Backstage
OK, Maybe Apple Has Nothing to Learn from Microsoft
Remember yesterday’s Backstage entry noting that Apple might be able to learn something useful for Apple TV from Microsoft? Well, simply watching this Windows Vista SP1 promotional video is enough to completely erase any thought of that sort. Never before have the words “epic fail” resonated so much.
Wow. Just wow. Thanks for pointing this out, Bob.
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1
This must be fake ... it must ... I can’t believe it.
If it’s not (it must!), where did Microsoft show that kind of stuff and to whom?
I still can’t believe it.
Regards from Switzerland
Boris
Posted by Boris on April 16, 2008 at 12:08 PM (PDT)
2
I’m pretty sure this is real. They were trying to be funny and serious at the same time. Wow, I don’t think they realize that people will just look at this and laugh AT them instead of WITH them. It’s just sad. I’m so glad apple doesn’t have to do stupid stuff like this (and if you tell me those get-a-mac ads are stupid, then you have seriously no taste).
Posted by Thayne Miller on April 16, 2008 at 12:46 PM (PDT)
3
This can’t possibly be real. Even Microsoft isn’t that nerdy.
Posted by Maria on April 16, 2008 at 12:51 PM (PDT)
4
I’m reminded of Microsoft’s Windows 386 promo video, which has a really awful Debbie Harry impersonation at the 8-minute mark:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4915875929930836239
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it…”
Posted by Chris on April 16, 2008 at 1:20 PM (PDT)
5
It’s real. But it’s an internal video. You know, a silly internal thing that is purposely stupid.
Still…Pretty lame.
Posted by Cameron T. on April 16, 2008 at 1:47 PM (PDT)
6
I realize internal stuff like this is supposed to be silly, but I’m embarrassed for them. I’m putting another twenty in the “saving for a macbook” coffer.
Posted by TexCub on April 16, 2008 at 2:35 PM (PDT)
7
There may be no way to beat Chris’s video, which is in the process of destroying too many brain cells to count. But this video is also worth seeing. Astonishing.
Posted by Jeremy Horwitz in East Amherst, NY, USA on April 16, 2008 at 6:48 PM (PDT)
8
Most other sites have pointed out that this video was an intentional spoof, intended for internal distribution to lighten things up and get some laughs. I think an update to the article is in order.
Posted by David on April 17, 2008 at 8:48 AM (PDT)
9
It’s really hard to believe that, as it sounds like a feeble attempt at post-embarrassment spin. Even if you put aside the fact that this video cost the company good money to produce, requiring everything from a set, actors, instruments, lyrics, subtitling, and so on, it’s impossible to ignore that this video follows in a pattern of earlier trainwreck-quality sales force films Microsoft has made. (Just look at the links above.) Call them “intentional spoofs” or whatever you like, but they’re insane.
Posted by Jeremy Horwitz in East Amherst, NY, USA on April 17, 2008 at 9:16 AM (PDT)
10
To anyone believing that this video was made with sincere intentions: you are sorely lacking in the irony gene. It is so obviously produced with a huge - HUGE - sense of tongue-in-cheek. Why not spend a lot of money on something to boost company morale? It’s a funny video. Intentionally funny.
Posted by alexarch in Dallas, TX on April 17, 2008 at 3:34 PM (PDT)
11
Alexarch: Perhaps it was intended as a Microsoft recruiting exercise? You know, “anyone who thinks this is funny—intentionally funny—should apply to join our sales force, which incidentally rocks?”
For the record, lacking a sense of irony really doesn’t explain what appears to be the majority reaction to this video. It’s a matter of personal taste, and so far, it seems like most people think that if it was intended to be serious, it’s awful, or if it was intended to be funny, it’s awful. But there will always be people who have different senses of humor.
Posted by Jeremy Horwitz in East Amherst, NY, USA on April 18, 2008 at 5:27 AM (PDT)
12
I thank Mother Gaia, the alignment of the planets, and rainbow-colored moonbeams that my sense of humor doesn’t fit in with the majority. I pride myself on it in fact.
Posted by alexarch in Dallas, TX on April 18, 2008 at 8:06 AM (PDT)
13
I have a bizarre and distorted sense of humor. I can appreciate humor in many instances in which others cannot.
I watched that video, and found it impossible to laugh, or otherwise gain any enjoyment from it. Reruns of “Saved by the Bell” are stupid and almost grotesquely corny, but I think a lot of people will readily admit to enjoying them. This video, on the other hand, didn’t have anywhere near the sharpness of wit or wicked hilarity as an episode of the goings-on at Bayside High.
And that’s saying something.
Posted by Flippy Hambone on April 18, 2008 at 1:21 PM (PDT)