The UK just slapped Microsoft's wrists for running a misleading advertisement that claimed Linux (an increasingly popular alternative to Windows) was "10 times more expensive than running Windows" ("Microsoft slammed over misleading Windows Linux claims"). This is good because it means that Microsoft has been busted for being a bunch of cheating, lying bastards, but it's bad because they're still a bunch of cheating, lying bastards that require truckloads of legal attention from all over the world.

The grounds for complaint against Microsoft were that the "comparison" (discussed in the advertisement) was performed using two completely different computer systems; the simpler system ran Windows, while the more complex and advanced system ran Linux. The end result is that the study was total bullshit, and any operating system on the more complex machine would have cost more to maintain (even Windows).

While reading through slashdot, I found an interesting post. This person related an experience at a company 9 years ago that happened to be responsible for marketing Windows 95 for Microsoft. Here's what the poster wrote:

I used to work in an advertising company. Oddly, the one that held the Microsoft account in 1995, when MS released Windows 95. At that time, there were a few 'jinks' planned for the release that were not, strictly speaking, legal. They knew that they'd get their wrists slapped, perhaps fined heavily. The company take on it? They knew they may get caught up for it, and slapped hard. But these jinks would get the 'message' across in a spectacular way. Nobody looked too hard at the slapdown and retractions, because they simply avoided the limelight. They had to look apologetic to the right people in private, and it was all forgotten. But people at large simply remembered the original advertising stunt.

In this, it's the same thing again. They knew they'd be held up by the ASA, and torn down a strip, and forced to stop the advertisement. However, they also know that the tech-unsure IT Managers and CIOs and so on will probably see it, and start saying "See, this Linux thing isn't so cheap after all! Stay with MS". Advertising like that is meant to stay in the head along with the words 'survey' and masquerade as fact, so that in a future discussion that's on the subject, they won't say "I saw an advert that said Linux is more expensive than Windows", they'll say "I saw a SURVEY that showed how windows was cheaper to run than Linux". Damage already done. Although the lie has been caught it's already spread, masquerading as fact. They've earned their money, MS will pay any required fines (they've probably already been built into the pitch before it was released), and MS will be smiling all the way as the flung mud sticks, as it always does.