Will a 'Jackass' boost Microsoft's image?
Microsoft is looking to an expensive new consumer advertising campaign to help improve its image.
Valleywag posted a report on Friday suggesting that Johnny Knoxville of Jackass fame may be the pitchman behind the new spots.
A Microsoft representative declined to comment on whether Knoxville was indeed on tap to pitch the software maker.
"Microsoft is in the early stages of planning a consumer advertising campaign. We have no other details to share at this time," the company said in a statement. Microsoft has hired a new ad agency--Crispin Porter and Bogusky--for the assignment, which Ad Age estimated could be as high as $300 million, or perhaps higher.
Microsoft won't say how much it is spending, but it is clearly aiming to spruce up its image. If they needed more convincing, CoreBrand put out a study showing Microsoft's brand having dropped precipitously over the past two years, with the marketing firm saying that it believes Apple's "I'm a Mac" ads are partly responsible.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina.
he is known from Jackass. Which is mostly self abuse and
CRASHING.
Coming next Titanic brand life boats and Hindenburg fire extinguishers
here it comes...
(though I did ahve about 10 zillion wisecracks involving "crashes" - anyone who has seen Jackass knows exactly what I'm on about there...)
/P
A new Microsoft icon.
What dot.bomb marketing dweeb came up with this one?
Bet its a Google-aire Second Lifer with more BS than brains. Move
over Dell... Microsoft wants to join your freefall...
and crashing their head into their keyboards,
What delicious irony.
Seriously, is MS so out of touch that they think it will make them 'hip'?
Pathetic.
They might as well be arguing that Adolph Hitler isn't that bad because everyone makes mistakes right?
No Jackass will singly handedly give Microsoft a good image. Being good or having a good reputation cannot be bought, it is earned.
What a bunch of Jackasses.
rank high at the top for comedic value.
Take for instance their Head of Marketing who chose the Zune
ads with the punchline "Welcome to the Social" and the Vista ads
"The WOW starts now". I get a chuckle even typing these corny
lines out.
I just don't feel at this time they have anything in their current
product line worth bragging about. Everything is going down the
sh?tter, XBOX is losing to the Playstation, Vista is doing less
then zero, the Surface - where is it? and the Zune, well
nevermind the Zune.
All in all they're just falling into the trap of copying Apple, then
failing miserably at it. They just can't use the same game
strategy Apple has. They need to think of something radically
different or bring it around a product they haven't copied and
created themselves that actually works.
And I can't help but think the heads of Apple wants this to
happen because they know Microsoft just doesn't get it.
Solid products first, marketing later but the opposite always
seems to occur with Gates and team.
"Microsoft, we will make you drop your dentures!"
Those stupid ads had nothing to do with Microsoft's predicament. It's Vista.
Vista has done more for Apple's bottom line than anything Apple has released in the last 5 years. How's that for irony.
Microsoft needs to write off Vista as the 21st century's Windows ME.
Windows 7 had better kill with no mercy or Microsoft is done in my book.
OTOH, there's lots of reasons that MSFT is being driven out of the server room as well (where Vista has no factor). Vendor lock-in, DRM (on a server!?), expensive per-seat licensing (well, not as pricey as some bits and bobs, but still an unnecessary expense when compared to Linux), etc.
The only thing that keeps MSFT in the server room still is Exchange, and the remnants of the MCSE flood of 1998-2001 (where a shedload of IT folk paid ~$10k+ and started their careers, but neglected to look beyond MSFT as a solution).
Funny thing is, in the sever room, there's about to be a shock - Win2k8 Server is supposed to be CLI-only (no GUI) by default, just like Linux and *nix (and NetWare) has always been.... which brings me to my next point:
At least MSFT is finally taking their server OS seriously (ever had to spend 3x as much time clicking to a solution instead of simply typing a command? Yuck).
Windows 7? Dunno... but you are dead-on in that aspect: If they are unable to make it an ass-kicker, they're boned.
Thing is, they're still caught in a legacy trap of their own making, so I don't hold out much hope that Windows 7 is going to be any less bloated, slow, and resource-hungry (640MB of RAM just to run as OS w/ all the bells and whistles!?)
Dunno... but if there's nothing that can compel folks to replace XP w/ Windows 7, MSFT is screwed.
/P
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by 2muchjoy
June 13, 2008 10:20 AM PDT
- Knoxville says NO WAY. See his blog:
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(24 Comments)http://community.jackassworld.com/Post/microsoft-spokesperson-what-the-****/023590D00000D592300080099CB38
And yes, that's really him...