Ironic Marketing 101 (The Thought Plickens)

[Sebastian Mindling]

On Thu, 11 Apr 2002 13:01:34 -0700 Sebastian Mindling <list at mindling.com> spoke gently:
> Got this in the mail today. The box has a photo of a buff rock climber,
> under whom it reads:
> 
> "The right equipment matters.
> To keep ahead of the competition,
> you need an agile enterprise.
> You can't afford NOT to upgrade your gear."
> 
> A nice big Microsoft logo sits under that.
> 
> What's in the box, you say? Why it's a shiny metal D-clip like rock
> climbers use. Wow guys, I'm really impressed by the parallels being
> drawn here.
> 
> Oh what's this?
> The clip is stamped with the phrase "NO LOAD BEARING"
> 
> True, true.

The next chapter:

Today in my inbox is a little packet consisting of a bubble wrapped card.
The card says:

"Your business is full of crossroads. Choose wisely."
then a Microsoft logo and the smaller text
"Soon the right path will be clear"

Affixed to the card is a small compass. Yep, a real one, about 3/4" in
size. Again, I am blown away by the apt parallels being drawn by the MS
marketing machine. Why, you ask?

Because you guessed it, the compass is decidedly non-directional; The
indicator is fixed in place. Shake and turn as I might, it refuses to
budge from its erroneous heading.

How very appropriate.

_________________________________________________________
Sebastian Mindling