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April 16, 2008

Microsoft Does Some Amazing Things, This Isn’t One Of Them

Duncan Riley

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Via CrunchGear the above video is allegedly being used by Microsoft as an internal promotion tool for encouraging sales of Vista. We’ve defended Microsoft’s takeover offer for Yahoo a number of times previously, but watching this you sort of understand why Yahoo employees are scared.

Update: Long Zheng notes that this video is the real deal (not a spoof) as Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s Chief Operating Officer makes an appearance. Other reports are suggesting that it’s a Microsoft developed internal spoof. What ever it is, it’s bizarre.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 3:52 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. j

    April 16th, 2008 at 3:57 pm

    “but watching this you sort of understand why Yahoo employees are scared”

    Classic

  2. Daniel

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:00 pm

    What is this?????? Seriously, WTF!
    Ok, No I am really scared of Microsoft!

  3. Really...

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:01 pm

    Hahaha!!!

    So much cheese in that video…

    I need some crackers.

  4. Jesus H Christ

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:09 pm

    damn, i just bought 10 copies of vista. i guess that video works.

  5. Travis

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:10 pm

    I’m never upgrading to Vista on principal now.

  6. Ze'ev

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

    whiskey tango foxtrot

  7. Knowledge is power

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:19 pm

    Craptacular!

  8. Sean

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:20 pm

    Wow that was just insanity…

  9. Roy

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

    …I think I’m going to cry

  10. Jkap

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

    …and yet I couldn’t divert my eyes from the train wreck. Ugh. Gonna buy my first Mac in 20 years…

  11. Ryan Robinson

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:44 pm

    Luckily this stays true to Springsteen’s adoration of large corporations and sensible profit at all cost principles.

  12. Jamokes Gone Wild

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:47 pm

    I think I just puked a little in my mouth.

  13. Aydin Mirzaee

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:48 pm

    that was pretty bad… who approved this?

    Aydin.

  14. Sean O

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:49 pm

    I watched only part of that. Even with the sound off, I horrified.

    Geeks may be cool, but the people that video together are just complete dorks. Someone stop them before they dominate world culture with bad taste.

  15. Anonymous

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:54 pm

    I’m an upcoming college grad fielding a full-time offer from Microsoft. Nothing has made me want to work there less than seeing this video. I love when a company is willing to poke fun at itself. But you’re not really “poking fun” at yourself if you actually look retarded. Have to agree with Aydin above… who in the hell approved this?

  16. Larry

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:55 pm

    What are those amazing things you speak of??? List them please…

  17. Sean

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:56 pm

    It is hilarious how bad this is, but after seeing it posted today on basically every web site I read (including my own twitter feed), I’ve realized they made it horrible on purpose.

    Otherwise, it would have gotten no attention at all. Instead, it’s being posted everywhere and everyone is talking about it. That is marketing at its absolute best.

    Seriously, think about it. The people behind this are geniuses.

  18. Joe Arson

    April 16th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

    Give them a break! It’s just some good ol’ internal banter that’s not meant for the eyes of the public. Doesn’t everyone deserve to have some good, clean fun, and a joyful laugh in the process?!

  19. Sprezzatura

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:00 pm

    The tune is kind of fun, actually. However, the faux-Springesteen video is sucktastic and the lyrics are corporate kool-aid at their best.

  20. Frank Church

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:15 pm

    Run Yahoo, Run!

  21. Sean2

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:15 pm

    I’ve been reading this blog for 2 years (great blog) and I have never commented on it. This has made me comment.

    Is this really a MSFT video or someone just made it up? It is horrible and unwatchable. Even for a fun internal commercial, it is really really bad. If they spend this time and money on getting Vista better, it will a better used.

    I think someone in some MSFT department has to justify his/her salary and options (are they worth much?).

  22. RBA

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    I have to go with Sean (#17). I wouldn’t call them geniuses but they clearly know the video itself is extremely laughable in a sucky and ridiculous way.

  23. mik

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:27 pm

    what is SP1?

  24. Paul

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    This is typical output from the morons who are shunted from sales or product management into “channel marketing” in a misguided attempt to circumvent the Peter Principle.

    Once in channel marketing they they pursue small, hidden perks (luxury travel, sports and concert tickets, cheap flattery) by diverting their employer’s financial resources from critical company functions and to consulting companies offering kickbacks. Their work is often embarrassing.

    Channel marketing folks hide their shame by drinking more than their share, and by yelling “Woo-hoo!” at inappropriate moments.

    Now, about the band. Someone must have strong proof of them involved in acts of, shall we say, animal husbandry.

  25. nick

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:31 pm

    I read a perfect comment on youtube about this explicit act of bad taste, and I quote:

    “Bruce Springsteen should lead a torchlight parade to Microsoft, and burn it down.”

    That’s it! …and I thought that nothing could beat the monkey dance.

  26. Fabian Schonholz

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:34 pm

    This is just way too funny!! I am not sure if my respect for MS just went way up or way down … ney!! way down!!

  27. Warren Benedetto

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:34 pm

    I just died a little, on the inside.

  28. Jason DeMoe

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:35 pm

    Remember when Microsoft promoted their MS-DOS5 Upgrade? Here is a link to the YouTube video. Probably the same producer! http://youtube.com/watch?v=dmEvPZUdAVI

  29. Osama A.

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:38 pm

    Oh good GOD no

  30. alex

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:39 pm

    i kind of enjoyed it…anyone else?

  31. Sebastian Moeys

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:41 pm

    I’m switching to linux, this is nauseating.

  32. up n at em

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:41 pm

    whats vista?

  33. Dallas J Clark

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:47 pm

    well that video suited it’s purpose for viral marketing, it made it onto Techcrunch plus many other sites

  34. Karen

    April 16th, 2008 at 5:50 pm

    Wow. I couldn’t stop watching…. That was amazing! Thought I was finished, until Jason posted the DOS 5 upgrade video!
    I’ll pass on the crackers, I need some wine to go with all that cheese!

  35. Jim McNelis

    April 16th, 2008 at 6:09 pm

    Horrible. I had to watch the whole thing. 2x.

  36. Hendra

    April 16th, 2008 at 6:14 pm

    YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK!

  37. Michael

    April 16th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

    It’s supposed to cheesy. Absolutely no one has any sense of humor.

  38. Dan Jones

    April 16th, 2008 at 6:35 pm

    This reminds me of their MS-DOS 5 Upgrade Video.
    http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1774935

  39. magixman

    April 16th, 2008 at 6:55 pm

    OK if the purpose was to be viral it worked. But once you are infected exactly what message are you left with? I think if I saw John Hodgman in the street (”I’m a PC”) I would turn and run.

  40. johns

    April 16th, 2008 at 7:03 pm

    It’s Vista_licious…embarrassingly bad!

  41. Alan Wilensky

    April 16th, 2008 at 7:17 pm

    I don’t know how one could live with oneself, having anything to do with such a lame and corpoego fluff piece. Shame. Shame.

    When the product basically stinks, and the preceding product has more goodwill (XP), the left behind product marketing teams end up with this type of empty, waste, palaver.

  42. Prof Gubler

    April 16th, 2008 at 7:33 pm

    Thank you for posting this. It made my day. That is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. The best part is I can see the people at Microsoft loving this video. Definitely funny, and definitely won’t make me want to get Vista. If it was supposed to be seen outside, I think it is going to back fire.

  43. 113.com

    April 16th, 2008 at 7:35 pm

    funny…

  44. Myo Kyaw Htun

    April 16th, 2008 at 8:26 pm

    YUCK! POOR LYRICS EVER !!! (Is there another words than “poor” ?)

  45. Wade

    April 16th, 2008 at 8:27 pm

    Is it April 1st again already?

  46. Adam Jusko

    April 16th, 2008 at 8:45 pm

    I liked the way the fake Bruce and the fake Little Steven made those crazy faces at each other when they shared a microphone. If it wasn’t for the zany jumps that look like an old Toyotathon commercial, I might almost think this was serious.

    Nothing will ever beat the Bank of America “One” cover. God I love that one.

  47. ajadoniz

    April 16th, 2008 at 8:51 pm

    do you guys really not see what’s going? has the internet really become as uptight and anti-MS that whatever they do is automatically serious and old?

  48. exapted

    April 16th, 2008 at 8:55 pm

    To those who think the creators of the video are “geniuses” - Is this video going to somehow cause consumers to buy new PCs with Vista installed? What would be the point of such an ugly viral video? Viral marketing worked with Hotmail, but this video is just disgusting. I don’t think anyone involved with that video is a genius. I feel dumber for watching it. I feel like I caught some kind of disease from it and am going to go wash myself.

  49. Phil Dewey

    April 16th, 2008 at 9:15 pm

    I just upgraded to Vista - It ROCKS. I’m sending my resume into Micros$oft right away…

  50. momoy

    April 16th, 2008 at 9:15 pm

    this is hilarious. :D props to MS. hahahaha. you guys should get some sense of humor. no wonder you people from tech are so boring and uptight… pffftt. go tweak so 0s and 1s you boring people.

  51. José Luis

    April 16th, 2008 at 10:08 pm

    I guess they’ve got the idea and planned the whole thing in the breaks vista forces you to take when working (i.e: when it’s deciding the amount of time it will take to copy the 1Kb file from here to there, when booting, when…).

    MS marketing has always been excellent… Now, i’m thinking MS marketing has only been lucky…

    Didn’t manage to see pass the first 40 seconds. Aren’t there laws against employee abuses like this one?

  52. mac

    April 16th, 2008 at 10:51 pm

    This looks like a stupid joke, from both - MS and Bruce…

  53. Wilco

    April 17th, 2008 at 12:06 am

    lmao! Eversince Bill started playing guitar hero 3… things have just been slipping.

  54. Low

    April 17th, 2008 at 12:15 am

    Those musicians are sell outs, even if they’re fake. However, i’m entertained :-D

  55. Jens

    April 17th, 2008 at 12:56 am

    Reminds me of this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKCc3MR67Kg

  56. Adam Sporka

    April 17th, 2008 at 3:00 am

    Dreadful.

  57. Ujwal

    April 17th, 2008 at 3:32 am

    I got a strange chill….

    i can’t explain it.

  58. Toby

    April 17th, 2008 at 3:40 am

    Does anyone understand the concept of viral marketing? It doesn’t matter what you think of the video, the point is to get the message out.

    I think this is excellent marketing.

    1) It is viral - 200,000 youtube views in what 24 hours? 100,000 views per hour?
    2) It has a clear message. a. SP1 is now ready. 2. Vista is superior to XP (it’s biggest competitor).

    ???

  59. Ghaus

    April 17th, 2008 at 3:43 am

    It is hosted on YOUTUBE !!! Thats GOOGLE now !
    It is hosted on YOUTUBE !!! Thats GOOGLE now !
    It is hosted on YOUTUBE !!! Thats GOOGLE now !
    It is hosted on YOUTUBE !!! Thats GOOGLE now !
    It is hosted on YOUTUBE !!! Thats GOOGLE now !
    It is hosted on YOUTUBE !!! Thats GOOGLE now !

  60. Peter

    April 17th, 2008 at 4:11 am

    pwned. again.

  61. Chris

    April 17th, 2008 at 4:39 am

    The guy at 2 minutes looks like he’s using a MBP

  62. Ariel Diaz

    April 17th, 2008 at 5:28 am

    Wow, it’s like M$ Rick-rolled themselves. I didn’t even think that was possible.

  63. Daniel

    April 17th, 2008 at 7:02 am

    …shudder…

    I dislike Microsoft, use Linux only, but I’ve never seen a reason this good to stay as far away as possible for the rest of my life…

    This isn’t even funny if you look at it from the point of view that they made it bad intentionally. It honestly looks like that is the best they can do.

    Billions of dollars, yet they make an ad that wouldn’t succeed on YouTube, let alone television.

  64. Toby

    April 17th, 2008 at 7:28 am

    315,000 views.

  65. Greg

    April 17th, 2008 at 7:39 am

    What an insult to Springsteen.

  66. John

    April 17th, 2008 at 7:52 am

    Hey, give us (I am a MS employee) some credit for a sense of humor. At the company meetings and other internal events there are all sorts of silly videos promoting our products or just making fun. Did you all see the “Bill’s Last Day” video? That’s just one that was released to the world…some of the really brilliant ones are inside jokes that would just confuse folks. This is one the *good* things about working at MS

  67. JD

    April 17th, 2008 at 9:02 am

    I’ve never been a corporate boy, let alone in sales, but I always thought this was precisely the kind of cheesy internal thing that everybody routinely subjects their sales staff to, i.e. “Here’s $20K, make us a video to pump up the troops. Oh, and make it cool because it slyly pokes fun at itself like Letterman does.”

    Never mind that the cool-because-it’s-uncool schtick is just a wee bit tired after all these years (how old is Letterman these days?), no matter how many times you layer the concept back on itself. Rephrased for MS’ benefit: obsolete humor, no longer state-of-the-art.

    Notice that the video’s major point is seriously disconnected from current reality. Corporationss did indeed start out saying “wait for SP1,” but that was eons ago. Now it’s now changed to “skip Vista, don’t need this dog.”

  68. Adriano SG

    April 17th, 2008 at 9:48 am

    the point of this type of video is not for people to enjoy the video, music, or the people in the video.. it’s about making people talk about the video. Even if no one who reads Techcrunch actually uses or likes Vista, everyone is talking about it and I think Microsoft got what they wanted. Imagine the people who actually use or like Microsoft products (a lot of people by the way). That’s what viral marketing is about.

    I love my Mac but I gotta say this was a great marketing idea..

  69. Chad

    April 17th, 2008 at 10:28 am

    It’s the latest in viral videos!!

  70. CG

    April 17th, 2008 at 10:42 am

    WOW. There’s actually some nice nerdly lyrics in that tune. Nowhere near as hot as these though:

    http://29.netscrap.com/29/play....._rails.mp3

    CG

  71. CG

    April 17th, 2008 at 10:45 am

    WOW-

    Some nice nerdly lyrics in there. Nowhere near as hot as these tho: http://29.netscrap.com/29/play....._rails.mp3

    CG

  72. CG

    April 17th, 2008 at 10:46 am

    WOW-

    Some nice nerdly lyrics in there. Nowhere as hot as these though:

    http://29.netscrap.com/29/play....._rails.mp3

    CG

  73. CG

    April 17th, 2008 at 10:48 am

    oh man. Sorry about the triple post… they weren’t showing up.

    :(

    quel embarrassment!

  74. talishte

    April 17th, 2008 at 11:31 am

    Looks like a jocke

  75. EDA

    April 17th, 2008 at 11:31 am

    http://www.news.com/8301-10787.....g=nefd.top

  76. Joshua Konkle

    April 17th, 2008 at 12:56 pm

    Um, how about Microsoft Mamba No. 5 circa 1999, Lou Bega

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4Qc0Auo0io

    Microsoft’s internal shenanigans are hilarious…

    JK

  77. Matthew

    April 17th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    The activity on this site, and the fact is was posted here at all, is ample evidience that it succeded at what it was intended to do… get their message out. Even as it’s being ridiculed, this falls into the category of all exposure is good exposure.

  78. Allen

    April 17th, 2008 at 1:41 pm

    Does anybody remember…..”Up with People”?

    This is some scary S$%t. Yahoo should be trembling.

  79. Punk

    April 17th, 2008 at 2:01 pm

    What I can say, jokes, only jokes…MS suckes

  80. Kee Hinckley

    April 17th, 2008 at 2:27 pm

    Internal sales videos are *always* weird. These are folks who are motivated by cheerleaders. Who dress up in football uniforms and run out to get their marching orders. Microsoft is just one, but you’ll find the same kind of thing at any large company.

  81. Bar

    April 17th, 2008 at 2:29 pm

    Duncan, you are SO gullible!

  82. baaj

    April 17th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

    “And if they’re not sold yet,
    Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset!”

    Who can’t love that

  83. Andrei Potorac

    April 17th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

    Guys, have you lately checked apple.com? I think it’s time you should. :)

  84. beaumac

    April 17th, 2008 at 4:53 pm

    i just vomited out of my eye sockets

  85. Marc

    April 17th, 2008 at 8:10 pm

    Well that was just bloody dreadful. Wasn’t it!

  86. gaz

    April 18th, 2008 at 12:55 am

    why was there people in fancy dress in the crowd at the end? Was this a ’spoof’ ad for an Microsoft swingers party?

    Actually I think this is in response to Google’s annoucement that “we just dished out $1m in rev share for YouTube videos”

    Maybe Microsoft are raising funds for the Yahoo takeover the hard (video-CPM) way?

    Bets on this making the YouTube Top 10….

    (but seriously, people should do time for this)

  87. Pat

    April 18th, 2008 at 8:22 am

    We need the video of the decision maker being shown the video, considering, considering, and then saying: ‘awesome, yeah, let’s use that’.
    That’s the video I want to see.

  88. ed

    April 24th, 2008 at 8:57 am

    Eh…this looks like a motivational / inside joke type video for a corporate conference or something. Some companies do this kind of thing to break up the monotony of speaking sessions. Not that big of a deal — just internal propaganda / morale boosting.

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