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News & ArtsSaturday, March 12, 2011
Media / Teh Internets Adventures in Tone-Deaf Altruism
Posted by Anthony Hecht on Sat, Mar 12, 2011 at 10:59 PM
Microsoft's ability to make itself look terrible, even when doing something good, is already legendary, but they still manage to reach for new heights.
Example! This morning, Microsoft posted this on their Bing Twitter account:
The Internet went ballistic of course, and I don't blame it. I guess if only 50,000 people retweet their message, then those poor Japanese people are just out 50 grand, eh? Too bad, quake victims, should have gotten more retweets!
Several hours later, Bing tweeted that they were sorry "that the tweet was negatively perceived", and they've donated the full $100K regardless of the outcome of their marketing contest.
That's definitely nice and all, and I'm sure their intentions from the start were mostly good, but geez, they can't even get an apology right.
Tip: lamenting how people have perceived your actions is not an apology. It's a fake apology. An appropriate 140-character apology would go something like this: "Oh my god we're so sorry. We didn't think that through. Giving $1M to Japan—still a pittance to us—to make up for our cluelessness. Ugh."
1
Anthony, I suspect the MS person that wrote these twats oops tweets is 27 with the social skills of a 14 year old brat.
2
Eh. The URL in that tweet leads to a page of information and directs people to good organizations that need donations. I don't see what's so evil about trying to spread the word about disaster relief efforts through incentivized retweets.
4
Yoplait did the same thing to raise money for breast cancer research. For every pink lid you collected and mailed back to them, they would donate $0.10, up to a point.
5
@4: Eh, but you had to actually pay 2.50 for crappy yogurt. You don't even have to use the Bing service for this.
6
I would have expected nothing more from Microsoft. And did I mention the gay boys who work there are horrid in the sack? Yeah, I'm convinced it's all related.
7
Sounds self-serving, but not unlike the thousands upon thousands of Twits who just want their tweet to show up on Google real time.
How many twitter girls with mirror cam shots can you possible consume who Tweet
"Woke up to coffee and more bad news...Japan needs a break! #nuclear #meltdown #japan #disaster"
Over...and over.......and over.....
How many twitter girls with mirror cam shots can you possible consume who Tweet
"Woke up to coffee and more bad news...Japan needs a break! #nuclear #meltdown #japan #disaster"
Over...and over.......and over.....
8
Have you ever met anyone from Microsoft Marketing? Quite possibly the most soulless group of people you will ever encounter. I’m sure most did not start out that way but still it’s both scary and amazing.
9
Dear Microsoft, how dare you give $100,000 to Earthquake victims through one of your divisions, and probably a lot more overall? Here at The Stranger, we're giving 0, but man are we morally superior.
11
@9, 10, the Stranger/Index Newspapers LLC has announced it will send Japan a percentage of next week's print issue's escort-advertising income. And independent of this corporate effort, Grant is spearheading a drive to create a care package from staffers' hoarded cans of Rize.
12
The phrase, Fuck Microsoft, never felt so good to say. After everything, this really takes the cake. Only donating 100k? THEY FUCKED UP. Donate a million dollars, if you liked it then you should have put a zero on it. They saved about 1000 million more in taxes, wouldn't it be the least they could do for one of the largest earthquakes in history. Insensitive pricks, I hope bing fails.
13
I'm sure if the earthquake gobbled up an Asian commercial center that received much business from Microsoft's penchant for shedding North American talent from its payrolls, the donation would be higher.
14
Microsoft never said that was ALL they were giving. I think people are a little oversensitive about this sort of thing. Stop worrying what Microsoft is doing to help and worry about what YOU can do to help.
15
@12: "The phrase, Fuck Microsoft, never felt so good to say. After everything, this really takes the cake. Only donating 100k? THEY FUCKED UP. Donate a million dollars"
It's only one division of Microsoft, you realize.
It's only one division of Microsoft, you realize.
16
I'm sorry, can someone do the maths and say how many billions Bill Gates has given to charity including AIDS research?
I'm not a biblical sort, but let he who be without sin cast the first stone here.
I'm not a biblical sort, but let he who be without sin cast the first stone here.
17
I'm sorry, can someone do the maths and say how many billions Bill Gates has given to charity including AIDS research?
I'm not a biblical sort, but let he who be without sin cast the first stone here.
I'm not a biblical sort, but let he who be without sin cast the first stone here.
18
Lacks a certain social grace, sure, but providing incentive to spread that particular URL doesn't seem terribly evil to me.
19
Everyone complaining about this are MORONS. They perceive it as a situation where BIG BAD Microsoft is only giving $100k total, but ONLY if people buy into their marketing SCHEME one tweet at a time! *muhaha* big EVIL corporation is EVIL!
When in reality, $100k was a fractional portion of their whole corporate donation which was set aside as an incentive to get their ways to help japan website propagated out into the twitterverse. The only thing they gain by getting that website out there is people looking at WAYS TO HELP JAPAN.
Look, I'm no MS apologist, and I agree their messaging was a little strange here, but to come out swinging against what (good) they're doing without applying any critical thought or analysis is incredibly annoying and shortsighted. I know it feels good to bash MS, but jesus, use your heads a little.
When in reality, $100k was a fractional portion of their whole corporate donation which was set aside as an incentive to get their ways to help japan website propagated out into the twitterverse. The only thing they gain by getting that website out there is people looking at WAYS TO HELP JAPAN.
Look, I'm no MS apologist, and I agree their messaging was a little strange here, but to come out swinging against what (good) they're doing without applying any critical thought or analysis is incredibly annoying and shortsighted. I know it feels good to bash MS, but jesus, use your heads a little.
20
The MSFT sycophants are missing the point - tying your donation to a monstrous human tragedy to how much people help promote your shit is obviously fucked up.
22
The destitute town of Kandahar, Afghanistan ponied up $50,000 for Japan. These guys are in the shit and they still came up with big donation for how bad off they are. Fcuk you MSFT, keep your pocket change.
23
Multi-BILLION corporation and they are handing over 100k. What a bunch of cheapskates! For their douchebaggery we aughtta make them hand over $10Mil. What...why...AUGH! My headmeat is sore!!!
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