Neil McIntosh 

Seemed a good idea at the time…

Red faces at Microsoft. They tried to do their own version of Apple's very effective Switch campaign - a series of ads where users explain why they moved from Windows systems to Macs. Trouble was, the Microsoft "switcher" was a freelance writer paid to come up with the words - and her picture was, in fact, taken from a stock photography library (as discovered by the Slashdot community). Nothing too surprising, since all this comes from a corporation already found guilty in the courts of far more serious anti-competitive behaviour over a number of years. But it's mildly funny, given Microsoft's official line towards Apple is supposed to be reasonably friendly. Microsoft has pulled the ad, but Google's cache still has a copy. Wired News has the full story. And Mac blogger John Gruber has come up with some interesting information on how the stunt was uncovered.
  
  


Red faces at Microsoft. They tried to do their own version of Apple's very effective Switch campaign - a series of ads where users explain why they moved from Windows systems to Macs. Trouble was, the Microsoft "switcher" was a freelance writer paid to come up with the words - and her picture was, in fact, taken from a stock photography library (as discovered by the Slashdot community). Nothing too surprising, since all this comes from a corporation already found guilty in the courts of far more serious anti-competitive behaviour over a number of years. But it's mildly funny, given Microsoft's official line towards Apple is supposed to be reasonably friendly. Microsoft has pulled the ad, but Google's cache still has a copy. Wired News has the full story. And Mac blogger John Gruber has come up with some interesting information on how the stunt was uncovered.

 

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