International Law

Microsoft has the last laugh

In turns out that Microsoft has a sense of humour after all ...

Guys, the joke's on us. Big time.

Bloggers have been chortling all day over a goofy video made for Microsoft's sales team that made its way onto YouTube.

The video, "Rocking Our Sales," by "Bruce ServicePack and the Vista Street Band," is painfully lame. How bad? A friend from IBM who viewed the video said it made him rip out his spleen. That's pretty bad.

In short order, Microsoft was getting pilloried for not having a clue about cool. The House of Gates was so square, it was beyond lame. Gizmodo put up a post titled "Internal Microsoft Vista Video is as Painful as Videos Get", while Engadget chimed in with "Microsoft burns our eyes with Vista promo video." Not to be outdone, CrunchGear added its 2 cents with "Don't shoot the messenger: Microsoft internal promo video about Windows Vista is hard to watch."

Truth be told, I thought pretty much the same thing. Only one problem. They were messing with your heads.

"This video was a spoof (believe it or not)," said a Microsoft representative familiar with the reason behind the production. Apparently, it was a way for Microsoft to have some fun at its own expense.

"They thought folks internally would get a kick out of not taking themselves so seriously all the time, but some people thought that's exactly what they were being--serious. Anyway, this little piece of art came to life and has caused quite a few laughs in Microsoft's hallways."

Who woulda thunk it?

Read more here (from CNET News.com).

Full post as published by Freedom to Differ on April 18, 2008 (boomark / email).