POSTED BY

Joel Johnson

AT 12:23 PM
Wednesday April 16, 2008

Computers • Fuck Up

bruce springsteen • computers • microsoft • music • sales

Video: Vista sales team hire Springsteen impersonator to evoke last time Microsoft was cool

Does it matter if a company that makes operating systems is cool? Not really. Should it matter that they are out of touch with modern popular culture? No. Does the very existence of this video betray the fundamental desolation in the soul of every large corporate sales executive? I'll let fake Bruce answer that one, fist cocked skyward: "Our ecosystem rocks!"

How many Microsoft salesmen saw this video dribble down from management, put their faces in their palms, and wept? I bet if we could see the sales numbers after this video was released, there would be an immediate dip.

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15 Comments

mkultra

#1 – 12:54 PM April 16, 2008

Well, I can pretty much guarantee they didn't intend this for the end user. Not that it makes it any less horrifying, but stuff like this is used for cheerleading within the sales channel. You won't be seeing this during Flavor of Love.

Not sure about recently, but some of the old Apple in-house promotional stuff was pretty nasty too: Anyone else remember the (Gassée era, I believe) song, "Apple ][ Forever"?

royaltrux

#2 – 1:15 PM April 16, 2008

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do when my XP boxes retire. OSX, with it's one version, one price (reasonable) and both 32 and 64 bits-compatible is looking really good. (Linux isn't a viable option for me).

hokano

#3 – 1:25 PM April 16, 2008

Makes you wonder if Microsoft, the whole complex corporate entity itself, has somehow become self-aware and just gets it's jollies by manipulating humans into acting like absolute fools.

Camillo Miller

#4 – 1:33 PM April 16, 2008

Oh my God. I bet this terrible thing was originally written by Steve Ballmer.

royaltrux

#5 – 1:41 PM April 16, 2008

#3 made me lol just a little bit in my mouth.

mkultra

#6 – 2:09 PM April 16, 2008

As much as I love OSX (which is a lot), I do have a machine with Vista, and I admit I don't really hate it with the burning of a million suns that a lot of people seem to.

Honestly, I didn't think XP was really that much better: they're both semi-unstable messes, but they seem to work most of the time. (Win2k was ugly, but stable) As I recall, XP was pretty unusable before SP1, so perhaps the same will hold true with Vista.

But yeah, OSX is where it's at if you just want to get stuff done and not go insane in the process.

Andreas

#7 – 2:16 PM April 16, 2008

That does it. I'm never going to get a real job in a real company – I'm sure any hint of this kind of corporate culture would indeed motivate me, though... motivate all the way through the door and down the street, the disbelief turned into a hysterical laughter as I throw away whatever little scrap of belief in the human kind that I previously had and start reenacting the actions of Michael Douglas in Falling Down.

CastanhasDoPara

#8 – 2:25 PM April 16, 2008

Wow that was awful, just awful. I actually feel more stupid for having watched it. When the camera pans away from the monitor with the lyrics "gotta get those bonuses" and the wieniefied yes-man comes into the shot saying "Microsoft sales team rocks!" it occurred to me, maybe if you swallow enough bullshit you start to believe it. Or maybe your eyes just turn brown.

Mister N

#9 – 3:41 PM April 16, 2008

45 secs and that was it. That was a complete waste of everything. I'm trying to picture the person who did this and the moment when this person thought that the video would be a good idea.

apprentice

#10 – 4:03 PM April 16, 2008

Watching this just made the world feel colder.

Galoot

#11 – 4:33 PM April 16, 2008

Of all the years to flash us back to, Microsoft, why would you choose 1984? Does any self-respecting geek not associate that year with the Macintosh?

jennfrank

#12 – 11:36 PM April 16, 2008

The real Bruce Springsteen was unavailable, as he was busy endorsing Barack Obama for president.

Thad E Ginataom

#13 – 2:24 AM April 17, 2008

Sales and marketing guys love this kind of bullshit. Far from weeping, they'll probably be playing it on their i--- (Woops.... nearly said ipods!). They'll lap it up.

Thank goodness it wasn't a catchy tune. I'd be suing BoingBoing if I found I had that stuff goinmg round my head ;)

Err... "No more hesitating..."

Damn.

Thad E Ginataom

#14 – 3:52 AM April 17, 2008

Have we been had here?

Opinion elsewhere seems to be that this is a spoof.

It's almost bad enough --- and it crashes half way through, which would be a nice touch

So... Real? or what?

strider_mt2k

#15 – 4:36 AM April 17, 2008

I hear that after the show the players nearly froze to death on the sidewalk waiting for their Vista limo to show up.
It turns out the Vista chauffeur was at a local brothel and wasn't finished up yet.


Didn't anyone tell those guys that drivers for Vista have been a little slow in coming?


You folks have been great, tip your waitresses.
G'night everybody!

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