Microsoft's Apple-alike ad a phoney

MICROSOFT'S ATTEMPT TO copy an Apple advertising campaign, which originally sought to show the Apple OS was far easier to use than Windows XP, has backfired - big time.

The Vole published a "Confession of a Mac to PC convert" on its Insider pages. "I was up and running in less than one day, Girl Scout's honor," says the woman in the ad, which has since been pulled but saved by the wonders of Google's cache here.

Slashdot first noticed that the picture of the woman in Microsoft's ad, who claimed that switching to Windows "was as easy as the marketing hype had promised", was a stock Microsoft photo.

"I'm thrilled so far," says the woman, of her XP experience. "It's like a Lexus we rented once; when you pushed a button, the driver's seat and mirrors all moved to accommodate my 5 foot 3 inches."

The ad carries the footnote:
"*Editor's Note: Now that we've successfully converted her to a Windows PC, we will be working on getting her to try a Pocket PC. Stay tuned for more developments!"

Later developments proved not to be of the sort Microsoft was expecting.

Alerted to the potential scam,by the Slashdot piece, enterprising AP reporter Ted Bridis tracked down the woman "by examining personal data hidden within documents that Microsoft had published with the ad."

Turns out, strangely enough, that the woman in the ad works for a public relations company hired by (cough!) Microsoft. And, spookier still, the firm the woman works for was indeed the one that came up with the idea for the ad in the first place.

Cough! Splutter. Tee, blinking hee.! µ

L'Inqs
Slashdot article
The AP piece on Yahoo!