October 30, 2002

3:06 PM

More guerilla corporate advertising.So another major technology company vandalizes a city (a la the peace-love-penguin thing) and gets a slap on the hand. Obviously, this company can afford any punishment that could come their way for mere vandalism, and the publicity about the punishment process itself just leads to even more free advertising for them. (Not to mention, the free advertising they're getting from people like me commenting on the publicity ;) ) Can anything be done to keep the judicial system from becoming a new advertising medium?
posted by badstone (16 comments total)

Although it's M$, and by default everything they do is loathesome, I can't say I have a problem with this per se.

In cities that many consider icons of culture and hot-beds of community-based media, there is a thriving poster brigade: movies, operas, and everything else plastered across the city... how does this differ—other than it being M$?
posted by silusGROK at 3:27 PM on October 30, 2002

UserFriendly's sunday strip was about this.
posted by riffola at 3:36 PM on October 30, 2002

Typically the movie poster plastering is on legit wall space. M$ put their decals on sidewalks and traffic signals. They're not alone there, but the other posters that occupy non-legit spaces are usually there because the people posting them can't afford legit advertising. M$ can definitely afford it, but the have chosen to do this anyway because (and I'm conspiracy theorizing, of course) they want to attract the free advertising of getting in trouble for vandalism.
posted by badstone at 3:39 PM on October 30, 2002

Easy solution. Rather than dishing out fines dish out community service for the CEO and board of directors. Don't let them make suggestions on their community service. Make them work in a soup kitchen, make them pick up trash, make them clean up graffiti. Don't let them get away with the usual "well, I'll donate a few thousand copies of Microsoft Windows, which nominally cost me 1 penny each".
posted by substrate at 3:43 PM on October 30, 2002

Wasn't it NYC's decision to only cite MS once? I seem to recall having read somewhere (darnit, can't find the link now) that NYC could have decided to fine MS $50 for each decal they found.

They should have...those things were everywhere.
posted by Vidiot at 3:48 PM on October 30, 2002

Microsoft received a single $50 summons, although it could have been fined for each decal.
posted by perplexed at 4:23 PM on October 30, 2002

I'm surprised Microsoft is the only one getting heat for this. I work in Chelsea, and at least once a week a major record label, magazine or studio will roll through and spray stencil the sidewalks or throw placards up on illegal spaces to give them more cred; last week Rolling Stone stapled a bunch of posters bearing a Dennis Leary-esque rant about Keith Richards (to promote this month's cover story) on street signs and construction barriers. The posters were hand-written (or, the original, at least), and only in the bottom corner did it mention RS.
posted by risenc at 4:30 PM on October 30, 2002

Just be glad you don't live in Seattle and have to endure crap like this.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 4:37 PM on October 30, 2002

Most of the food vendor carts in NYC have these MSN butterfly decals on them. I have no idea of Microsoft paid the vendors for this or if the vendors accepted the decals for free as a way to make their carts stand out and attract more attention.
posted by camworld at 4:39 PM on October 30, 2002

Pfft. At least IBM promoted something that is free. Heck, I have their close-up penguin poster on the wall in my room. I will never accept these two campaigns as equal like you do, badstone.
posted by azazello at 5:12 PM on October 30, 2002

Thanks, perplexed. That's what I get for trying to MeFi at work -- can't...always...multitask..
posted by Vidiot at 6:57 PM on October 30, 2002

Stuff like this gets put up in cities (and other places) all the time, but no-one complains. This is just MS-bashing and the funny part is that MS no doubt knew this would happen - that their critics would once again provide them with free advertising of the type that cannot be bought.
posted by dg at 8:32 PM on October 30, 2002

inappropriate self-promotional posting? Isn't this a discussion for MetaNewYorkTalk?
posted by condour75 at 8:47 PM on October 30, 2002

I like this sort of thing. A kinda tasty street art, in obscure places..
posted by monkeyJuice at 1:15 AM on October 31, 2002

Just be glad you don't live in Seattle and have to endure crap like this.

Oh?... and what's so crap about it m'brother?
posted by ed\26h at 7:19 AM on October 31, 2002

Most of the food vendor carts in NYC have these MSN butterfly decals on them. I have no idea of Microsoft paid the vendors for this or if the vendors accepted the decals for free as a way to make their carts stand out and attract more attention.

I'm pretty sure they are "ad-subsidized" supplies, cheaper for the cart operator to buy when they need, say, a new cart umbrella or coffee cups (which is the latest offender).

There's a cart operator in SoHo who still uses a sidewalk.com umbrella, even though the business has been gone for over a year now...
posted by teradome at 11:20 AM on October 31, 2002