A new Microsoft site is named "stationaryisbad.com" and, you guessed it.... Microsoft has determined that stationary is bad for its profits.
Viewing the Flash animation that introduces the site, I wonder whether 3M and LiquidPaper will be suing Microsoft for disparaging their products. Post-it notes are shown sliding off paper, and correction fluid failing to hide ink. "Let's face it," the Microsoft groupthink begins. "Stationery isn't very good. And when it comes to note taking, it just isn't up to the job."
As someone with a fetish for interesting pens and a lover of finely-crafted hand-made papers, I find Microsoft's contempt insulting. It reminds me of Autodesk's "PDF Sucks" (or word to that effect) anti-Acrobat compaign of a couple years ago. The backlash against the campaign was sufficient that Autodesk retreated to the point of hiring an Adobe employee to head up its DWF (design Web format) marketing.
Maybe 3M and LiquidPaper could do a onenoteisbad.com Web site. It could show users squinting at the screen puzzling over how to unchange margins automatically indented by Microsoft software, managers tearing out their hair over a data lost due to faulty Microsoft security, and others smashing their overpriced TabletPCs in half.
OneNote must be selling poorly. Microsoft is offering 60-day evals (double the usual length) and in bright orange letters begs to give away 5,000 copies. Oh, and the site never gets around to explaining how to stick TabletPCs to the sides of monitors -- you know, to replace the Post-It note.
Free Tip for Microsoft, Who Pays its Marketing Firms Lots of Money
Don't disparage the competition. It ticks off potential customers, and makes you look like like a twit. Here's how the campaign should have been worded:
Stationary is good; OneNote is better.
There, now everyone feels good.
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