Seattle Post-Intelligencer – January 21, 2006:
Microsoft Corp., the world’s biggest software maker, will spend $120 million a year on an advertising campaign to fight its image as “a huge American company.”
The campaign, using television, print and the Internet, highlights Microsoft’s education and economic development projects in 32 countries, including France and Taiwan, according to group advertising manager Mike Lucero. Actor William Macy of the movie “Fargo” narrates the ads.
“We are often perceived as a huge American company,” Lucero said Friday in an interview.
“We wanted to be very specific about what we are doing in each country in education, innovation, economic opportunity and security,” he said.
The company’s 63,000 employees are based in 102 countries, 37 percent of them outside of the United States.
As America’s image and reputation nose dives in the rest of the world, I wonder if more companies will distances themselves from the old red, white, and blue.
Oh John. Not everybody in the world believes the “Evil America” as portrayed by the Far Left American media.
NY Times profits plummet 41% this quarter BTW.
It is a good day for Conservatives around the world. Citizens of Canada, Germany and Portugal say yes to the RIGHT in elections. You won’t hear that celebrated by the American media.
And yes America is fat. A failure of today’s parents, they let their kids vegetate in front of a computer or Xbox all afternoon while stuffing their faces. God forbid they get a job flipping burger. That’s why we need illegals!!!
Nick, I was going to remark in passing about how rarely you must read and comprehend ANYTHING…in detail. Let’s just note one example:
The Canadian election was about an electorate throwing out a political crew notorious for corruption and cronyism. Most here at DU will welcome the day when that radical conclusion overtakes the American body politic.
Mind, Canadians didn’t do a sweeping job of it. Harper’s crew got just over 36% of the vote. The so-called Liberals got just over 30%. That leaves a significant portion who think they both suck! I guess Fox Snooze didn’t tell you that part.
Micro$oft has a way to go to convince the general public that they are not the money hungry, heartless, unforgiving, evil corporation they have been made out to be. I think it is $120 M wasted. I doubt if anyone will buy a M$ product or change their mind because of the ads. Most buy it because it is the only one out there.
Regardless of what M$ does, any new or improved operating system will take customers away. When Linux and OpenOffice get as good as MS then people will flock to them. For now Linux is still too techy and OpenOffice is too buggy. Maybe Apple could give us an inexpensive OS without Windows’ issues.
As for not mentioning the American connection it might be good. Most companies do better when they pass themselves off as local or strongly integrated into the local economy.
Have you seen any Toyoto ads recently reminding viewers of their Japanese heritage? Very few products do well playing up a foreign origin unless it is part of the product’s heritage, such as French wine, Russian Caviar, or Canadian Bacon.
I’m sure their pandering to the Red Chinese will help out on the ‘American’ part; probably less so on the ‘Evil’ part.
I’m not so worried about the corporations trying to straighten out their images as I am about the investors becoming less interested (find that between the lines in this story). Our entire economy is based on foreign investment since we import so much more than we export. Think about it.
As long as M$ keeps pissing away money they’ll eventually become a small American company. Good plan.
Forgot it on my previous post. I am a huge fan of Microsoft!!!
Instead of worrying about the huge company… I wish they’d spend the money on reducing the size of their bloated software.
Miguel, why is it the job of America to “protect the world of the REAL MENACE called IRAN” or for that matter any menace. Also the WMD was believed by all countries intelligence agencies. So it not like Bush lied he had bad intelligence (like the EU had) and once you go in, you don’t just cut and run, you have to help rebuild. Maybe if the EU wants a war done with Iran, they should wage it themselves, maybe you could get France to lead the war.
Michael,
Guess who will Iran most probably try to strike first after Israel? All of us from the western world are in this together, my dear American friend.
(I had much more to say, but it starts to remind the discussions I have with people who still believe Salazar [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%C3%B3nio_de_Oliveira_Salazar] was a great man and defend him no matter what).