Mediums, Messages, & A Multinational.

The media, it is often griped, is a tool of major corporations to manipulate the little guy. A tool used to sway the average individual into conformity, into purchasing, into holding a particular point of view. Biased news networks, exaggerated claims in commercials, cross promoted product placements, bought and paid for bloggers; it often seems that there is no media avenue into which the multinational businesses have not sunk in their claws for the purpose of controlling the message. If the medium is the message, and if multinationals control the medium, then it would seemingly stand to reason that they thus control the message.

But they don't, not always.

The following is a entry is a series of events which has developed over the last week and which demonstrates that while major corporations may in fact control the mediums, they do not have full control over the messages being sent through them. This post is a tale of how the little guy can stand up to a multinational corporation -- one of the largest and wealthiest in the world -- armed only with a basic understanding of how to use the various mass mediums, can send a simple message nationwide and force a monolithic business empire to back down into surrender. The little guy is me, the corporation is Microsoft, and this is my story:

It began on a Monday afternoon, I was casually browsing around the internet when I stumbled across a small story about a blogger named Sahas Katta which had been posted on the social news aggregation website, Reddit. Sahas is gadget enthusiast and heads a small technology blog called Skattertech, and what neither he nor I knew at the time was that his story -- one which my own would so closely mirror -- was about to go viral across the breadth of the internet. It is important to note at this point that Reddit is more than just a social news aggregation site to those who use it regularly, it is a community. It is a gathering of similarly minded individuals in which unlike most other locations on the web, the users (known as redditors) tend to generally care about the welfare and well-being of their fellow redditors. Write a post about how you've lost your job and have any interview coming up and a fellow redditor will offer to dry clean and lend you a suit for an interview. Write a post about how you haven't eaten in days as a struggling college student who was mugged walking home from the library over the weekend and prepare for a barrage of pizza, Chinese, and Mexican food delivery people to show up at your door courtesy of your online peers. There is even an annual Reddit Christmas gift exchange in which members anonymously exchange presents with one another across the globe. 

So, it was in this spirit of community (as well as, if I am to be fully honest, the desire for free stuff) that I read Sahas Katta's story and hatched a plan to extract a bit of justice on his behalf. His story -- which has since  been posted on his blog and can be read in full here -- thanks largely to the reddit community went viral and was picked up by the major technology blogs and news outlets ranging from Engadget and Gizmodo to Time and Forbes and became widely known as the "Microsoft 'Just Because' Blunder". Essentially, his story boiled down to this:

I headed down to the Santa Clara Microsoft Store this morning after hearing about the Windows Phone challenge. For those not familiar, anyone who completes a task faster than a Windows Phone on their own smart phone can win a $1000 Special Edition Laptop assuming they meet some standard terms and conditions. Those who “get smoked” by a Windows Phone, have the opportunity to trade in their existing device for Windows Phone. My Challenge was to bring up the weather in two different cities.The one who could do that first would win. I felt like I struck gold since I knew I already had two weather widgets on my home screen: one for my current location (San Jose, CA) and another for Berkeley, CA. After a three-second count down, I hit the power button on my phone and said “DONE!” out loud. I excitedly thought I won out of pure luck. However, I was quickly told that I lost. I asked for a reason and was told Windows Phone won because “it displays the weather right there.”  After pressing for a better reason, I was told that Windows Phone won “just because.” 

The Reddit community, myself included, was furious over this incident as it appeared as though one of our own had been cheated out of a prize that he rightfully had won. 

It should be noted here, that several hours after this story went viral, and with the Reddit community and half the internet up in arms over it, Microsoft  stepped in and offered Sahas the laptop as well as a Windows Phone in an attempt to quell the story and stop the PR nightmare which had begun to unfold because of it. This mea culpa by Microsoft however, occurred after I had already set the gears of my own plan well into motion.

As mentioned, I had read Sahas story and had begun looking into the Windows Phone Challenge to see exactly what it was all about. I studied the rules and was initially stunned at how lacking they were; Microsoft had set up a PR contest which was offering a $1,000 laptop to any winners with almost no regulations governing the phone of the contender. Any tech freak, such as myself, who was simply willing to take a look at the guidelines would almost instantly come to the realization that the contest was easily winnable with a little bit of prep work and cell phone re-programming. So that is exactly what I set out to do...

The original rules (That I thankfully had foresight enough to screenshot) can be seen HERE

The updated rules (As the challenge is being extended and Microsoft realized its error) are HERE

There was no deceleration in the original rules which stated the phone had to be unrooted (rooting is a process of altering the software on Android cell phones which allows for an extreme amount of modification) or could not be customized and set up for the challenges before walking into the Microsoft Store to participate in the contest. So, with no real restrictions in the contest tying my hands, I put them to work programming and modifying my personal phone -- a Google Android HTC Evo 3D, one of the fastest and most advanced pieces of cellular hardware currently on the market. 

I tweaked my phones operating system firmware, put together two crude yet highly effective software applications, overclocked my already blazing fast dual-core 1.2 GHz processor up to 1.6GHz, turned off my lockscreen, and added widgets and shortcuts galore to my home screen. The end result of my work being that no matter which of the five challenges laid out in the rules I was given, I would likely only have to hit one, and at the absolute most two, buttons before I could shout "Done!" and claim victory. I also knew, after a bit of research and having played with a handful of windows phones in the past, the minimal amount of buttons the Microsoft employee would have to hit is three, and at most six. The end result of my work caused my cell phone's home screen to look nothing like a setup any normal person would have, but which was perfect for meeting the criteria necessary to emerge victorious in the Windows Phone Challenge. 

There was no way I could lose... only, there was.

I walked into the Microsoft store at about 8:30, a half hour before they closed, to find that the challenge I would face was exactly the same as the one that Sahas Katta had encountered. I had hit the jackpot. The laptop was mine, Sahas would be avenged, and Microsoft would be shown that "just because" wasn't going to work the second time around.

I waited in line and walked up to the little table where the challenge was being done. I was asked what phone I had and would be challenging with, my HTC Evo 3D, then had my Drivers License checked and my contract/waiver reviewed and countersigned by the store employee, Christian.

Now, maybe it was because it was thirty minutes before the store closed and Christian just wanted to get out for the night, or maybe he had already had a really long day, or maybe he just made a slip up but here's what happened:

Christian (Microsoft Employee): The challenge is two pull up the weather in two different cities.

Me: Okay, got it. (Thinking, I've got this in the bag!)

Christian: So, you've probably already got the weather here (in Oak Brook) on your phone right?

Me: Yup

Christian: Think your phone can get the temperature here and in another city before windows phone can?

Me: Yeah, maybe.

Christian: Well let's see, when I say "go" unlock your phone and we'll see who wins

Me: Okay, got it.

Christian: Alright so the temperature in Oak Brook and another city...

Me: Right, I got it

Christian: Go! Oak Brook and Las Vegas!

Me: Done! (show him phone screen)

Christian: Done! (looks up see screen and stutters for a second in disbelief) I've got the temperature in Oak Brook at 45 degrees.

Me: Yup, I have the same. (still showing him my screen)

Christian: ..and I've got the temperature in Las Vegas at (some number) degrees.

Me: I've got the temperature in London at 46 degrees. (At this point, I'm smiling like an idiot.)

Christian: I said Oak Brook and Las Vegas

Me: What? I've got here and London?

Christian: Sorry, I said here and Las Vegas

Now, at this point I was bewildered because I had followed the rules, just like Sahas Katta did, yet somehow I was still being told that I had lost. I looked over at the woman who was standing next to me also taking the challenge and we exchanged mutual "what the heck's going on" looks, and I asked her what her challenge was. She replied, "same, temperature in two different cities, but I lost", with an emphasis on "I" that was very clearly directed at the two Microsoft employees operating the challenge. At this point I asked the other Microsoft Windows Challenge employee what cities he pulled up for his victory to which he replied "The two different cities I pulled up were Oak Brook and Paris, those are the two I use. It was then that Christian chimed in stating "yeah, two different cities, I use here and Las Vegas".

At this point I wanted to shout something like "well Oak Brook and London are the two different cities I use!" but rather than do that I just kept looking around quizzically, wondering what the heck had happened.

I had followed every rule and I should have won, but somehow, inexplicably, I was being told I had lost. Rather than make a big scene or a fuss, I argued for a solid minute but was constantly told "I use Oak Brook and Las Vegas, you had Oak Brook and London, London isn't Las Vegas". I am well aware that London is not Las Vegas, you never said anything about Las Vegas until after you said "go" and I had won -- I kept thinking to myself.

Finally, after this minute of confused yet surprisingly civil argument, (I do give the Microsoft Employees credit for that, both were very polite rather than telling me something such as "you lose just because" or "you lose, now step aside for someone else") I began to head toward the store exit. Just as I turned away from the table however, Christian told me "you basically had me, that's the closest I've seen to someone winning", and all I could think was I didn't basically beat you, I DID beat you.

I had been duped. Swindled. Cheated by a multinational corporation. There was nothing I could do.

But there was. I went home and immediately started complaining and yelling about the whole occurrence to my roommate. At that point, venting my frustration to him was the whole extent of my plan. I would scream and swear and curse Microsoft to him until I eventually forgot the whole incident and life returned to normal. Thankfully however, my roommate did not want to hear it and got fed up with me telling him about after about five minutes and told me:

"Dude, shut the hell up! I don't care! You lost, deal with it! Fuck, go bitch and moan on the internet or something if you want to, but stop talking to me about it already!"

So I did. I stopped shouting at my roommate and started screaming on the internet. I took to Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and a variety of numerous technology blogs and forums, posting and emailing my story of swindle and cheat to anyone and everyone I could think of. Lo and behold my astonishment then, when somebody actually took notice in the medium I least expected them to; Twitter. In a medium of 140 characters or less, my venting had been noticed by a man named Ben Rudolph, a man I who I had never heard of before. He responded to my tweets by giving me his email address and asking me to pass along my story to him of exactly what had happened.

Ben Rudolph. The Man Who Noticed.

I searched on Google to find out just who this man, who had taken notice of my venting, was exactly and discovered that he was one of the head Windows Phone evangelists and a top tier customer support representative at Microsoft. So I sent my story to Ben and he responded telling me that the incident which occurred should never have happened and that he was going to check in with the Oak Brook store manager and that I should "stay tuned...". Roughly two days passed and after Ben and I exchanged a few more emails and tweets, I began to grow increasingly enraged at the fact that I was hearing nothing more from anyone except for Ben repeatedly telling me to "stay tuned...".

Having not heard a word from anyone except Ben -- who I had become convinced was simply sending me placating messages in an attempt to get me to calm down and thus quell the PR storm that had erupted when  Sahas Katta's story first hit the web -- I decided to take action. If I could not get anyone at Microsoft to listen to my complaints, I would send out my complaints across the web to anyone who would listen. I  began collecting stories from others who felt that they had been cheated in the Windows Phone Challenge and started to compile them in a wordpress blog. I then registered the domain name; WindowsPhonyChallenge.com and combined the wordpress blog, my story, the stories of others, as well as a handful of the news articles that had begun to pop up calling the contest out as a sham.

WindowsPhonyChallenge.com (Since Taken Offline)

After having put the site together, I emailed the link to Ben Rudolph along with a few terse and angry words, and told him that I intended to send a link to the site to every technology blog, news site, facebook wall, twitter group, tumblr post, and everything else I could think of if I did not hear back from him, or somebody at Microsoft, very soon.

It was only about three hours later that I received separate emails from Ben Rudolph, the Oak Brook Store Manager, the Oak Brook assistant store manager, the Windows Phone Challenge team, and a Microsoft Tier III Executive Escalations Engineer. Each of the emails which I received, said roughly the same thing:

Microsoft apologizes for the incident which occurred and we wish to immediately rectify the issue. We ask that you please visit the Oak Brook store location before you decide to take the site live across the internet.

Which can also be read as:

Oh Shit! Look, we didn't know you were gonna get this pissed off. We've already got a PR nightmare on our hands, please don't make this any worse and we will give you the laptop that we didn't the first time around.

 So, I ventured back to the store one last time, fully prepared to launch the website and spread it all over the internet if I did not receive an apology in person at the very least.  I was not exactly surprised then when I walked in and asked for the manager, a man named Steve, introduced myself, and was then immediately and profusely apologized to by him and the employees who had conducted the "Challenge". I was then handed the laptop I had won, but was not given, upon my first visit to the store and was further apologized to by seemingly everyone in the store.

The $1,100 Special Edition "The Hunger Games" Laser Engraved Laptop

While this whole story may simply read as one guy who decided to bitch until he got his way (and I can see why it may come across as that), to me it is something else entirely. It is a lesson in the power of the mass media; how a proper utilization of the social media in its various mediums can level the playing field between the average individual and multinational corporations. Using, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and a website I created on my own, I was able to effectively get Microsoft to take notice of me and my complaints, particularly with the threat of making the issue even larger. Social media platforms across the internet are often seen as a tool, a tool that is bringing people together and that is helping them communicate. It is important to remember however, that just as singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco once said:

"Every tool is a weapon -- if you hold it right".