Microsoft freaks out Seattle to celebrate Vista Launch.
This evening, Microsoft and vanishingpointgame.com appear to have thrown a party to celebrate the launch of the Vista operating system complete with fireworks over Lake Union in Seattle. Aparently there was also some text revealed in the firework display which served as the final clue in the vanishing point game. Microsoft and their partners are really getting creative with advertising and media exposure these days, sometimes with better results than others. As far as I can tell, it was a complete surprise to the city and people around Lake Union. Just after dusk I started hearing rumbling noises from outside the house in North Seattle but just thought it was a neighbor with is movie turned up too loud or something along those lines. When I got in the car to go pickup some food, I saw what was really going on.
Unfortunately for me, thousands of other people all over Seattle saw this display and where equally surprised. For an hour or so, the freeway and major streets with a view of the Lake Union area where clogged with gawkers staring skyward. It wasn’t until I got home and started searching that I finally figured out what it was all about. I found some indication of the true meaning of the shock and awe campaign through the flickr community, but still haven’t seen any news or other official reports of the event.
The photo seen here is credit of flickr user veo_.
From the little I got to see if it, it was a pretty nice display.
Technorati Tags: fireworks, Microsoft, Vista launch
January 27th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
“People” knew about this — here’s Microsoft’s Press Release
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/jan07/01-27VanishingPoint4MA.mspx?source=rss&WT.dl=0
January 27th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Thanks for the link Blake.
I wonder, did anyone else reading this from the Seattle area hear about this before hand?
January 29th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
I was totally freaked out about it. I mean, it was 6 pm on a saturday, not anywhere near a holiday. But it was also a nice surprise. And then I tried searching online to find out what it was all about and couldn’t find out anything at all. Thanks for posting something!
January 31st, 2007 at 10:33 am
I’m surprised this didn’t get more press locally and nationally, I heard it was pretty cool and surprising. Insider told me they had to pull some serious strings because WADOT was worried it would cause accidents on I-5 and 99, lol.