I spent much of yesterday with a case of nausea after viewing the Internet Explorer 8 vomit ad, which was thankfully, pulled from distribution today. I went so far as to call for Microsoft to fire its advertising executives. My colleague Keith Shaw, writer of the Cool Tools Happy Blog has proven my point. He compiled a list of the nine worst Microsoft ads ever, complete with YouTube versions.
I'll let you click on this link to view his choices, but wanted to give you a sneak peak of my personal favorite worst Microsoft ad (and its not the vomit one ... I won't go there again.)
As Keith says: "At first glance, this looks like a parody ad, but you soon realize that this was a real ad touting the new features of Windows 95, complete with cheese, cheese and cheese. And it's almost 9 minutes!"
Keith's other choices include: Songsmith - GarageBand killer?, Seinfeld and Gates: Ads about nothing?, Cute kids are smarter than you, Laptop Hunters: Lauren gets a PC, Microsoft gets sexy (this ad was apparently banned in the U.S.), Windows XP flirts with Madonna, Steve Ballmer as Crazy Eddie (or Billy Mays), Finally, there's Bob.
Again, watch them all on the Cool Tools Happy Blog.
If you like funny videos, you'll also like the oldie-but-goodie Microsoft Subnet post: 10 funniest Microsoft YouTube videos
Julie Bort is the editor of Microsoft Subnet and Network World's Online Community Editor. She also writes the Open Source Subnet blog and is the editor responsible for the Cisco Subnet and Open Source Subnet web sites. If you have an idea for a blog, or a news tip on Microsoft, Cisco or Open Source technologies, contact her at jbort@nww.com, 970-482-6454 or follow Julie on Twitter @Julie188.
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