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Microsoft Spending $120M To Look Smaller
Ant writes "Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Microsoft Corp. will spend $120 million a year on an advertising campaign to fight its image as "a huge American company." That sound you heard while reading the article is my head exploding.
Obviously it's time for the obligatory Belinda joke ...
....
Wedding night
"Oh, so that's why they call it Microsoft".
Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
"Cats like plain crisps"
Why don't they just spend $48 Billion and make it true!
:q! Oh crap, not again...
US announces to world that it wishes to be seen a small Eastern Bloc country from now on, and will so give the impression of financial hardship and military weakness from now on.
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
damn slashdot... What is "Microsoft"... Please provide some background in the article summary!
Pardon me, but anyone or anything who spends $120-million a year on something does not come accross as a "mom and pop" operation.
Was that really loud splashing sound made by all of America's PR firms wetting themselves at once?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Hopfully they will live up to their ads
Microsoft, that large Canadian company :)
James P. Barrett
The campaign, using subway posters, blogs, and airplane banners, will portray Ballmer engaging in everday, blue collar activities like drinking with his buddies, bowling, playing softball, and doing the laundry. Pleasantville actor William H. Macy has been hired to portray Steve Ballmer's best friend.
"A lot of people see me as some kind of rage-filled bully. And I'm not like that," Ballmer said while emphatically pounding his desk.
"I took the job because Steve said he would 'fucking kill' me if I didn't. I knew he meant business when he threw a chair at me," said Macy in an interview.
In one ad, Ballmer bowls a strike, then turns around and high-fives Macy. He then proceeds to scream and and dance himself into a sweaty frenzy with blood vessels popping out of his reddened forehead, finally calming down enough to hoarsely shout, "I love bowling! Yeah!"
Reactions to the ads have been mixed. Many have commented that Macy seems in danger of being crushed by Ballmer, and that Ballmer's jokes come off as threatening and unfunny. The ads have been showing in select US markets, and are expected to go national in time for Windows Vista, the next version of Microsoft Windows, to ship.
Unknown host pong.
Isn't that what Kirstie Alley is spending to look smaller too???
Every time you call tech support, a little kitten dies.
The Bad News: There's no way we can compete with smaller and nimbler companies.
The Good News: At the rate we're going, we're going to smaller than any of them!
Now Steve Ballmer just needs to get his temper under control
Register the editry.
I guess everyone missed the news a month ago:
Redmond WA (AP) Microsoft announced that it would drop its current overseas advertising slogan "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." after a successful trademark infringement suit filed by The Borg, who claimed that Microsoft's use of their trademarked phrase was ruining their brand, and subjecting them to ridicule by interstellar civilizations.
...does this operating system make my ass look big?
Microsoft has something like 50,000 employees. That won't even fill many major sports arenas and concert venues.
However, probably for the sake of convenience, Microsoft does hold company meetings in major sports arenas from time to time.
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
[Pastoral-sounding music fades up in the background, as the picture opens on a small farm tractor plowing a field]
Welcome to our little world. Translucent window borders. Virtual desktops. Sophisticated security settings. All created by hand. By people, for people.
Windows Vista. Made by folksy folks.
The next ad campaign will try to get you to believe that Bill Gates is poor. There will be an address to which you can send donations. I, for one, will not be donating, however.
Uuhhhmm...that's because non-American companies don't need to spend anything to look non-American..... :)
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......