Microsoft PDC video showcases boy band, worst judgment ever
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted October 7th 2008 1:28PM
posted October 7th 2008 1:28PM
posted October 7th 2008 1:28PM
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First Seinfeld. Now this. They really are trying to capture their pre-millenium glory days, no?
And for those of you charging that Engadget bashes all things MS, search for the word "Zune". Seriously, what is that thing?
Is it surprising? The MS marketting team is too desperate. Tell me when has MS done a decent marketing?
- The MSN butterfly man
- The lame Zune quotes such as "welcome to the social"
- Bill Gates/Seinfeld ads
- Vista campaign "The Wow starts now"
- The Mojave Experiment (one of the biggest fails ever)
- A LOUSY looking Special edition, *Green* (ugly green) HALO Xbox, WITHOUT the game...
The list surely goes on...MS's marketing team is horrible.
Don't forget their brilliant marketing plan to give away copies of Madden NFL '07 Xbox games to all the residents of Madden, Mississippi. What, you don't remember that one? Exactly.
Maybe EA Sports can share the blame for that one.
Although "welcome to the social" and "The wow starts now" are really bad, I think the absolute worst Microsoft marketing attempt was when they referred to the act of wirelessly sharing songs between two Zune as "squirting". That is the bottom of the bottom.
If you were previously unconvinced of the importance of ditching Windows for Linux, and you remain unconvinced, then there is no hope for you.
a good joke knows the difference between an awkward moment and 4 minutes of awkward moment.
this is so crap. i'm not even watching, but just listening is making me sick.
how many people do they think actually stuck around to see 'brian' get booted.
MS needs help.
btw, i liked the seinfeld ad.
I can jut imagine Gates sitting in his living room like...
" well F**** this I'm getting a Mac"
Because of this add, god just killed a kitten
I like that the "Ad Agency" part is filmed in one of Microsoft's offices. If you've ever had a meeting at the MS then you would spot all the tell tale signs like the RoundTable conference camera on the middle of the table.
I really want to know who made this. Was it all done by MS employees or did they actually pay someone outside of MS to make it?
I honestly can't believe the CRAP thats being written here!!!! ARE YOU PEOPLE REALLY THIS STUPID??
THIS IS A JOKE. THIS IS A JOKE. THIS IS CALLED BLACK COMEDY. THIS IS CALLED IRONICIALLY FUNNY.
Does ANYONE HONESTLY think that Microsoft released this COMEDY video to ADVERTISE Microsoft / Vista / Windows 7!?!? SURELY YOU'RE NOT THAT DUMB?!
At every major event (TechEd, TechNets, PDC, WINHEC, etc) Microsoft always does FUNNY skits for the intro to the keynote speeches. This is just yet another FUNNY video of a LONG line of FUNNY videos.
IF YOU CAN'T LAUGH AT YOURSELF, YOU'RE A WASTE OF OXYGEN. GET A LIFE!!! GET A SENSE OF HUMOUR!!!!
No doubt it is called "IRONICIALLY FUNNY", by some.
But honestly, your rant strikes me as actually _being_ ironically funny.
This is not one of those jokes that someone doesn't get, and it's not really funny when it's explained; this is one of those jokes that everyone gets, and it's STILL not funny. Really.
If Engadget and its readers think they're too cool for this stuff, then they've lost their carefree geek sensibility and have become the ones that geeks have always opposed from the start.
I love how Microsoft will always be Microsoft. And I love how my purchasing decisions and brand inferences aren't swayed by a promo video for some conference.
microsoft doesnt make PC, so I am a PC one was good but made no point. maybe sicko could be labeled as I am a vista
WRONG!! See a wired article entitled Apple is evil, and you will see that actually Microsoft's corporate culture is closer to that of Google's in ways of transparency and how they deal with workers/customers. In contrast since when has apple ever listened to anything a customer has asked, and when have they ever EVER released anything about what they are doing? They behave like a button-down old style corporation, which isnt a bad thing. They difference that you are talking about is in advertising, in which apple can create this hip, cool, almost lust about its product that no company has ever been able to match, especially not Microsoft. But the way the companies actually behave is different from their advertising. Apple's culture is not "hip" its old and outdated, but it works for them. I realize a low rank is impending for this comment
Not this one.
WRONG!! See a wired article entitled Apple is evil, and you will see that actually Microsoft's corporate culture is closer to that of Google's in ways of transparency and how they deal with workers/customers. In contrast since when has apple ever listened to anything a customer has asked, and when have they ever EVER released anything about what they are doing? They behave like a button-down old style corporation, which isnt a bad thing. They difference that you are talking about is in advertising, in which apple can create this hip, cool, almost lust about its product that no company has ever been able to match, especially not Microsoft. But the way the companies actually behave is different from their advertising. Apple's culture is not "hip" its old and outdated, but it works for them. I realize a low rank is impending for this comment
This one.
I'm crying...
uhhhh.... lol?
It makes a *little* bit more sense if you see the ending; of course, the number of people who aren't going to quit out of the video within 15 seconds of it starting out of pure disgust is relatively small so it's a load of EPIC FAIL.
omg, windows 7 makes you gay. NOT that there is anything wrong with that....
Just wait until you see Windows 8! Can you say, transe...
Shortest Engadget post in history...
Anyway, WTH is this supposed to be for? Is it kill my eardrums and eyes day?
Just a quick tidbit for the crowd...This video was first posted on channel8 ( http://channel8.ms ) by some Microsoft employees as a tongue-in-cheek joke to generate buzz around the 2008 PDC. Not as a new formal advertising campaign! So for those clamoring to bash Microsoft for whatever comes your way, take a deep breath, step back, and take it with a grain of salt...maybe even let yourself laugh for a moment!
yeah, that was a joke alright - the difference is, that went on WAY too long to be funny.
fuckin idiots. only a moron would see this video and think it is a formal ad campaign. Tells me what the readership here really knows...nothing. Microsoft has a looooong history of employees making spoof videos to promote ideas, launch products, roast one another. eminds me of when DOJ thought the Men in Black spoofh video with MSFT execs was serious. Like I said...fuckin idiots
Terrible micro. Reminds me of ghey.
Oh, snap. You can't watch stuff like that and not have it do some kind of damage, right?
P.S. Glad minilap mentioned the ending. Somewhat redeeming. (Whoever watched it through the whole time first--I sure couldn't--deserves some credit.) This should have been a one-minute video.
I puked in my mouth... several times...
The only thing that caught my attention was the fact that the coffee mug from Brian is empty, judging by the sound it makes when he puts it back on the table.
Wow. the first thing that came to mind when the music started was "Brian. You're fired."
Microsoft....i praise you at every chance i get, and i defend you at your weakest moments- but this time i got nothing
Well I thought it was pretty funny, kind of reminded me of The Fast Show (UK) ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3OM2MA1pic
I'll get me coat...
Damn...I hate idiots who comment on things before actually knowing anything about the topic or in this case without watching the whole video until the end. And that includes Mr. Toposlky here, but then again he probably was just looking for a quick article with a ton of comments.
Shame engadget, thought you were above this.
haha, this is very old but still funny. It's an ad for nerds folks :)
this is one of those moments where you need donald trump to say "YOUR FIRED".
Well I thought it was quite funny. I also thought that the singing and dancing was better than most chart TOP 10 boy bands. :)
The sad part of the whole thing is that I actually sat through the entire video to see if it got any better. I'm still waiting.
Oh, and the fact that Microsloth makes you sit through that entire train wreck for a super weak punchline ending makes me definitely NOT want to go to the developers conference!
I decided to wait for a bit before commenting on this latest creative endeavor from Microsoft. After viewing this video about 5 times, I ended up having violent bowel movements 5 times in a row. It's a perplexing dilemma. How can a video cause such sever painful expulsion of body waste?
I sincerely hope that MS never releases this to the general public, over the air through the national TV networks. It will cause an epidemic of untold proportions. The waste management systems we have in place will be overwhelmed and fail. The odor of violent excreted human waste will overflow throughout the world and MS, the biggest "me too" company in the planet will have to use its own funds to clean up the mess.
LOL!
I must agree that the commercial is pretty shitty, but honestly, Jubei, that was actually an entertaining post... Still, you had to ruin it with your copy and pasted... Oop- sorry, your generic "me too" statements (forgot you don't have copy and paste on your iPhone)...
It is not a commercial! It is a spoof in preparation for the Microsoft PDC (Professional Developers' Conference). In other words it is directed at existing Microsoft users - not as an advertisement. In terms of the length of the piece it is too long IMHO.
then maybe MS should have kept the video very private, encrypted and password protected, only accessible by MS developers.
Great, now I have LSS...
what the fuch?
this thing looks like it just came out of Grand Theft Auto game world. only in GTA brian would be shot dead by CJ.
What's funny/sad about this is that Microsoft has learned from their past leaked videos (like the Vista SP2 +Ecosystem Bruce Springsteen ripoff) that they don't have the capability to create a good video. So in this case, they made a cheesy video but dogged it at the last minute as if to attach a disclaimer to the fact that they can't produce a decent video.
I'd even venture to say that they created the boy-band video, then realized how cheesy it was, then put it into the context of the ad-agency reviewing and disapproving it.
I can get the "it was a joke" angle, but they let it go on for far too long. They should have had one of the other co-workers break the monotony with some type of comment. Could have been really funny. This started out strong, but dies a slow and painful death. And for the record, I loved Gates and Seinfeld stuff.