Microsoft Windows 7 Launch Parties ad
This is the most outlandishly terrible thing I’ve seen in a while. The worst thing about it is that at least a dozen people were involved in designing and creating this video, and even though they all knew how bad it was, nobody had the power or courage to call the whole thing off.
Some people speculate that this is intentionally deadpan irony, the Snakes On A Plane of viral marketing, but if so, I don’t think it works. Others have pointed out that this kind of marketing is so cheap (vs TV) that an absence of effort is only natural. But even though marketing is not always the same as product, I think the lack of attention-to-detail is utterly damning. What features and technologies are in Windows 7 that were also not important enough to really bother with? How many teams are there within Microsoft, making videos or websites or software, that are similarly allowed to phone it in, with no tasteful oversight - or any oversight at all?
Here’s another thing. By most accounts the Zune HD is meant to be “alright”, but look! They haven’t bothered to sort out the font size on the main bloody menu, so ‘Marketplace’ goes off the edge of the screen. Obviously you can still read that it says ‘Marketplace’, so why worry about the details, right?
Because this lack of polish indicates a more generalised sloppiness. The kind of sloppiness that means when you shell out a couple of hundred quid for this product, and get the “free” chess app for it, you find IT TAKES THIRTY SECONDS TO LOAD AND SHOWS YOU A FULL VIDEO ADVERT BEFORE YOU CAN USE IT:
zune hd chess startup from Ars Technica on Vimeo.
Horrible horrible horrible. I mean, someone decided to do this. In fact, a team of people! In real life, for real customers! Boggling.
Having said all this, I bet you’ve had times where you’ve found yourself doing Bad Work. Inspiration has failed to strike, a half-decent idea gets watered down to quarter-decent in committee, the client wants some adjustments to make things more Bang On Trend, and suddenly it’s 3pm on a Thursday and you’re spamming message boards, or organizing a shoot for a script you know to be terrible, or getting rid of navigation features to squeeze out extra page views, or whatever. I know I have! But I think the video that started this post is a stirring reminder that it should never be too late to stand up and say: “THIS IS SHIT, WE MUST REMOVE ALL TRACE THAT ANYTHING HAS HAPPENED HERE.”
All it takes for bad work to happen is for good people to do nothing…
