[sf-lug] Song and dance to sell software

[Ernest De Leon]

I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit when I saw that....

On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 12:00 AM, Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu> wrote:

> Christian Einfeldt wrote:
> > hi
> >
> > <rant warning>
> >
> > On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 6:54 PM, Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu
> > <mailto:sverma at sfsu.edu>> wrote:
> >
> >     My sincerest apologies for sending this in, but I can't help it ;-)
> >     Amazing where advertising dollars go...
> >
> >     http://opensource.sfsu.edu/node/500
> >
> >
> > Yeah, that is really bad.  What a waste of $200k, because that is
> > probably what it cost to make, at least.  That is expensive camera
> > work, for one thing.  They probably have union camera crews and union
> > actors and union script writers, and union set crews.  And all of them
> > are going to be embarrassed at what they did for money.
> >
> > Who could this infomercial possibly be targeted at?  I can't imagine
> > what demographic it is aimed at.  The first thing this ad brings to
> > mind is late night television jewelry sales, it's that bad.  The only
> > thing I can guess is that some Microsoft exec somewhere hoped that
> > this would be a good use of money because it would get viral attention
> > since it is so bad.  But it's such stinky cheese that it runs the risk
> > of negative branding for Microsoft.  I am really kind of surprised
> > that they would have let something like this get out.
> >
> It seems that this video is an internal "sales" video that got out...
>
> Sameer
> > Don't watch it unless you can stand the pain of a seeing a really
> > poorly scripted, poorly acted mock up of Bruce Springsteen singing a
> > ridiculous song praising the anti-virus power of Vista Service Pack
> > 1.  You feel sorry for the actors who needed to appear in it to pay
> > their rent.
> >
> > Some Microsoft ads are (regrettably) effective.  The TV ads with the
> > kid jumping off of the bus with an astronaut's spacesuit drawn around
> > him, and the tag line, "Your potential.  Our passion."  That was
> > effective.  Regrettably.
> >
> > But this video is different.  It's almost as if it is Microsoft's
> > attempt to be casual like this viral Google gmail video, which was
> > stitched together by videos submitted by thousands of people, and has
> > gotten nearly 5.5 million views, despite the fact that it is overtly
> > commercial:
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKAInP_tmHk
> >
> > It just seems as if everything Microsoft does is fake and lacks soul.
> > </rant>
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > sf-lug mailing list
> > sf-lug at linuxmafia.com
> > http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/sf-lug
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> sf-lug mailing list
> sf-lug at linuxmafia.com
> http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/sf-lug
>



-- 
Ernest de Leon
http://www.smbtechadvice.com

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety." - A common 18th Century sentiment
voiced by Benjamin Franklin

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his
government." - Edward Abbey

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." -
Edmund Burke, English statesman and political philosopher (1729-1797)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/attachments/20080417/2d448c43/attachment.html>