They just don't get it, do they?

Strolling through Waterloo the other day, I was faced with this proclamation from Microsoft. The "Wow" starts now.

How do they do it? One imagines that there must come a time when someone in Microsoft's marketing department blinks at everything around them and says, 'Hang on a minute - this is all rubbish!' But not just yet, apparently.

You don't have to compare this stuff with Apple's consistently stylish, intelligent work to recognise The "Wow" starts now as the clunker it is. For one thing, it sounds like the sort of line a local sofa warehouse might come up with: brash, overblown and pretty much meaningless.

It's also entirely against the whole 'show, don't tell' ethic that lies at the heart of a strong message. Apple, bless them, have only to show you what their stuff does (or even just what it looks like). You'll supply the 'wow' - and they know it. That's what gives them the freedom to produce genuinely fresh, often minimalistic, and always aspirational work.

Microsoft, even when unveiling what they want people to see as a revolutionary new product, are so defensive that they feel they have to script your response, in case it's not what they're hoping for. Which, given that Vista is clearly a belated rip-off of Mac OSX, it may well not be.