretch of the imagination. What it represents may be cool, but it is the dorkiest symbol in the IT industry.
It was a dorky symbol when it was used by a satellite porn channel in the late-eighties, and you've gotta be pretty weak to symbolize *THAT* and still come across nebish-y.
The charm, such as Tux may have any, lay in its obvious anti-corporate, anti-status symbolism, inasmuch as any company with more than five hundred dollars in its coffers could hire someone to devise a better logo. Tux sort of has that snarky frat-boy, movie-posters-on-the-wall, lamps-made-from-beer-kegs charm.
What, that's not what the Linux movement was going for...?
Yes, this advertising campaign is a very cheap, very troll way to get lots of people to notice you. But does anybody see similarities to this service and Apple's '.mac' that people get so worked up about? .mac account, a little cheaper if you pay for a whole year, but what does it offer? Hotmail with virus protection? Does MS actually have a better SPAM filter than Hotmail's (which does about nothing). And do you get ad-free e-mail?
...suddenly, .mac ain't looking so bad!
check it out (yay, give MS more attention!):
MSN 8 - Software Only
Their cheapest MSN 8 service costs almost as much as a new
Or monopolistic practices? Or railed on by the U.S. Department of Justice, or a group of U.S. States? When you have some of the deepest pockets around, I guess you don't really care. It would be the same as someone suing me for pocket lint.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Why these people dont post the no registration required link provided by making minor modifications to the ones provided byGoogle news, I dont know ;)
"STEP 3: Cancel your previous account
If you currently have an AOL account, the TrueSwitch service will be able to cancel your account for you -- just follow the simple instructions. "
MSN comes with a service that cancels your aol account for you... I wonder what else it can do?
Speaking of derivative, is Ben Edlund getting paid for this, or do you think he will sue. The 'butterfly' is so clearly a fusion of the The Tick and Arthur.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
I have a Linux Fund mbna credit card that I got at LWE 3 years ago. It has a picture of tux on it. I'm not much of a linux advocate, and I have no idea if the fund is doing any well, but I like the credit card because about 20% of the time I make a face-to-face purchase I get this reaction:
"Oh, isn't that cute!"
So that doesn't necessarily make the logo cool, but it does make it somewhat attractive.
Only once have I gotten this reaction:
"Oh, cool, linux!"
The city of New York (imagine the lawyers they could unleash) was nice enough to only fine Microsoft $50 and tell them to clean the mess up. Microsoft, in all of its infinite arrogance, "... insisted that it was authorized to place the decals.
"There are permits for everything". Uh huh - does that mean filling someone's pocket with money so they'll turn the other way? Why can't we know who it is?
This is very a bad show of sincerity given Steve Balmer's statement regarding the Microsoft Switch Campaign fiasco. I am fully expecting more events like these to take place. Microsoft's dirty tactics are alive and well.
This campaign is not new. Microsoft has been doing it for a couple years. They have a group of butterfly outfits they ship around the country and hire skaters to wear to promote the latest happenings with MSN.
About 4 months ago I was hired at 40$ an hour to skate in 4 different locations in my city. We were given cue cards with different songs and or slogans to shout out, and lots of promotion materials to hand out. Although I'm not a MS fan, I am a fan of easy money.
At the time I was hired, they were promoting a new partnership with MSN and Verison Wireless.
Cheers
Warning: Visting the link below might lead to Ark-of-the-Covenantesque melting of flesh, hair loss, emesis, and a sudden urge to buy every Michael Bolton CD ever published:
http://www.portlandskate.com/bfly2001.htm