There was a time when Microsoft ads were a bit more entertaining than the current "dinosaur head" offerings which have of late been baffling adults and scaring small children worldwide.

The proof comes in this hitherto-unseen-in-the-civilised-world shocker for MS Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003:

Fantastic. For the record, an MS operative confirmed this morning that this is "an old advertisement which ran only in New Zealand for a short period and is no longer being used". For the love of all that's Holy, why not?

Let's face it, this is the only advertising campaign ever to give Linux programmers the vaguest hope that they might one day have sex with a real woman. Old school? You bet. Bring it on... ®

Bootnote

Thanks to reader Ivor Hewitt for the tip-off. Anyone who's already seen this ad knocking about on the net, there's no need to send in the obligatory "bah this is old news it appeared on [insert name of blog] on [insert date] so you are a bunch of [insert insult]" because we hadn't seen it 'til this morning so it's entirely probable that loads of other people haven't had the pleasure either. Thank you.