Microsoft still considering image makeover plan

["Kris Shapar" <shapar@moon.jic.com>]

I found this story on one of my Net news services. So even though the 
PR campaign has already exploded in MS's face, they still are 
actively considering going ahead with it, insisting it's their right.

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Microsoft still considering image makeover plan

April 15, 1998 


PC Week via NewsEdge Corporation : Microsoft Corp. has acknowledged
not only that it is actively considering a public-image make-over plan
developed by an international public relations firm but also said that
it's acting within its rights to do so. 

"We need to tell our story better at a local level," said Greg Shaw, a
Microsoft corporate spokesman. "We want to be responsive and go out
and tell our story." 

Shaw said Microsoft is considering possibly employing all or parts of
a media campaign designed for it by Edelman Public Relations
Worldwide, a company that has done work for the Redmond, Wash.,
corporation in the past. Members of Microsoft's regional offices
assembled in Chicago today to discuss the plan, a draft of which
Edelman has presented to Microsoft. Edelman proposed the plan to
Microsoft to help it combat negative public perceptions stemming from
its ongoing and much publicized battle with the U.S. Department of
Justice's antitrust investigation. 

According to Friday's issue of The Los Angeles Times, Edelman proposed
planting articles, letters to the editor and other opinion pieces that
would be commissioned by Microsoft's top media handlers but presented
as spontaneous testimonials. 

"The idea that we'd hire people who wouldn't identify themselves as
representing Microsoft is totally false," said Shaw. "Actually, the
proposal we received is quite mundane." 

Shaw would not comment on when or if Microsoft might adopt the Edelman
plan. "But there are no other such plans we are considering at this
time," he added. 

Sources close to Microsoft who have watched the company's public
relations efforts evolve over the years also downplayed the
significance of the Edelman plan. 

"This kind of [public affairs] plan is just new to this industry. It's
part of the standard arsenal of companies in the cable and TV
industry, and in other industries where there's government
regulation," said one source, adding, "The [Edelman] plan is pretty
garden-variety stuff. It just seems unusual in our industry, which has
focused on marketing and product promotion. Contrary to popular
belief, Microsoft's not currently on the offensive. It's scrambling.
Every time Microsoft is going in one senator's door, the competition
is on its way out." 

But individuals on a variety of Internet sites and newsgroups that
have been monitoring Microsoft's efforts to remake its public image do
not view the Edelman plan as run-of-the-mill public relations. A
number of posters expressed outrage and dismay after learning of the
charges in the Los Angeles Times story. 

<<PC Week -- 04-13-98>> 

[Copyright 1998, Ziff Wire] 

Kris Shapar
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On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!], "Pray,
Mr.  Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right
answers come out?"  I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of
confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

                Charles Babbage
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