More on the Dinos

I have posted here before about my dislike for the MS Office ads features dinosaurs. In the April 10th edition of Forbes Ballmer was the target for a brief Q & A session. The dinos came up. When asked if he liked them, Ballmer responded with "I'm going to start suspending my personal bias about what looks good and looks bad, so long as [the ad people] can show me research data that supports this stuff." So is that a yes or no? Everyone knows statistics can be made to look good or bad. Do you think the ad people want to admit they goofed? Maybe Steve should step aside and ask me what I think of those ads. I don't mean to be antagonistic, but come on. Those ads are pitiful. I'd be happy to sit in every ad review and provide my biased opinion. My bias is simple, let's show everyone how cool Microsoft is.

I can't remember the source, but I recently came across the top 5 list of most sought after companies by college grads. Google was #2 and Microsoft wasn't on the list. And let me just say that really chaps my hide (for those of you that don't know this expression, it means it ticks me off). Steve and the ad people need to realize the ad isn't just for the MS Office audience, but rather for the world. It's all about building a message that attracts people. We want to attract them to the product and to the company. Apple Computer is master of this. And I bet their Steve let's his bias control the path taken. Our Steve could learn something from their Steve. Our ad people could learn something from their ad people.

I absolutely love working at Microsoft. I love the culture. I love the people. And I love the products. We're not perfect but we do many things well. One of them is making corrections when things aren't going the right direction. It's time to correct our advertising. It's time to show people on the outside that Microsoft is cool!