Microsoft to Drop Its "Where Do you Want to Go Today?" Campaign

GATESVILLE, WA /DenounceNewswire/ -- December 13, 1996 -- Microsoft Corporation announced today that it was dropping its "Where Do You Want To Go Today?" ad campaign, calling it "wildly successful," but perhaps a little "too successful."

Months ago, Microsoft's Corporate offices began receiving over 770,000 letters, postcards, faxes, and email that contained brief messages, sometimes only one word in length. Puzzled, a Microsoft office manager turned the documents over to a private investigator to find out what was going on. "The messages were basically place names, like 'Chicago', 'the corner of Fourth and Elm,' 'Egypt', 'Tahiti', 'Anywhere but Redmond,' 'Ulaan Baator', and so on," said the puzzled office manager.

The discovery came recently as the mystery spilled over to Microsoft's 800-number phone lines, with people calling in at any hour of the day or night with a brief statement and then hanging up. Operators, with the assistance of local law enforcement, managed to trace some of the calls and reach the mystery callers.

"I was just answering their own question," said one caller, who asked to be identified, begged to be identified, even offered to pay to be identified. "Microsoft asked me where I wanted to go today, so I told them."

Apparently, so did hundreds of thousands of others as well.

"We meant it as a rhetorical device," said Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft. "But, evidently people took us literally. That's nothing new, really. They've been believing our claims and hype for years."

Asked what Microsoft will do now, after it drops its popular slogan, Gates replied, "Well, you can bet we won't be doing 'Who Do You Want To Be Today?' any time soon."

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