You know what they say about the best laid plans, right? Microsoft’s PR wing will be licking its wounds after what appeared to be quite a handy piece of product placement went a tad awry.
When Microsoft managed to get CNN to put Surface Pro 3 tablets on its desks during its election coverage we suspect someone inside Microsoft was rather pleased with themselves. Unfortunately, as is so often the case with these things, not everything went according to plan when the good people of CNN decided to shun those fancy new Surface Pros in favor of the iPads they know so well.
Shortly after Twitter lit up with Microsoft fans exclaiming that the Surface Pro 3 has finally truly arrived following the product placement, people began to notice that while there are indeed Surface Pros on the desks, they’re not actually being used. Instead, those on-screen were using their iPads to go about their work just as they did before. Even more worryingly for Microsoft and the thing that dreams are made of for Apple, one woman was actually using a Surface Pro as a stand for their iPad. It’s like the Apple fanboys’ birthdays have all come at once!
The cold shoulder by CNN anchors isn’t the first time that the Surface Pro has found itself out of favor, with the tablet being notoriously slow out of the gates as far as adoption is concerned. Placement on prominent TV shows hasn’t helped too much, and the latest CNN faux pas won’t be doing the Surface Pro any favors.
Let’s just hope Microsoft didn’t pay anything as part of the deal!
This isn’t the first time the Surface has received some negative on-air time, it was just a while back when we caught wind that Jay Cutler, the famed Chicago Bears’ quaterback, labeled Microsoft tablet a ‘knockoff iPad’. So, it’s fair to say that Microsoft is somewhat struggling to get its tablet out in the field and get people to actually use it over what Apple is offering in its current lineup of devices.
We just hope that someone over at CNN doesn’t get fired over this snafu. After all, it is a product placement gone wrong on both ends of the field.
(Source: Adam [Twitter])
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