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Microsoft Wants to Project "Cool" Image
rocketjam writes "C-Net is reporting that Microsoft is working to get their products placed in popular TV shows like Fox's "24" and HBO's "The Wire" as part of a push from executive Jim Allchin called 'cool form factor'. Like MacDonald's recent hip-makeover marketing efforts, Allchin wants to engender a hip, consumer brand image for the company which is largely perceived as an enterprise software company. Microsoft would like to capture some of the cachet that Apple Computer has among the fashionable and Hollywood tech elite."
The newest 24 preview has Jack sitting infront of a 17" PowerBook, with a G5 in the background. They both look amazing. What would microsoft do? Have a WindowsXP box sitting on the desk, with him holding it up, looking at the camera and saying "For all you security needs, use windows" and promptly proceeds to blast a cap in it's ass.
Apple have appeared, without payment or request, in thousands of productions. From 24 to Seinfeld, to just about any stock photography that has a laptop in it, it's Apple Apple Apple all the way. I think it's curious Microsoft need to -pay- to get their products in this same position.
:P
And as much as I'm a mac lover, it's amazing how LITTLE benefit it's done Apple. What's our market share now?
It's just trying to get the street cred it craves.
It's important to make sure it doesn't get it. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make sure it doesn't. This message will self-destruct in 15 months.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"Fucking Windows 98! Get Bill Gates in here! You told us Windows 98 would be faster, and more efficient, with better access to the Internet!
As Gates tries to defend Windows, the General blows his head off. I thought that was pretty cool.
It has to look cool, which, IMHO, Microsoft has not grasped yet. A large part of the appeal -- and probably a good reason why the directors of 24 allow it -- of Apple is the cool factor. The hardware is slick, the buttons are shiny, and it doesn't look like most other computers out there.
What product would microsoft have in its arsenal that could fill the above description?
"Diplomacy is something you do until you find a rock." --Richard Pound
With style-retarded heads like Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, they've got a good way to go. The reason that Apple has the image it does is STEVE JOBS. Face it, whether you like him or not (personally I do) he is a stylish man. Back in the 80s he always wore those black turtlenecks and trendy glasses. He KNOWS what style is. Unless someone want's to get the guys from Queer Eye to do a makeover on Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, the business image is going to be hard to break. Besides, I can predict what's going to happen anyway. They will try to add coolness to their image and then proclaim success to the investors after six months regardless of the true outcome. Eventually everyone will want to look like Microsoft products because of the buzz surrounding the new look. The buzz that was self-perpetuating. This will work because most business folks don't have the slightest idea what style really is. They think "roughing it" is wearing a pair of khakis and a polo shirt to work on Fridays.
Un-news
From the article: After some early success with shows like "24" last season...
Maybe last season but in the first series: 24's Good Guys Do Use Macs
While Bauer and most of the other agents in his unit used Macs, the traitor used a laptop made by Dell. The baddies, a group of renegade Serbs, also use Dell machines.
All MS has to do is rewite some basic error messages and we go from...
This program has performed an illegal operation and has been shut down. Do you wish to generate an error report and send it to Microsoft?
to
Hey dude, Bill reckons you've been working so hard in Word that you deserve a break so we've closed it down for you. Go grab a diet soda (we've gotta watch that sugar rush!) or chill out by the water cooler for a while and then return refreshed to start all over again. We're so glad you've chosen to take a break we've even emailed Bill and told him you're not skipping on your personal time.
AT&ROFLMAO
It's just trying to get the street cred it craves. It's important to make sure it doesn't get it.
Thankfully, Microsoft's success in having become 'the establishment' will make it very hard for them to acquire street cred. That sort of perception tends to attach to rebels, free-thinkers and high performers, not monolithic institutions. While it's true that MS itself has shown breathtaking contempt for the law, using their software is not going to make you a rebel without a cause; it's going to make you a sheep without an alternative.
We all know what's going to happen now:
Yes, Longhorn will be renamed "Windows Extreme"
The setup is that a besuited guy wanders in on a what is presumably the IT department. The IT department looks like the commercial director has taken the most boring people on the talent agency's books and told the costume and make up people "think bland". They are all dancing extremely awkwardly and drinking some unidentified liquid (the way these people are acting, it sure ain't alcohol) out of blue plastic cups.
The guy asks what's the party, at which point the head IT guy explains how they had magically consolidated the Active Directory groups from 70 to 4 thus allowing them to roll out new apps to the sales force in minutes (or some such hooey). The suit looks nonplussed, until Head IT Guy explains that this will save the company millions of dollars. The ad closes with the suit leading the IT department in a line dance, which they manage to make look just as awkward and dorky.
I realise the ad probably has to be designed to it can be shown everywhere from Salt Lake City to Singapore, but, jeez, if you want to make your brand cool try not to associate it with complete dorks... :)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Some things are "cool" for no other reason that they run counter to the mainstream. Apple has a throng of devotees partially because they aren't Microsoft.
Add to this the fact that Apple produces kick-ass products and you can see why they remain cool. They've demonstrated that they aren't a passing phase.
Microsoft can pay all of the money in the world and still not (and won't) buy that kind of following.
Plus, you don't see Apple pushing the issue with DRM and all of that other bullshit. Once again they are counter (cool) to the mainstream (dud).
Wintel laptops are used as Trojan Horses filled with C4. (no really!)
I've seen a treatment of the final episode of the show, funding is cut and a new manager is brought in who attempts to "modernize" and "standardize" the MI-5 by "upgrading" to Windows boxes.
I will not reveal the ending, but let's just say its not pretty.
I like microcars