Built-in idiocy at work: more Micro-communication, less sense. And thank you, George Machun

One of the few bits of Latin I can remember is the phrase “The mountain laboured to bring forth a mouse.”


Many of you, I am sure, are as baffled as I am by the way the intellectual dwarves who run Microsoft product development manage, seemingly without thought or effort, to piss away millions so as to come up with new stuff that is almost invariably worse than whatever existed previously.


The example that drives me crazy is a completely useless thing called Docx which means I infuriate half the people I correspond with as they can’t read it.

To be fair, though, nothing could possibly outdo the gizmo claiming to correct your grammar. This seems to have been put together by some nitwit who can’t speak a word of English, as almost without exception the advice it gives is the reverse of whatever is correct.

Come to think of it, very few IT people can speak English, so that may be the reason.

Anyhow, this preamble brings me to my friend George Machun, who after working on the Microsoft account has for the last few years been trying to get the folk at San Francisco State to market themselves properly.

He just wrote to me about the latest threat to my sanity from Microsoft which is promoted with the dire line Get the new Office 2010! 5 improved tools for home, work and school. Did anyone get paid to write that?


As he noted:

The best line was “budget planning tools that make vacations a reality”. Note to Microsoft, money makes vacations a reality, not Excel spreadsheets! And the funny part is MS spends BIG $$$ on research that results in this crap. Can you imagine the hours of meetings and conference calls it took to produce what amounts to a benefit-free piece of advertising?

I can, George, indeed I can.

P. S. Note to those interested: I shall be working on my writing seminars today – news later. And I also plan to use Survey Monkey to find out what else you would like to hear about.

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

5 Comments

  1. So what is the Latin for “The mountain laboured to bring forth a mouse.”? My favourite which is on my gate is 'Cave Canis'. This ensures that only stupid people get bitten.

  2. John Ainsworth

    Hi Drayton – I know that the .docx thing isn't the real point of the rant, but if you want to turn that off, and go back to saving your documents as .doc then here's a 1-minute video showing you how – http://screencast.com/t/ZjE2NDY5NDMt

  3. Drayton

    Isn't that wonderful? They introduce an improvement so retrograde people are prepared to watch a video to switch it off!

  4. Drayton

    Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus … It was a laughable mouse

  5. I think as always, the way to reach our cdehlrin is by acting as a solid role model. Whenever this topic comes up, I think about my preteen stepdaughter and how I never want her to engage in this behavior. I recognize that she will see cdehlrin and adults around her doing this, but she wont see it from me! I also think that families should be discussing how our phones, social media, etc. are changing us and our behaviors. It’s crucial that we bring this stuff into awareness.

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