Despite the almost laughable nature of the Scroogled campaign, Microsoft continues to push it. The company slams Gmail, but that is not enough. Jake Zborowski, senior product manager for Microsoft Office, releases not one, but two blog posts that attack Google Docs. Both are accompanied by ads -- low resolution videos that view like someone pulled them from the cutting-room floor.
"Converting Office files into Google Apps is a gamble" Zborowski claims in one post. "Why take the gamble on converting your Office files to Google Docs when you can use Microsoft Office and the Microsoft Office Web Apps to create, share and edit your Office files with your content intact", he explains. A new casino-themed ad accompanies the post and features B-list celebrities Rob Schneider and Pete Rose.
Rose tells viewers that Google Docs is too big a gamble even for him, while Schneider portrays what resembles a comedic used-car salesman, only transferred to the casino floor. Perhaps this is the only work these two can find these days?
In a second post Zborowski asks us to "see what happens to team productivity when you choose a productivity suite that has deficiencies". This is followed by a second ad featuring a basketball game between Office and Google Docs. You can probably guess the outcome of this competition.
Neither video does a single thing to tell us what Office can do, but instead only focuses on the Google Docs attack. Microsoft serves little more than a political-style mud-slinging campaign. Perhaps if the company really is looking to convert users of the Google platform it may wish to focus on explaining what makes Office the better solution instead of concentrating its efforts on attacks and ad budget on has-been celebrities. Or do the A-list celebs all use Google Docs?
Worse, as my colleague Joe Wilcox pointed out this morning, Microsoft did not even produce the videos in HD, you get 360p with these little gems. What does that tell you?