Raunchy Dance Routine a PR Nightmare For Microsoft

theodp writes "GeekWire reports on the techno-dance routine that preceded Microsoft's Windows Azure presentation at the Norwegian Developers Conference this week, which featured a group of women jumping around on stage to a song that included several drug references and the line: 'The words MICRO and SOFT don't apply to my penis.' In a strange effort to be inclusive, a monitor displaying the lyrics added, 'or vagina.' The official Windows Azure YouTube channel has posted an apology for 'a skit that involved inappropriate and offensive elements and vulgar language,' and said it's actively looking into the matter. Hey, could've been worse — at least @ASUS wasn't live-tweeting the event!"

Comments

Or Vagina?

[eldavojohn]

'The words MICRO and SOFT don't apply to my penis.' In a strange effort to be inclusive, a monitor displaying the lyrics added, 'or vagina.'

What in the hell is an "or vagina"? Is that new hardware slang for an OR gate?

Re:Or Vagina?

[netwarerip]

'The words MICRO and SOFT don't apply to my penis.' In a strange effort to be inclusive, a monitor displaying the lyrics added, 'or vagina.'

What in the hell is an "or vagina"? Is that new hardware slang for an OR gate?

Well, Micro and Soft would be ideal for a vagina.

Re:Or Vagina?

[ShieldW0lf]

Nothing sexier than a big, hard vagina. I'm moving to Norway.

Re:Or Vagina?

[SadButTrue]

Protip: They are quite stretchy
Spoiler: That is where babies come from

Re:Or Vagina?

[philip.paradis]

I'm not sure the words "pro," "tip," and "spoil" are going to produce the best visual in this context.

What happened to the good old days?

[DickBreath]

developers, Developers, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS ?

I Love This Company!

Re:What happened to the good old days?

[bitt3n]

developers, Developers, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS

or vagina

Re:What happened to the good old days?

[schroedingers_hat]

I used to keep up with all the new memes and not repeat tired old ones, then I took an arrow to the knee
or vagina.

Re:What happened to the good old days?

[rtfa-troll]

If he sold off his shares, then I might believe you were anything but a piss-poor Troll. But he hasn't.

Funny you should mention that.

I'd say that Billy has been selling off Microsoft shares as fast as he possibly can without people noticing too much.

So whoever modded this +1, kindly go unfuck yourself before attempting further moderation.

Ah yes. I think we know why you don't have mod points.

Re:What happened to the good old days?

[ghostdoc]

damn I never have a mod point when I need one

or vagina

Jezus Fucking Puritans.

[MRe_nl]

But that dance routine WAS a disaster.
Also, that's not Techno.

Any bigger PR nightmare?

[mattr]

It could be worse. I discovered a famous furniture company's name means "ass" in Swedish from some engineers who couldn't stop laughing whenever they would see these boxes everywhere. I couldn't find it in the dictionary so it must be colloquial.

I wonder is there a way to search whether a made up brand name matches any word colloquial or not in any of the mainstream languages?

The harder they try

[l0ungeb0y]

The harder Microsoft tries to look cool, the more they look like awkward social retards staring at their feet in the corner of the highschool dance. I'm hard pressed to think of a company with a worse public image -- aside from Haliburton and PG&E, who actually kill people to achieve profit.

Re:The harder they try

[DoofusOfDeath]

I disagree with you regarding the particular kind of misfit they come across as.

In my mind, Microsoft is a stodgy, big company representing most of the evils of old men corrupted by wealth. They use patents and lobbyists to lock out competitors, they screw of customers and business partners, they belong to the BSA, etc.

So to me, it would like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons paid for the high-school prom, and then demanded all students stand around him to watch him do a Dirty Dancing version of the Charleston.

Re:WTF would Apple do?

[MickyTheIdiot]

Apple would have girls that were actually sexy.

I think that I speak for everyone when I say,

[Bender Unit 22]

Meh....

Lame lyrics and where's the raunchy dance?
Geekwire needs to check up on the state of music videos these days(the uncensored versions). Or maybe not, it will give them a heartattack. :D

Re:WTF would Apple do?

[WrongSizeGlass]

Apple would have girls that were actually sexy.

With rounded corners, of course ;-)

Official Stance

[EXTomar]

Microsoft's official stance: If you aren't sure what something is, Bing(tm) it. Go to your XBox 360 with Kinnect and shout proudly "XBOX BING OR VAGINA".

Non-Native Insight

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, we speak English just fine here [in Norway], even though it's a second language for most. English is after all a close cousin of the Scandinavian languages, Dutch and German. It's closer to "native" than you would think.

I'm sorry to say we have no excuse for this silly little song, other than that we have a different culture and couldn't care less about offending "sensitive" foreigners :)

I haven't heard the song itself, but you might want to consider the fact that we also like to intentionally create songs that make a mockery of both our languages. It's called parody. Things are not always what they appear to be ;)

Re:WTF would Apple do?

[vlm]

The good news is the Apple girls would be multi touch enabled, the bad news is only one "button" to play with even if the world standard has always been to ship with two. And they'd be shiny, very shiny.

Tired of this

[Dripdry]

You know what's immature? The fact that we as a culture seem ok with glorifying violence against people, killing and maiming them, but when you use the word "penis" then OMG! horrible! It's not natural Bullshit.

The world would be a happier, healthier place if we just stood up against this nonsense and admit that sex is fine, fun, and healthy. Seriously, who made that headline? Other than a stupid song with some dumb lyrics, who cares? Sure, it doesn't really get across what MS wants, but a "PR Nightmare"? Give me a break.

It's headlines like these that keep perpetuating the controlling and immature notion that sexuality is a sin, punishable by censure or banishment from society. If MS had used a video of the paperclip smacking around then crushing an apple that oozes blood it wouldn't be appropriate but would it be a "PR Nightmare"?

Revised retraction

[Anonymous Coward]

I hear they just revised their YouTube retraction in order to be more inclusive.

“This week’s Norwegian Developer’s Conference included a skit that involved inappropriate and offensive elements and vulgar language. We apologize to our customers and our partners and are actively looking into the matter or vagina.”