Saturday, January 09, 2010

Microsoft Admits to Stealing Ideas

Have the folks in the Microsoft marketing department completely lost their minds? Watch this ad, and realize that the answer is 'yes':


So, the tech company that is most associated with stealing others' ideas is now showing off their new flagship product, touting it as, essentially, stolen intellectual property?

I love how willing they are to trash their previous product, Windows Vista. Why doesn't the announcer just come right out and say, "Tired of worrying about crashes and freezes under Vista? Boy, Vista sure does suck, doesn't it? Well, we've got a fix for that." Apple did a nice job slamming the Windows 7 ads in their typically succinct, on-the-nose fashion:


Oh, yeah, and Microsoft is still sticking with that tired "I'm a PC" tagline, trying to out-gotcha Apple. "And I'm Microsoft, and I don't know what a metaphor is. Oh, and I have no imagination."

But back to advertising... no one decodes the silliness of Madison Avenue better than Stephen Colbert. Watch this amazing clip from the January 6, 2010 episode of "The Colbert Report," where he dissects Domino's Pizza new ad campaign:


1 comment:

Ben said...

Todd, it's just a marketing ploy, can't believe you are taking those ads seriously.

Clearly you are on the Apple side, but Apple steals their fair share of "IP" as well. And the recent Snow Leopard upgrade debacle was pretty horrible.

At the end of the day, Windows 7 is an excellent OS. (disclaimer: I have a MBP running win 7 on fusion)