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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
That might be little strong. They didn't do any damage. Get over it.
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.
Give it up for us! Whoooooo hooooo!
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
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
Perhaps this is just a stunt for MS' new product, MSJackass for their new cable channel MSMTV?
it's not going to stop until you wise up, no it's not going to stop. so just give up.
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
What a fantastically compelling ad campaign! I'll take two of whatever it is they are selling.
I am a Karma Library.
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
Terrible mental image of Steve Balmer wearing a sweat soaked butterfly suit and roller blades, yelling "Developers! Developers!"....
*cringe*
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.
...to put their army of mascots out there, and then it's Godzilla Versus Mothra all over again.
-- We live in a world where lemonade is artificial and soap has real lemon.
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.
Am I the only one secretly wishing all of those butterfly-clad idiots were magically transported to some impoverished shanty-town (like in Bangladesh or Brazil) so they could convince all of the people who are drinking raw sewage in their water how wonderful the benefits of MSN 8 will be?
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
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
No, it was not okay for IBM. Here is an article that explains why:
IBM caught tagging San Fran streets with Linux ads
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Why these people dont post the no registration required links provided by Google news I don't know
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."
So it might not be MS's directive, but the PR/Ad agency screwing it up. Though *that's* a bit difficult to swallow that they didn't know you could get away with that. Probably more of a 'hey this will get *great* pr, be on the news for shaking up NYC, and we'll pay some crappy little fine at best (or offer MS XP to schools at a discount and thereby intrenching themselves more
Is why these butterfly outfits are so "frumpy". If they really want to sell they need something that competes with the iMac girl. I want my (female) human butterfly wearing nothing but wings and a smile.
Is there a single, original idea at Microsoft? Can't they come up with *anything* themselves? You know you suck when you're looking to IBM for "hip" inspiration...
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.
I would love to see an equivalent number of guys in penguin suits go beat them up. I'd pay good money to see that.
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...
Q: How did you hear about our products?
A:
[] Recomended by a friend
[] Saw ad in magazine
[] Screaming butterflies spoke of them
I am a Karma Library.
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.
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.
A butterfly flapping its wings in Manhattan can cause a hurricane in Redmond, Washington.
----------
Manifesto for the Peoples of the Third Millennium
MSN, the "Microsoft operating system required" internet service
As opposed to AOL, the "Microsoft operating system required" internet service.
The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
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.
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.
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?
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.
hmm.... Microsoft is advertising by using bugs. Ironic, isn't?
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
I think it would be more like Place all bug on Windows jokes here
or perhaps: Place all bugs in Windows jokes here
30-40 guys and gals in butterfly suits
They're not butterflies...they're moths.
And they're on their way to fight the Uncommon Cold.
Tomorrow I want to see 60 fat little circus midgets dressed up like penguins skateboarding through downtown NYC, screaming at the top of their lungs, and throwing rocks at all the windows:
"We're short! We're fat! We can't fly! We're pissed! And Windows sucks!"
Since when has Microsoft obeyed laws?
From the article:
"I trust and hope that these offensive activities are not the authorized acts of your organization's employees and agents," Mr. Fernandez [Assistant counsel of the Transportation Department] wrote..."
Does Mr. Fernandez perhaps believe that Microsoft employees paid for thousands of 20" Microsoft butterflies with Microsoft advertising out of their own pockets?
OF COURSE IT WAS AN AUTHORIZED ACT YOU TWIT!
My
Limekiller
I'm envisioning a group of 50 beat down, tattered and torn butterflies that got the short straw and had to skate through the Bronx and Queens.
"Want in one hand and spit in the other and see which one fills up first." - My Dad
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.
Does anyone else find it appropriate that microsoft is using a bug as the icon for their new promotion?
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.
I live in New York. They put all of their selfish trash around my living space and I've decided to use it against them. I'm turning their advertisment vandalism into word-of-mouth sabotage. (word-of-mouth is the best way to get the message out, right?)
;)
I have gone from disliking Microsoft to hating them for spoiling my living environment so to retaliate. . . Everytime someone brings up this abject vandalism in conversation, I make a very specific, understandable point about how Microsoft vandalizes the economic environment and acts as a regular sabateur and law-breaker when it serves their petty interest. It may be annoying to them (heck, I may seem annoying to them by doing it), but these people know that I know what I'm talking about and they start hating Microsoft too. They are reminded of it everytime they see that butterfly trash too. . . hundreds of times a day. I've even heard some people spread the word (of disgust)
Is this the intended effect? Just because we remember it and talk about it, does that serve their intentions? Everyone recognizes and talks about swastikas at some time in their lives, but I wouldn't call that "buzz" positive.
(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 ...)
you're right about the chicago stuff. evidently it was supposed to be done with biodegradable chalk:
9 71
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article.php/754
perhaps the local advertising folks screwed up, or perhaps ibm is blaming them to cover their asses.
personally i dont appreciate either technique. i'm sick of seeing advertising everywhere i go-even if it is for linux. i would like to step outside and not see anything being advertised, but that is just me.
-- john
Not for long
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They'll never know because *you're in charge* of installing software, reinstalling Windows, and upgrading the family PC!
It's never been so easy!
Act now, and you'll get a Digitally Restricted copy of 'Mickey Mouse's - How I Fucked Hollywood, and Lived to Squeek About It'. A sordid tale of government corruption, Congresswhores, Copyright Extentions, and the Legal Defense of Public Domain works as if Mickey himself wrote them!
Hurry! Sign up now, before Linux is ready for the Desktop!
"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?
Are you sure about that?
"And like that
I'm running FreeBSD at home and connecting to MSN just fine. (Yeah, I sold my soul to them for a $200 Circuit $hitty Gift Certificate in exchange for a two year contract.) Hey, I needed an ISP, so I figured I may as well profit from giving someone my business...
Can anyone imagine that there is still a market for people who need their hands held as they walk along the Information Superhighway? Nonetheless, I have GOT to get a clip of Billy G. in the reported "Butterfly Suit."
Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.
Butterflies in Seattle
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
Why do you advertise in you sig then?
Well, other things aside, they may be thin enough to not cause a bump problem, but making the sidewalk a slicker surface might be an issue, especially if one wheel of a chair is on a surface with a different friction coefficient than the other wheel...
But this is a wild stab at rational, the stickers may be non-trivially thin, or there could be other reasons. The point is when certain areas are engineered for accessability, people shouldn't mess with them, and it is even more unacceptable for a company to be this irresponsible. They don't find it acceptable for people to do spraypainting, SF fined IBM for the peace, love, linux grafitti, and even with all these precedents, MS goes out and marks everything in sight.... AOL carpetbombs the US with CDs, now MS bombards the US with butterflies (since MSN ships with Windows already, a CD is rather pointless).
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
They had at least 30 rollerbladers (i.e. fruitbooters) skating around dressed like purple butterflies holding signs. Apparently no one liked them as they said "no one likes us".
Then one got clipped by a taxi.
Damn butterflies.
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.
I'm curious how people will 'creative modify' the Microsoft ads. Any pictures?
We get these annoying sidewalk decals in San Francisco all the time. Usually they're on private property, but too often they're on the public sidewalk in hard-to-ignore locations.
The most annoying ads are in the public train stations. The ads are usually placed at the top or bottom of the staircases (and in some cases, ON the staircases), or in some other location that is hard to ignore. For example, imagine a group of people travelling down in an escalator. Where are people looking? 95% of the people will looking at the base of the escalator at some point. So, the clever ad companies place these annoying ads at the base of the escalator, where it's almost impossible to ignore them.
This is why that whenever I pass one of these sidewalk stickers on public areas, I always make sure to take an extra few seconds to discretely lift up one of the corners of the sticker-ad with the sole of my shoe. The stickers are usually made of a heavy plastic, and it's difficult to tear them up without a sharp object.
As large groups of people pass through the train station and walk over the sticker, some individuals will eventually step on the torn up corner, and the advertisement will become even more torn up over time. Many people hate the ads as much as I do, and will also make an effort to kick up the sticker a little bit more. As the advertisement comes off the sidewalk, it becomes uglier and dirtier, wish tarnishes the image that the advertiser is trying to promote.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
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
Anyone have a .NET?