Microsoft’s Scroogled advertising campaign has been going on for a little while now and hopes to put the spotlight on Google’s practice of dishonest search. Google recently admitted that Microsoft’s campaign was intellectually dishonest and misleading. Microsoft has been running these campaigns in an attempt to get users to ditch Gmail and Google for Microsoft’s Bing and Outlook.com email service.
Microsoft’s Stefan Weitz, the man who heads the Scroogled campaign, recently admitted that Google has seen a 30% drop in brand reputation thanks to the Scroogled campaign. “When people are exposed to Scroogled, we see a nearly 30% drop in Google’s brand reputation. We expose the truth of what’s happening. Facts are facts. And people get upset when they learn them. So, yes, it does deprecate the [Google] brand, as well it should,” Weitz stated. One of the points that the Scroogled campaign trys to point out is that Microsoft’s Outlook.com does not breach a user’s privacy by reading emails to display relevant advertisements, unlike Gmail. According to Microsoft’s before-and-after Google brand reputation measurement, the Scroogled campaign is working well. Has it convinced you?
