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New York Tells Microsoft to Get Its Butterfly Decals Out of Town | |
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| Time: 01:40 EST/06:40 GMT | News Source: New York Times | Posted By: Byron Hinson | ||
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Two days after city inspectors ripped up illegal Nike advertising decals glued to sidewalks along Central Park West, Microsoft unleashed a swarm of large adhesive butterflies in Manhattan. They settled yesterday morning on sidewalks and doorways; traffic signals, stop signs and planters. They alighted on the bluestone paving around Grand Army Plaza and the granite corners around Grand Central Terminal. | ||
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| #1 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/25/2002 2:08:49 AM |
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"Anything that impairs the ability of someone to move on those accessible corners is a concern,"
I'll bet those dan milimeter thick butterflies are preventing loads of people from accessing the corners. Lol. |
| #2 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/25/2002 2:22:39 AM |
| Pollute the environment? Lol. I'm sure there is less "pollution" from the MSN launch than there is after a parade. It'll be OK, New York. Don't worry, the butterfiles don't bite. |
| #3 By 3339 (64.175.42.65) at 10/25/2002 3:06:18 AM |
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Bob, why quote the @sshole laywer, why not quote the law: "It shall be unlawful for any person to deface any street by painting, printing or writing thereon, or attaching thereto, in any manner, any advertisement or other printed matter." Yes, it's New York which can take and handle a lot of sh!t, more than any other city. But after HP, Nike, and many others, and seeing an entire city (its major landmarks, public transportation, public spaces and facilities) turned into unpaid for (they didn't get NY's permission or pay for the ad space, unpaid for) corporate advertising that any city will respond to by sucking up the cost and having every ad removed because NO "City" should be turned into an advertisement. Yes, Microsoft will get the bill--and every ad will be destroyed virtually immediately, so no one will see it. But they will have made their point. But what is the point? New York City isn't good enough, it should be MSN8 City! (Do you think that sits well in prideful America?) Other campaigns have been more creative, and they were most certainly more original since they were have been a bunch... so all it leaves is a bad taste, it's an annoyance, an expense to everyone, and yes, it's like burning a pile of money because to make the point was excessive and the cleanup is excessive and the effect is momentary, not momentous. Was their point: we know the law, but will flaunt it brazenly? (Really something they don't want to even obliquely suggest. Doesn't this image even cross their mind? Don't they hire people to stand over their shoulder and say, "Mmmm... Nnnooo, I don't think you want to look that "megalomaniacal" today, Chairman Gates. Maybe other companies can do it without too much ill-will, but everybody hates it, I don't think this will go over well for us, trust me, our public image isn't cool and hip, Bill, really.")
They could have gotten 200 vans with the largest megaphones produced by man, parked them stratigically throughout New York, and screamed "Microsoft MSN 8, Microsoft MSN 8, Microsoft MSN 8!" about 10 times from 8 to 5 and been more effective and saved them, New York City, the environment, and a whole lot of people a fair bit of time, money, and karma, and that still would have been annoying. This post was edited by sodajerk on Friday, October 25, 2002 at 03:16. |
| #4 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/25/2002 3:20:09 AM |
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jerk, it seems that Microsoft didn't feel it was in violation of the law. They claim to have the appropriate permits for whatever activities they conducted. If the city wants to make an issue of it, I guess we'll see whether or not Microsoft did indeed obtain the proper permits. Perhaps, just perhaps, there are a collection of folks that are negatively disposed toward corporate America and they are poo poo-ing the launch. Just perhaps, Microsoft is in the clear here.
Bad taste? Annoying? I'm a few thousand miles from New York, so I don't much care. If Microsoft did wrong, then let them be fined. If they didn't, then let that be the end of the issue. |
| #5 By 3339 (64.175.42.134) at 10/25/2002 5:35:42 AM |
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Permits from a city agency that is unknown to the city and unnamable by those flawless PR firms they like to hire? These are on private buildings and facilities administered by many different city and state agencies, many of which probably have no right to issue such permits, and certainly one of those departments is the Trasportation Dept. Do you seriously believe the Transportation Dept. issued a permit for street signs to be defaced and their legal council doesn't know about it? This post was edited by sodajerk on Friday, October 25, 2002 at 05:37. |
| #6 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/25/2002 6:45:08 AM |
| Check out Jerk's post count. He's l33t. |
| #7 By 40 (216.68.248.2) at 10/25/2002 8:27:16 AM |
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Has anyone noticed that the Picture on the MSN.com home page of the new mascot looks like Authur from 'The Tick'? (if he got colored and add about 20 pounds) http://www.cs.rose-hulman.edu/~stinerkt/tickdocs/sharth.html
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| #8 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/25/2002 8:36:05 AM |
| The Tick, now that's a show I haven't seen in a while. |
| #9 By 11262 (172.160.148.252) at 10/25/2002 10:03:53 AM |
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#7 Microsoft did have permits to put up the adhesive butterflies in Manhattan, but the permit does not allow them to put it on the subway signs, and other public signs. The permit allows them to put it up on designated areas such as lap posts and bust stops where the majority of other advertisements go.
Living in New York City, I turned on the news and saw on Good Day New York (FOX) the advertisements chaos of MSN 8. I think Microsoft knew exactly what they were doing with this. They got to have free TV and radio advertisements when word got out this morning. |
| #10 By 37 (216.43.88.209) at 10/25/2002 10:30:56 AM |
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I see this got SodaJerk in an uproar. Any "normal" person can see that this was "intentional", and added even MORE publicity.
Paying $50.00 per butterfly for a fine is less than a drop in the bucket from all the advertising and publicity they have received. From what I have seen so far, the MSN 8 Launch was pretty effective, more so than AOL 8. |
| #11 By 3653 (63.162.177.140) at 10/25/2002 11:09:11 AM |
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This HAS to be one of the most beautifully crafted launches EVER. They have absolutely demolished AOL on the airwaves.
So, hand them a bill for the cleanup. Big f'ing deal! A single news story on this, provides more than enough press coverage to make up for any fines. Its about time MSFT works the media as well as their competitors (Apple comes to mind) have. |
| #12 By 135 (208.50.201.48) at 10/25/2002 11:33:36 AM |
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jvmahon - Yeah the IBM ad campaign went over like a led hot air balloon.
http://www.computerworld.com/news/2001/story/0,11280,59978,00.html According to this article the MS decals were easily picked up. In the case of the Linux graffitti they had to bring in a power washer to remove it at a cost of $134/hour. Obviously you didn't read the articles if you think that the MS decals were harder to remove. Either way, I don't approve of advertising which involves producing crap that just get's thrown away. |
| #13 By 3339 (65.198.47.10) at 10/25/2002 1:16:56 PM |
| Wiz, also note that the 9 million, MS claims now is actually each subscription for whatever service (access, email addresses/space, storage space, other services), not unique users... This may not be relevent from a financial perspective, but it is relevent when considering the actual size of the population that chooses to use your services... Some of these people are being counted 2 or 3 times... |
| #14 By 3339 (65.198.47.10) at 10/25/2002 1:27:16 PM |
| This comment has been removed due to a violation of the Active Network Terms of Use. |
| #15 By 135 (208.50.201.48) at 10/25/2002 1:37:54 PM |
| sodajerk - Wow your hatred is really getting the better of you. |
| #16 By 3653 (63.162.177.140) at 10/25/2002 2:12:18 PM |
| All these services (msn, aol, realone, .mac, etc) butter the numbers a bit (trial subscriptions, etc). Because they ALL do it, we can just ignore it for comparisons sake. |
| #17 By 3339 (65.198.47.10) at 10/25/2002 2:12:43 PM |
| Just trying to be fscktarded... |
| #18 By 3339 (65.198.47.10) at 10/25/2002 2:16:10 PM |
| Umm, for comparison sake, no, not really... Apple hasn't provided any numbers and isn't an internet access service, AOL does provide discrete subscribers, and Real is also not an internet access service. For comparison's sake, they are different. And the subscriber number difference can't be ignored if you're making dumbass claims about MS subscribership going to 15+ million. |
| #19 By 3653 (63.162.177.140) at 10/25/2002 4:35:34 PM |
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i believe those subscriber numbers are VERY attainable. Look at their growth over the last 2 years (even as the economy declined, and even as MSN was still stumbling a bit).
Now, however... MSN appears to be hitting on all cylinders. Their ad sales are absolutely creaming the competition. The functionality gains are appearing much faster than the competition. And they are striking some deals (DSL providers, Disney) that at least APPEAR very beneficial for them going forward. At the same time, MSN's competition (AOL) is stagnating, not innovating, and appear to basically be standing still. AOL is having trouble across the board, with upper management departures, a horrible stock price decline this year, and even reported battling in the board room. A classic example of MSFT being rewarded for patience, and a constantly improving product. And as usually, the "death blow" won't be inflicted by Microsoft. Rather, the "death blow" will be self inflicted by AOL itself. |
| #20 By 3339 (65.198.47.10) at 10/25/2002 4:49:39 PM |
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Your presuming AOL is the primary competition... rather than the Baby Bell DSL providers and Cable providers--rather than seeing that at the top, mainstream internet providers have essentially saturated their potential market (and are reviled)... If MSN gets there, big deal... It's a position that gets eroded whether its AOL or MS... It also seems like 50% of the advertising MS is selling, they're selling to themselves so we'll see... A coworker, who I hardly talk to and never talk tech with and doesn't know I hate MS, came up to me today and was like "Oh god, have you seen the ridiculous ads with the Arthur-Butterfly thing? How much money did they waste on that crap! No wonder people hate them; I hate them more than AOL now and I've never used MSN!" When I explained to her that the amount was estimated at half a billion, she said "Yuck!" So I don't know why you're jazzed about this campaign--I think the average person thinks it's pathetically stupid. This post was edited by sodajerk on Friday, October 25, 2002 at 16:51. |
| #21 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/25/2002 6:38:17 PM |
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Cardinal,
Jerk having 1337 posts and calling that l33t was an offhand comment. It's thing I write a 3 or 4 in the morning (whenever it was my time). It's not offense, simply a statement, nothing for you to be concerned about. I need to get out more? You need to stop spending YOUR time on someone who needs to get out more. Location. I had to sit through the Olympics in Salt Lake which caused far more commotion than the MSN launch. You can deal with it. Go away. You're welcome not to return if you don't appreciate my comments. Tee hee. |
| #22 By 3339 (65.198.47.10) at 10/25/2002 6:46:27 PM |
| Bob, you experiencing problems with the site today too? The front page is empty, but I'm getting to content by doing an archive search. Since no one seems to be posting, I presumed everyone was having problems, but I haven't gotten a reply from any of the AWadmins. What's the deal? Am I the only one? |
| #23 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/25/2002 6:55:23 PM |
| Yeah, I'm getting here via search. Don't know what's up with the homepage. The forums site is messed up too. I either get HTTP 500's or an ASP.NET error. n4cer says he's having the same AW homepage prob as we have. |
| #24 By 3339 (65.198.47.10) at 10/25/2002 6:58:55 PM |
| That's what I figured, nice to have the confirm though. Thanks. Guys, ever hear of test, test, test, and test again, then deploy? JK. ;-) |
| #25 By 3339 (65.198.47.10) at 10/25/2002 6:59:46 PM |
| Isn't it fun to be doing: back, back, back, refresh, post, back, back, back, refresh? |
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