A Wake-Up Call to Microsoft?s PR Team
,----[ Quote ] | In 1998, the Los Angeles Times reported that Microsoft, during its | antitrust trials, hired PR companies to flood newspapers with fake | letters of support, bearing ordinary individuals' names but actually | written by Microsoft PR staff. | | Later, during the antitrust trials, Microsoft attempted to prove | the inseparability of Windows and Internet Explorer by playing a | video for the judge. But the government?s lawyer noticed that as | the tape rolled on, the number of icons on the desktop kept | changing. Microsoft had spliced together footage from different | computers to make its point. | | Then in 2002, Microsoft's Web site featured a testimonial called | ?Confessions of a Mac to PC Convert," a first-person account by | an attractive brunette "freelance writer" about how she had fallen | in love with Windows XP. | | Unfortunately, a Slashdot member discovered that the identical | photo was available for rent from the stock-photo libraries of | GettyImages.com. Sure enough: Microsoft had hired a PR firm to | write the testimonial. The "switcher" did not actually exist. `----
-- List of candidate Microsoft astroturfers (directly or indirectly paid by Microsoft to post in this newsgroup): flatfish+++ Damian O'Leary (AKA Hadron Quark) Erik Funkenbusch Larry Qualig (former Microsoft employee) Scott Nudds (AKA Vistaking) Nedd Ludd Tim Smith OK DFS Terry Ana Thema Take everything posted by the individuals above with a barrel of salt.