Microsoft and the NFL's $400 million marketing fumble

Most sports fans try to ignore the ancillary marketing surrounding the games we love. It's unavoidable, certainly — no one is claiming not to see and hear those taglines and messages. But it's all just part of the landscape, blending together into one amorphous CocaAdidaDraftStarKingWars blob

But there is an exception to this rule: We notice the the fails. Ohhh, do we notice — and ohh, does schadenfreude follow. That is precisely the predicament Microsoft finds itself in on the eve of Super Bowl 50.

A $400 million marketing deal struck with the NFL in 2013 has most visibly delivered nothing but embarrassing press for the company's Surface tablet Read more...