Feed America with Browser Aid

Remember “Feed the World”, the Live Aid song? Catchy tune and worthy cause.

How about “Feed America” instead? ‘Sung’, as it were, by Microsoft when you download IE8. For every download of IE8 the company will donate 8 meals to Feeding America, a US charity.

Got your wallet out? Or grabbed your sick bag?

It seems that 1 in 8 Americans struggles to get enough to eat. In the land of the Big Mac, people are starving.

What’s that got to do with Microsoft? Well, Bill Gates is well known for his charitable foundation, so why not help those at the bottom of Uncle Sam’s pile?

Or could there be another motive?

It was announced last week that Windows 7 is to be shipped in Europe without Internet Explorer 8. Microsoft has responded to the EU’s antitrust objections to its bundling of its browser with Windows.

Forgive our cynicism but does this explain the charitable donation? Download IE8 now or the poor guy starves!

No harm done of course - a starving American is as tragic as a starving er, Englishman, Irishman or African - but many Europeans will struggle to understand why they should support a charity to feed people in what is still the world’s wealthiest nation.

If you want IE8  and you’d like to prompt a Microsoft donation, take a look at http://www.browserforthebetter.com. For more information on the Feeding America charity see http;//feedingamerica.org/default.aspx.

Call us callous but we’re sticking to Firefox.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 12:19 pm and is filed under Marketing Services. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.