Microsoft chucks vomit ad
Update at 8:50 a.m. PDT: The video has now disappeared from the ad agency's site as well.
Earlier this week, we were all rather intrigued by the appearance of a Microsoft ad, in which a wife borrows her husband's laptop and suffers a technicolor nightmare when she espies a site that he has been, um, enjoying.
By Wednesday night, however, Microsoft had second thoughts about the pulling power of puke.
The ad has been pulled from the IE8videos channel on YouTube. It's also has been removed from the BrowsefortheBetter.com site, which is part of the ad campaign. The vomit ad's slot has been replaced by a tag that says "coming soon."
This could have meant that a new ad is coming soon, or that the upchuck was uploaded too soon.
The truth is that Microsoft wasn't 100 percent happy with vom-com.
"We make a point of listening to our customers," a Microsoft representative said in an e-mail Thursday morning. "We created the OMGIGP video as a tongue-in-cheek look at the InPrivate Browsing feature of Internet Explorer 8, using the same irreverent humor that our customers told us they liked about other components of the Internet Explorer 8 marketing campaign. While much of the feedback to this particular piece of creative was positive, some of our customers found it offensive, so we have removed it."
Although many CNET commenters on Wednesday thought that the ad was funny, some criticized the piece as condoning surfing for porn (shame, shame, shame), as well as the generally less than perfect taste associated with yellow stuff exploding from a nice-looking lady's mouth.
However, Bradley and Montgomery, the agency responsible for the whole campaign--which features Superman actor Dean Cain--still proudly displayed the ad on its own site as of early Thursday morning.
And so it should. The ad has already created exactly the aftereffect for which the agency likely hoped.
But, as so rarely happens, I spoke too soon. Here we are at 8:50 a.m. PDT Thursday, and the ad has now been removed even from the Bradley and Montgomery site.
Even though the wife in the ad might, one feels, stand by her man, it appears the agency has decided not to stand by its ad.
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
Looks like someone is drinking the koolaid.
Just look at the average Fanboi reaction to Windows Sidebar. The fanbois ranted on about how "Microsoft was copying Apple's Dashboard". The sad thing is, PC users (Windows and Linux alike) had had access to widgets long before [i]either[/i] OS developer decided to bundle them. Unfortunately, Microsoft, seeing the popularity of this phenomonen, announced their inclusion into the then code-named Longhorn..... about six-months prior to Apple releasing OS X. Funnily enough, a feature which devs swear wasn't included in beta releases, found its way into the final release of OS X only months later.... and of course the Mactards took all Apple fed them as gopel!
Anyone surprised it happens again??
Try actually reading the last sentence. He was referring to the private browsing feature, not browsers in general.
@Rawnchie14
Safari was the first major browser that had private browsing built in, introduced in v2.0 in April 2005. Mozilla didn't introduce a similar feature until Firefox 3.1 beta 2 in December of '08, and MS just introduced it in IE8. I am not aware of this feature being in Opera at all
@KanineLupus I agree that sometimes people claim Apple pioneered something that they didn't. Often Apple mainstreams things that are nascent features available in other systems which is just as important. However, I believe Safari was the first browser to offer Private Browsing and this ad is specifically advertising that feature.
Konfabulator, a widget program for Mac OS X first, was purchased by Yahoo. Yahoo then called it Yahoo Widgets and made them available for PC. Then Apple decided to include widgets with the OS and they called it Dashboard. Microsoft followed suit by adding the sidebar and calling them Gadgets.
But it started on the Mac.
Signed,
You're friendly neighborhood Mactard.
They could have told the complainers to grow a sense of humor - but noOOoo... instead they caved, and it's back to mediocrity and a personality of warm tapioca pudding.
Idiots. And they wonder why most folks look at the name "Microsoft" and go "meh."
And I didn't get to see the AD! Wwaaaaaaaaa....
Wow... you certainly have a mighty big chip on your shoulder, don't you? Can you even walk under the weight of it?
Perhaps if you thought about your comments and put them into a logical and meaningful manner instead of the imbecilic method you convey currently you might start to generate some respect. Right now though- well, the comments are spot on for a 12 year old. If you're 12 or younger, then good going! If you're older than that, then I apologize for mistaking you for such a child.
You beat me to the punch. My hats off to you :)
Like Seaspray0 said (Transformers FTW!), it's a simple formula: 2.5 minutes of Hot Chick + stupid/disgusting stuff + Implied Pr0n + Superman = $$$ATTENTION AND RATING$$$.
You'd think a big company like M$ would know this simple social fact.
Anyway, too bad I missed the ad.
In your haste to hotly defend all that keeps you sustained, I actually (brace yourself now) ... praised Microsoft for coming out with the ad in the first place (and said as much in the CNET story that announced its existence. Go check if you like - I'll wait...)
My kick was that the one flash of inspiration they had, the one thing that actually grabbed attention... got suffocated by the beige fog of mediocrity that plagues far too many large corporations these days.
Trying to teach a little common sense to the sheeple. If you are too stoopid to hide your tracks when you peruse the seamy side of the web they you deserve to get barfed on by the wifey!
"De gustibus non est disputandum."
and people use the web for other things than Porn??? :)
M$ might be listening but they don't respond to their customers, they will do their own thing
Did they upchuck it?
thats new
- by wtfguy July 2, 2009 10:09 AM PDT
- @kaninelupus:
- Like this Reply to this comment
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- by Kev_Orng July 2, 2009 10:48 AM PDT
- Thank you!
- Like this
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- by SteveWiilliams July 5, 2009 6:30 AM PDT
- The way I see it, use what you want. Use what suits your needs. Leave others to use what they want to use and don't be immature about it.
- Like this
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Showing 1 of 3 pages (88 Comments)"Just like every other Mactard." - I must say that this kind of comment does in fact offend me greatly. I used to be a Microsoft user, had been since the very beginning. I switched over 3 years ago and have been very pleased with my experience since going to the Mac. I also work for a living in IT dealing with Windows day in and day out. I'm not going to sit here and preach about MS or Apple, but to essentially call some "retarded" begs one to ask whether or not the poster is looking at himself in the mirror. There really is no need to post low-brow comment like that on ANY forum. Myles Taylor was not making any personal attacks towards you was he? Anyhow, please keep your biggot comments to yourself.
As far as the add is concerned, it was funny to see. It does seem funny how far we as society have allowed the media to push the envelope of things being broadcasted. I doubt with utmost certainty that this add would have been aired in the 60's, or 70's, heck, maybe even the 80's. I suppose though that the graphical nature of some adds tend to stick in the mind better than more sublime ones. Just my two cents for what it's worth.
I've been railing against the name calling forever, but it's nice to see it from someone else
Seriously, I made a choice of one consumer electronic product over another based on extensive experience with both, is this really grounds to call me names?
If anything, most Mac users are sort of dual citizens. We use or have used both. Most of the people who insult me for my decision to buy a Mac probably can't make the same claim.
And this ain't directed at you by the way.