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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"
So I can go to my IT manager and say: We can't rely on Microsoft being here long-term, they're such a small company...
Oh wait, it's just for OUTSIDE the US.
What do they think? That the foreigners are easy to fool?
In any case, anything Microsoft does to burn its cash uselessly has got to be good, somehow.
"Piter, too, is dead."
Why don't they just spend $48 Billion and make it true!
:q! Oh crap, not again...
Doesn't sound much different from what Wal-Mart has been trying to do in recent years. And Microsoft actually looks small compared to them.
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!
Only an American company would spend this much to not look American.
This is a company with more employees than most cities have citizens, and they're trying to make people believe they're small. I wonder whose brilliant idea that was, and how long they'll remain employed at their current post...
End of lesson. You may press the button.
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
Microsoft is always at the end of every computer joke or bad comment. They need to do something.
So MS got the Temp to dream up another PR campaign to burn up some money for them? I mean, I don't see who they are going to convince with this, nor what they have to gain by doing it. Personally I either want my computing needs served either by guys like me doing it for the sheer fun and love of it, or by some large corp that needs customers (y'know, for profits...). And even at that, I'd take the like-minded community any day.
Still, I guess a little disinformation^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H marketing never hurt anyone. Oh, 'cept those guys that tattooed company logos on their foreheads...
If all you have is a grenade, pretty soon every problem looks like a foxhole -- MightyYar
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.
if you have "educational and development projects in 32 countries", doesn't that pretty much prove you're big?
D
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!
I'm not sure what data you are referring to, but Microsoft's market cap is significantly larger than Wal-Mart's.
The market cap (taken from http://finance.yahoo.com/ of listed companies as of January 23, 2005:
Microsoft: 280.49B
Wal-Mart: 188.40B
Apple: 65.46B
Dell: 71.12B
Either that or you guys just can't read. Clearly what the article says is just that Microsoft will advertise in other countries with the objective of seeming more like an international company...
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
Kudos to those who have posted similar replies. Hopefully people will read these enough to get the message. Or perhaps this just proves that most of the /. community would rather read what they want than what is on the page.
Funtime Candy Wow! - my plan for eventually conquering Japan.
The first thing they could change would be to offer free tech support to their customers. They could 'act' like a small company. Of course the article said 'look' like a small company, not act, so never mind.
Now Steve Ballmer just needs to get his temper under control
Register the editry.
That's not hard to achieve when you buy or copy most of your basic technology from outside sources, then omit staffing for adequate QA and security reviews in product development, then leverage your familiar dominant cash cows to force success new markets with mediocre products.
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.
What a load of horse manure. How can they not be seen as the huge American company when they do things like asking US Government and DoJ to intervene on their behalf in EU investigations? http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1887714,00.as p
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.
Just try being a bit smarter and make sure you only ever ask once what country people are in - and take note from there. In short, start assuming the US is just one other country, and there is certainly nothing special about it. Save yourself the marketing budget for something useful.
More on this? Sure, look here (Irish unit lets Microsoft cut taxes in U.S., Europe) or here (Microsoft Corp.'s Round Island One unit is Ireland's most profitable company). Or do like I did to get $insert_favourite_search_engine to produce these results: search on 'Microsoft ireland eu tax'...
--frank[at]unternet.org