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Microsoft Pays Bloggers to Tout MS Slogan

Posted by samzenpus on from the we-love-our-sponsor-and-their-product dept.

Stony Stevenson writes "In an effort to inject Microsoft's latest slogan, 'People-ready business', into popular usage (and no doubt raise its Google page rank), Microsoft asked a passel of A List Bloggers to write blurbs on what this meaningless phrase means to them. Michael Arrington, Om Malik, Fred Wilson, Richard MacManus and a handful of others happily agreed to churn out some mush for Microsoft, which it later used in banner ads. What it really meant to these guys was income. Redmond paid the bloggers for every user who clicked through to the PRB microsite. That caused other bloggers, lead by Gawker chief Nick Denton, to rightfully question their ethics. A spitball war has been raging ever since."

32 of 339 comments (clear)

  1. Awesome slogan by fbjon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Good god, it's like a competition on the back of a pack of corn flakes: "Write an essay on how you feel about the word "Crunchy!", and win a trip to Paris!"

    --
    True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    1. Re:Awesome slogan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      People-ready business... Two things come to mind. The first is "prostitution", as I can't think of another business that deals directly in people who are made ready. The second is:

      (1) Say "People-ready business"
      (2) ...
      (3) Profit!!!

      Ok, you had to know that was coming...

    2. Re:Awesome slogan by GauteL · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Write an essay on how you feel about the word "Crunchy!", and win a trip to Paris!"

      It wouldn't fly, most people would have been worried about how many have gone there before them, particularly after the whole jail sentence.

  2. Re:Nothing unusual by misleb · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nothing, as long as Adblock catches the ads before I have to see them.

    --
    "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
  3. Surely the Salshdot crowd has some ideas by clickety6 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Surely the Slashdot crowd has some ideas of their own as to what "people-ready business" might mean?

    Business ready to fleece the people?

    If we're talking Vista, maybe it means business with some people-sized holes where the customers should havebeen inserted?

    --
    ----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
    1. Re:Surely the Salshdot crowd has some ideas by c3ph45 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well I'm guessing it means that Microsoft isn't a Robotic-Overlord-Ready Business.

  4. In other news by fferreres · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sources report Slashdot was popularized a new term "Money-ready bloggers", a term coined to discredit unetical bloggers who choose topics based on money bounties.

    --
    unfinished: (adj.)
  5. I'm Secretary of State, by Baldrson · · Score: 1, Funny

    brought to you by Carl's Jr.

    --
    Seastead this.
  6. People-driven business means: by smurfsurf · · Score: 5, Funny

    A people-driven business leverages collective synergy with a quality-driven approach that focuses on delivering key objectives. It is quite obvious, actually.

    (The BS bingo blurb is courtesy of the DailyWTF)

  7. Re:PRB = Public Relations Bullsh*t by TechnoLuddite · · Score: 3, Funny
    Actually (and tell me this isn't amusing), PRB is Microsoft Knowledge Base's acronym for Problem. Or, to put it in non-spin, "Yes, it's a bug ... but we're not fixing it."

    Maybe that's the People-Related Business they're talking about.

  8. Collective noun by Threni · · Score: 5, Funny

    > passel of A List Bloggers

    I thought the collective noun was "a crock of bloggers".

  9. parent is not a troll...mods wake up by advocate_one · · Score: 2, Funny

    the parent comment is right on the money...

    --
    Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
  10. Re:What if... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    All the googlers who can't spell will be sent to the Wikipedia page

  11. Re:Looks like it worked. by suv4x4 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Looks like it worked - allready mentioned on slashdot!

    Oh yea, it worked. I can totally imagine thousands of Slashdotters storming Microsoft with "damn, get me some of that people-ready business software!".

    Truth is Microsoft marketing sucked for nearly 12 years now. They're totally clueless about how to advertise even their good products (such as Office 2007, which is a great piece of software*).

    *Microsoft paid me $100 to post this.

  12. Re:Nothing unusual by br14n420 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I get the feeling, most bloggers would be pretty open about this. "Hey guys, look. Microsoft wants to pay for me to come up with a 30 word comment on how I feel about __________. What an awesome deal! mood: chipper status: lonely music: brittney spears"

  13. Re:Easy Way To Counteract That by fbjon · · Score: 4, Funny
    Moreover, what does it mean? It seems it has to do with the latest versions of Windows and Office, but what exactly? The Microsoft site tells me that "People are your most important asset. With the right software, they'll push your business forward" (*) or somesuch. Ya sure, all the examples and marketing fluff sound great, but there has to be something concrete somewhere, right? Otherwise, why spend money marketing it, unless the whole thing is a branding campaign for manager types.


    (*) $100 dollars have been transferred to your Swiss bank account. Also, it's "drive" not "push".

    - Microsoft

    --
    True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
  14. Do you want flesh with that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Soylent Green was a "People-Ready Business"

  15. Re:Easy Way To Counteract That by SnowZero · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ya sure, all the examples and marketing fluff sound great, but there has to be something concrete somewhere, right? You must be new here.

  16. Re:Ethics are easy if your wealthy, but.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    And just wait to see what kind of censorship waits if you dare to spread the truth that France does not exist, or that the moon landing never took place!

    (Captcha: nonsense. How appropriate.)

  17. Re:Nothing unusual by dhalgren · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'd like to believe that too.

    My heart broke a long time ago.

    Torben

  18. Re:Integrity demands crying foul immediately by ben+there... · · Score: 5, Funny

    How bizarre that there is a "Word of Mouth Marketing Association." Isn't the whole idea of word of mouth advertising that it is not contrived by a marketing group? Reminds me of the Ministry of Truth.

  19. Re:In other news... by coinreturn · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, prostitution is the most people-ready business I know. Others include televangelists and the military.

  20. Re:Easy Way To Counteract That by indifferent+children · · Score: 5, Funny
    People are your most important asset.

    Actually, it turns out that money is our most important asset. People are ninth. Carbon paper is eighth.

    --
    Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it. --Mark Twain
  21. /. contributing by Taimat · · Score: 3, Funny

    And now.... Slashdot is helping Microsoft get the phrase "people ready business" out there, by posting a story about it, and using the phrase "people ready business" in the article... and, no doubt, numerous people will put "people ready business" into their replies to the article about "people ready business", thus, adding the number of times "people ready business" is on a single page...

    I for one, will not help contribute to this meaningless mentioning of the phrase "people ready business" in slashdot, which is helping microsoft get it's phrase "people ready business" higher up in google's rankings, and into people's heads...

    That's all I have to say about that....

    ps..... "people ready business"

    --
    The above comments are not guaranteed to make sense to anyone other than the author...
  22. Re:Easy Way To Counteract That by cmacb · · Score: 1, Funny

    In addition, to better characterize the type of people Microsoft prefers to do business with it might make sense to link the phrase "Dumb-Fuck Ready to the target site. At least to me that characterizes the people who haven't at least started seriously considering alternative to a continued relationship with the company.

  23. Re:Easy Way To Counteract That by jollyreaper · · Score: 2, Funny

    Actually, it turns out that money is our most important asset. People are ninth. Carbon paper is eighth. And you can get carbon from people. Talk about human resources!
    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  24. Re:Nothing unusual by Random+BedHead+Ed · · Score: 5, Funny

    Looks like we'll need to modify Adblock's settings to filter out entire blogs. Then we'll have a true, dependable People-Ready Browser.

  25. My post. by trolltalk.com · · Score: 3, Funny

    Click here to get to their "post your own story" page. http://peopleready.federatedmedia.net/prpost

    "I knew my business was people-ready the day I dumped all Microsoft products and switched to linux. No more worries about people complaining about viruses in emails or attachments, no more rebooting."

    The response page:

    " Thanks!

    Thanks for posting! We'll give your post a quick once-over and get it up on the site shortly. "

    Somehow, I'm skeptical.

    --
    Kevin Smith on Prince
  26. Re:Nothing unusual by QMO · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is more or less the reason I stopped believing anything I read.
    I used to belileve your comment, until I read it. I never believe anything I read either.

    And, since I used the preview button, I can't even believe my own comment.
    --
    Exam 4/C again. Maybe I'll do better this time.
  27. For God's sake, most software IS people-ready! by Serpentegena · · Score: 2, Funny

    I've never heard of software designed for the use of cats or whales, although I'm sure it would mk an awesome article to read.

    --
    Microsoft put the "sucks" in "success".
  28. Re:Ethics are easy if your wealthy, but.. by __aapspi39 · · Score: 2, Funny

    "come and see the violence inherent in the [open-source] system...help, help, i'm being repressed..."

    nice try

  29. They're asking for a Google bomb... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I say we make sure that people know that a People-Ready business means you take it up the rear via a nice Google bomb. Or a People-Ready business means you astroturf. Or whatever.

    And feel free to substitute the actual link. I think that .cx is dead, I forgot what the new one is, and I have no intention of googling this from work...