Microsoft Ad Campaign Crashing Nation's Televisions

[meegbear]

According to an FCC report released Monday, a new $300 million Microsoft ad campaign is responsible for causing televisions all across the country to unexpectedly crash.

The Microsoft ads, which began airing earlier this week, are being blamed for generating critical system errors in more than 70 million televisions. In addition, thousands of frustrated Americans said that the ads have caused their TVs to become unresponsive, their screens to turn blue, and a small box with the message "terminal application error" to suddenly appear.

"I was in the middle of watching Monday Night Football when, all of a sudden, that stupid ad comes on and my TV freezes up," said Scottsdale, AZ resident Michael Chaplin, adding that he never wanted to see the commercial in the first place. "The next thing I know, all these numbers and symbols show up and I get an error message saying 'invalid file format' or something. Now my TV is ruined."

The new ad campaign, which features footage of everyday Americans using PCs, was launched as an upgrade to the poorly performing Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates commercials, which suffered unspecified failures in two-thirds of U.S. households. Microsoft pulled the defective ads in mid-September, but the move came too late, as countless televisions had already been infected with viruses and spyware.

So far over a half million television users have complained about the new ads. Some, such as Louisville, KY native Andrew Ryland, said they were instructed by tech support to press and hold the power, mute, and number seven buttons on their remotes in an attempt to shut down their television sets.

When that failed, many television owners said they were left with no other option but to manually restart their devices.

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http://www.theonion.com/content/news/microsoft_ad_campaign_crashing

[Fleshdancer]

1. HAHAHA!!!!

I love the Onion :D

[Buzz Clik]

2. I'm hardly surprised.

However, I also noticed that the "I'm a PC, and I'm a Mac" campaign had the undesirable effect of requiring that I buy an Apple remote for my tv.

[tridim]

5. Gawd help you if you need to replace the battery in that Apple brand remote.

[amdezurik]

9. yep, ship it back to China

wait 6-8 weeks for a slave to replace it, then ship it back to you...

[onenote]

10. Not surprised by what?

Did you not notice the source?

[Buzz Clik]

14. Yes I did. Did you notice the body of my reply?

Do you honestly think I'm so retarded to think that televisions are subject to the blue screen of death?

[onenote]

15. sorry 'bout that. my bad.

[Buzz Clik]

16. it's okay. Lots of people get trapped by The Onion stories.

I was simply trying to provide the counter argument against Apple products.

[dorkulon]

3. HAH!

I have to say, I just got a new computer (still in parts) and I am afraid to start using new, legally acquired Vista, because my ancient, pirated XP is relatively stable.

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. I love it when people here don't look at the link before they make a comment

Love it!!!! LOL

[liberal N proud]

6. It is amazing how many don't

[Fumesucker]

8. A lot of people are still on dialup..

Looking at external links can easily freeze your computer..

Wait.. What were we talking about again?

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. I said look at the link not go to the link

wait!

[snot]

7. but hey,

it's so plausible, it's not funny.

[Supply Side Jesus]

11. LMAO!!!

That's funny...I love the onion!!!!

[hunter]

12. I enjoy the Microsoft ads. They're trying so hard to be Ubuntu...

http://www.ubuntu.com