The Divine Art of Self-Parody


March 20, 2006

A WesterBlog first: Well done Microsoft!

Recently they posted a parody of what the iPod box would have looked like had their team designed it. “It was an internal-only video clip commissioned by our packaging team to humorously highlight the challenges we have faced RE: packaging and to educate marketers here about the pitfalls of packaging/branding,” said Microsoft spokesman Tom Pilla. OK, Tom but it’s also a pretty brilliant piece of self-parody.

I’m impressed not only with how funny this clip is but also with the sophistication required to be able to effectively mock oneself which MS surprisingly demonstrates. Anyone who has been a part of a marketing effort that has wandered through development should be able to appreciate this as well.

The Point? Easy. (Gulp!) Be like Microsoft. Laugh at yourself.

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is a strategist, speaker, educator, and author of Brand Now: How to Stand Out in a Crowded, Distracted World and Get Scrappy: Smarter Digital Marketing for Businesses Big and Small. He is the Chief Brand Strategist at Brand Driven Digital, an educator at the University of Iowa, and host of the On Brand podcast. More about Nick.