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That Mystery Man with the Camera Again

Coincidence? Who cares! It's clumsy as only Microsoft can be capable of.

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There's a curious thing with the CP+B ad for Microsoft primed to claw at the minds of university families this season. Something that reeks of typical Microsoft mendacity. The mystery camera man. Lauren De Long was supposed to not know who was behind her tiny skit. She was supposed to go completely voluntarily at her own volition around town to buy a computer for $1000 with no help or guidance from anyone. Of course no one believed it. Any more than they believed Microsoft's 'switcher' was really a switcher and not a stock photo from Bill Gates' Getty Images. But no one thought Bill Gates and his orcs would be that dumb again. The following two shots come from the 'official' YouTube clip of the ad. Notice there's but one second between the one shot and the other. Notice as well the mystery man with the camera to the right of the door to the Apple store at 00:14 is - but one second later - on the left of that very same door. Oops. Lauren's seen walking into the Apple store to check out the computers at 00:14 and then in the next frame coming back out empty-handed. It's presumed this is edited footage - that she actually spent time inside the Apple store to get the story on Apple computers herself. Apparently not. Which of course calls the authenticity of the entire 'experiment' into question. How could she actually not know what and who were behind the skit? She couldn't. Now of course no one thought any better of Microsoft. But no one expected them to put their faces in it again. Yet here it is. Of course there can be a reasonable explanation.

Those pesky Martians came back and descended on LA again, this time after Apple iPhones so they could sneak a look at some good Earth-Porn. To ensure a clean getaway they used their trusty Time-Freez-Ray™ to make everything stand still on the street outside. Lauren just happened to have already gone inside and so she escaped the effects of the device. When the Martians left they unfroze everybody and that's the reason you see the man with the camera still in front of the door. The dude with the camera was a stalker out to kidnap Lauren. He'd been running after her car earlier, disguising himself as an avocado tree, and when he got to the store he waited outside for her to exit, going repeatedly back and forth in front. She actually made him wait over an hour and half, so intent she'd become on purchasing a computer she really liked and not some Windows trash again. The whole thing's a reenactment.

But it hardly matters. Crispin Porter + Bogus and thereby Microsoft have once again put their foot in it. Got egg on their faces. And so forth. You expected no less.