Microsoft pulls its iPhone parody ads

A good parody is difficult to pull off and Microsoft has pretty much admitted it got it wrong with its latest efforts taking on the iPhone design process.

The Redmond-based giant released a series of ads, called a “fly on the wall in Cupertino” which show a pair of awkward designers pitching iPhone designs to figures that are meant to be takes on Jony Ive and Tim Cook.

“You asked us to create the gold standard in iPhones,” says one. “And it turns out… that is super hard.”

The ads were widely panned, especially on social media where some suggested that one of the execs (seen only from behind), resembled Steve Jobs rather than Tim Cook — something they felt was in bad taste.

Speaking to CNET, a Microsoft spokesperson said the campaign “was intended to be a lighthearted poke at our friends from Cupertino. But it was off the mark, and we’ve decided to pull it down”.

There do however appear to be some working mirrors — the first courtesy of Vaultfeed — of the ad: