Microsoft Launches Vista PR Campaign (again)

Straight in the deep end with my first blog entry

Microsoft has seemingly started their ‘love Vista’ campaign, with the release of this website.

For those of you that haven’t clicked on the link (and I don’t blame you), the experiment involves targeting users that have never used Vista and telling them that the what there are seeing is an upcoming operating system, Windows Mojave. After some heavily edited footage of the guinea pigs marveling at how brilliant the operating system is; it is then revealed to them that this Windows Mojave is actually  Vista.  Cut to stunned look on guinea pig’s face. “Really!?”. So what is wrong with this you may ask. Maybe vista isn’t so bad after all. Well I’ll tell you…

First of all this is an indication of how Microsoft as a company is spending less money developing their products, and more money on ‘important’ things like hiring PR staff. (It used to be lawyers.) These spin doctors are adept at hiding the negative things, and exaggerating the few good points.

Secondly, this is obviously just an attempt to make the best of a bad situation. Windows Vista was IS terrible. I can say that as someone that has the misfortune of using it as my primary OS. The bottom line of the Mojave experiment was ‘try it for yourself’. A very sneaky move. The whole campaign is obviously aimed directly the less technically minded, and it is these kind of people that are susceptible fall prey to the ‘try it and see’ mentality that Microsoft are attempting to poison peoples minds with.

Thirdly, I personally doubt the fair handedness of the adverts. While it is obvious that any company would try to show themselves in their best light, I remain suspicious that the reviews that were shown weren’t at all exagerated (or even fabricated).