the abbreviated reign of “neon” leon spinks

OOPS 192
the hated paper clip. According to the Times, Microsoft spent $500,000
attacking its own creation. The campaign began with a mocking press
release, saying that the character was “quite down in the dumps” after
becoming the victim of a layoff. Microsoft put banners on its corporate
Web sites to direct customers to its own offi cial Clippy-bashing Web site.
The site included video clips of office workers denouncing him (“Next to
Microsoft Bob, you are the most annoying thing in computer history!”
one shouted), and a plaintive missive from the character himself, in which
he admitted that he was “useless, obsolete, and I’m told, hideously unattractive.”
Microsoft invited visitors to vote in an online poll on what Clippy’s
new career should be.
The software maker even imitated the anti-Clippy games fl oating
around the Web, offering visitors a chance to shoot simulated rubber
bands, staples, and other office supplies at the despised animated character.
Greg Shaw, a partner in the advertising and public relations fi rm that
helped design the concept for Microsoft, explained to the Associated
Press: “You can go up there and have fun taking out whatever range of
emotions you’ve had about Clippy.”
In late May 2001, not quite four years after Clippy’s debut, Microsoft
held a publicity event to promote Office XP at the Hammerstein Ballroom
in New York. An actor dressed in a Clippy costume joined Microsoft
chairman Bill Gates onstage, and to the crowd’s amusement, interrupted
Gates’s speech. “XP stands for ex–paper clip,” he complained, and
chanted, “Bring back Clippy! Bring back Clippy!” as he was dragged offstage
by a magnet. A slide show showed his new job prospects, portraying
Clippy as a taxi driver and United Parcel Service delivery worker.
Some Office users were not amused. “In less time than it took [Microsoft]
to put this web site together, they could have pulled the dumb clip
out of their software,” one engineer wrote in an e-mail to the CNET technology
news Web site.
But more people seem to have appreciated Microsoft’s surprising
willingness to laugh at itself. In the first three weeks after the company’s