Maybe you’ll recall when I ripped apart the Bing jingle winner back in August. It was bad — real bad. But its creator, Jonathan Mann is a talented guy, and even made a jingle ripping me, which was both better than the Bing one, and funny. Sadly, Microsoft now controls his Bing jingle and is subjecting little children to it.
As you can see in the video below, Microsoft has forced a bunch of middle schoolers in Pennsylvania to learn and perform Mann’s Bing song. The horror. It’s hard to watch this without immediately thinking about parents who accept money to allow their child to be sponsored. Is this the future of branding?
Mann actually sent us the video along with the following note:
I literally cried a little bit when I saw this video. On the one hand I’m happy I was able to provide some kids with an excuse not to do school work for a few hours. On the other hand, not sure how I feel about these kids being indoctrinated into the cult of, well, whatever. It’s kinda creepy. But on the other-other hand, the kids do look damn happy. So…oh well?
It is kind of creepy. Actually, it’s terrifying. Hopefully these kids at least got free copies of some Microsoft product that they won’t be able to use on their Apple computers.
I don’t think the problem is so much the audio as the video. Although the audio isn’t the greatest either.
i like how he says its terrifying, however i guarantee this article would be written differently if they were singing a google song
I think so .. they will be googling it then
Best,
Daina
The only thing worth googling here is “How many hands Mann has” – According to him, he has at least 3
Hey!! Creatures!! Leave us kids alone.
All in all your just uhh,
another “BING” on the wall…;)
The author of this post is overreacting for no good reasons. The marketing schemes like this have always existed. How is it any different than lead generating services that pay you for signing up or watching advertorials.
or the Hitler Youth.
Godwin’s Law holds .. again
LOL! Not sure I agree, but thanks for the best laugh I’ve had in a while…
Right, the kids seem extremely happy. MG’s just jealous of Bing and what ever Microsoft in general does. Bugged with this bias on TC
i’m so jealous of those kids. also, i wish i were an oscar mayer wiener.
MG is not a Google fan boy. he is just a usual MS hater…
I don’t think the commercial is that bad. What’s bad though is how MG systematically tries to take down Microsoft in all its marketing efforts. All this in the name of his uber fanboyism. Sometimes it really gets on my nerves.
damn. you got me there.
The internet really needs a “sarcasm font” because I’m not sure how to take this comment
Bing…. is slowly going to die….
Yeah that’s what I thought… but there is definate type of website which makes excellent referrals from Bing go figure… and it’s on the rise…
Maybe if Yahoo, Bing and Google concentrated more on things that mean something rather than incompatible Google Wave gadgets which force people away explorer, or Active controls which break compatiblity with everyone else… there wouldn’t be these corporate wars… I mean it’s all about money in the end on both sides… nobody cares about the kids… including the gang bang search results in all the search engines…
I mean am all for anti censorship… but pay for it if you want to see it… the technology is there… just block out a few words… or make people pay to see the words they want on credit… why rape the entire internet with advertisements when you could just do something a little ethically or morally appealing?
Most f’ed up thing I’ve seen all week.
A little piece of me died inside.
those kids are gonna be scarred for life
fucking evil
I’ve been laughing out loud sporadically every couple minutes since seeing this.
And I just realized that if I’m laughing out loud every couple minutes, the sporadic-ness of my laughter is implied.
Sinister. Soooo sinister!
Bang goes your credibility
Actually, it’s bing goes your credibility
You know, they honestly seem to be enjoying themselves.
sex is enjoyable too doesn’t mean it’s fucking right
So sex is wrong???
Sure it is! Used responsibly
Got to you out GOD. Why did you create us this way…
Dude, if you want to be taken seriously as a writer, NEVER say “it’s” when you mean “its.” That’s just a big red flag that you don’t even know basic grammar. Otherwise, you writing is pretty good.
go here to learn the rule that you are forgetting in this post:
http://tinyurl.com/yfrr7pu
fair enough. thx.
Careful there… you’ll get hassled about writing “thx”
you writing is pretty good?
http://en.wikip.../Muphry%27s_law
The irony…
Halloween isn’t for a day or two folks.
Internet connection: $30/mo
Computer to use it with: $1100
Forgetting to check your own grammar when correcting others’? Priceless.
There are some things money can’t buy, but for everything else there’s credit (once the markets thaw!)
If you want to me taken seriously as a non-douche, don’t be a grammar whore.
“it’s” vs “its” is about spelling, not grammar
No, it’s about grammar. “It’s” and “its” are both correctly spelled, depending on the context. When the spelling depends on the CONTEXT, it’s about grammar.
Glad none of my teachers ever forcibly made me a singing billboard for any products.
lol .. mine too .. I guess I was lucky enough ..
Cheers,
Daina
hehe
i still have shivers from singing ordinary songs infront of the blackboard…if i had to song some business bs i would probably still be having plastic cover on my bed
Of course they’re enjoying themselves. Make them do the chicken dance or the macarena and they’ll do it. They’re kids. Write up a fun song about Hitler and they’ll do that too: they’re children. I like Bing (and I’m a huge Apple fanboi) but this is just looks creepy.
that was shocking. and painful. scarier than any Halloween flick I’ll check out this week.
Sorry for assuming the “MG” is a “dude.” “MG” could easily be a “dudette!” lol
…and I meant “your writing.” Haha, I can’t write correctly either!
So you tried to say, “your writing is pretty good”?
I assume what you really meant to say is, “you write pretty well.”
…that is if you wish to be taken seriously.
Flowers are pretty.
What you really meant to say is, “You write rather well.”
What you don’t see on the video are the next 20 seconds when the kids start foaming at the mouth and kill everybody with geometry equipment
I don’t recall Google needing to rely on huge, questionable PR stunts to attract people to their search engine…
You mean you haven’t gotten your Google shwag yet?
I even got a valentines card…
Bing goes their childhood.
Bind will die. Slowly. And painfully.
And that day I will have a party at my house.
you sound like you have suicidal tendencies
I’m going to start making plans to have a similar party.
Wow.
The kids seem to enjoy it. Don’t blow the subject out of proportion.
These kids seem to enjoy it too http://www.yout...h?v=2qJQBaFebcA
@surreal neal: Dude you should have said that in a nice way.
So this is what Google meant by “do no evil”
bill hicks was so true about this..
here’s a video:
Bill Hicks on Marketing:
http://www.yout...h?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo
Hey, chill guys…lets give child activism some pause….Seems like the kids are having a lotta fun ! Besides who cares if bing goes bang!
You guys are really cynical… If this add is done by Google or Apple you would have liked it by saying great idea reaching to future users. As it is done by Microsoft you guys are not able to digest it… its sad…every child is dancing and fucking happy whats wrong with that ….
+1
no. we would have said it was very creepy. believe me, i could have been more harsh.
Some people really love to hate Microsoft. How many ads have you seen kids do, hell I know schools where the school books are sponsored?
This is just another ad by a big corporate and leave it at that.
Microsoft is not evil and is not good it is a money making machine just like google, and apple and twitter… hang on scratch that last one.
Leave the microsoft alone.
Wow! That song was bloody dreadful.
wtf is the “innernet”? There’s something completely wrong about this, and someone made the comment about how if this had been Google the attitude would be different – I really don’t think so. This is not right.
if this jingle was about Twitter, I’m sure MG would put up a video of himself singing it
+1 for this comment.
+1
+1^100
1^100 = 1
10^100 = 1 googol, by the way.
10^100 is still flooded with us results in uk search by the way – go and fix that before taking time out to comment on macrosloth posts.
that’s true.
I am agree with James, These are the money making machines. They (Google, Bing ,Yahoo) are using
every way to promote/sale their products.
We have to take some parameters to control marketers to use the child.
very dreadful….
Holy crap! Brainwashing kids to sing Bing Goes the Internet? How low has Microsoft sunk?
Very very low….
Looks like they are having fun to me!
Next thing you know they’re going to force those kids to sing the praises of Obama…
I was a fan of Bing until I realized their indexing sucks, that jingle sucks and now this. Very disappointing. -1 user.
Painful.
I am jealous those kids got 2 cool t-shirts
At least its not:
Mmmm…mmm…mmm…
Barak Hussein Obama
…mmm…mmm…mmm
Now that is indoctrination
Wow, this reminds me of communist time more than 20 years a go doing PE before school with a big “smile” on our faces. The only difference was that we had to wear a picture of some local dictator back and and the music was a bit more military like.
The dark force has stuck again in the our most weak and important future, our kids.
Bad MSFT, BAD MSFT. BAD BING, BAD BING
First, the jingle does suck, but that’s hardly the fault of the kids.
Secondly, that was in no way, shape or form, “all the kids” at that school. Like all marketing campaigns, I’m sure it was opt-in. Parents had to sign release forms and whatnot, or the video couldn’t be used.
Third; If this had been some iSmug Apple ad, or praising the Google Overlords ™, then the fanbois would have been overjoyed to see it.
Geez guys, I realize that MS has put out some crap code over the years, and there’s no excuse for some of the bloat on corporate networks, but they almost singlehandedly revolutionized personal computing. It is *because* of Microsoft that personal computers are as ubiquitous as they are. When Apple was shipping 10k machines for the elites, MS code enabled regular poor people to have computers. The information revolution rode in on the back of DOS.
Tamp down the hate a little. You’re starting to sound a little irrational. It’s just a freaking ad for gods sake. It’s not the font of all evil, it’s not the Hitler youth, (I still cannot believe one of you actually went *there*), it’s not brainwashing. It’s a freaking ad. Geez.
Absolutely wrong…. If this were Google or Apple ad everybody would be horrified as well. Forcing children to sing a corporate song is truly scary.
I’ve seen this movie before..
As I remember it was called “Heaven’s Gate.”
Wake me up when it’s (not its) over.
BAD BING,
Yes, just check some of these old videos here on youtube, this is weird guys
http://www.yout...h?v=JUtrL3NoGLc
http://www.yout...h?v=skAnMJ_wvFI
http://www.yout...h?v=2g31XyMCl9o
These kids are also in uniforms like the BING shirts, come on MSFT.
You grammar does suck, have you guys done any more stories on Facebook with fake features that only TC people can see.
Actually, read the blog post.
http://www.bing...dle-school.aspx
We didn’t stage this (altho we did send them shirts when they told us they were doing an assembly).
As someone with a five year old who repeatedly sings this catchy jingle (again, no child was harmed in the writing of this comment – I dont know where she saw the YT video originally but I blame our next door neighbor), I can attest to the seemingly otherwordly ability of said jingle to become stuck in one’s head.
That was about ten shades of creepy and wrong.
But, did anyone catch the one dude in the cafeteria silently protesting by sitting down and not taking part in any of Microsoft’s brainwashing shenanigans? Check it out at 0:47…awesome.
@Matt wow, there are also kinds at 1:07 and 1:09, one is even trying to hide
wow, ‘torture’, ‘The horror’, ‘creepy’, ‘terrifying’…
I dont see any of those in the video, the only ‘wrong’ thing here is you seem to ‘bash’ MS for everything they do. write real stories next time
I think this is a cathcy song lol it’s stuck in my head * bing goes the internet*…
Almost as bad as indocrinating kids into singing Obama-glorifying songs.
Do a little research before you post such bullshit.
Some of the educators that work at the school did this. Microsoft had nothing to do with you.
God TechCrunch is going down hill. If I want anti-microsoft bullshit I will read slashdot.
people still read slashdot? that’s the real research here.
You’re reading TechCrunch, even though you hate it. Same goes for me. It’s such opinionated ideologue crap, BUT I CAN’T STOP READING IT!
yes. this was a spontaneous outpouring of bing love. caught on video. MS wasn’t involved in any way and no money changed hands at any point.
the title suggests otherwise
If they are volunteering to get kids “Bing” t-shirts and make them sing a random jingle, they are either some seriously deranged “educators” who don’t know what to teach kids… or, MS got them to do it.
And anyone sane will say it is the latter..
Awesome