Microsoft promises New York it will remove ads
Microsoft, which was fined $50 for one violation of the city's laws, has apologized for its advertising campaign gone wild around the city according to this AP story in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). The story also includes the details and date of the IBM incident I'd mentioned yesterday where San Francisco fined the company for its "corporate graffiti":
Microsoft vice president Yusuf Mehdi said the company was sorry.
"We made a mistake with the decals, and we take full responsibility for what happened," Mr. Mehdi said in a statement issued by Microsoft's public relations firm, Waggener Edstrom. "We're working with city officials to clean up the decals immediately."
City officials in New York, Chicago and San Francisco have fought back against similar illegal "guerrilla" ad campaigns by International Business Machines Corp., Snapple and Nike Inc.
In April, IBM paid San Francisco $120,000 in fines and cleanup costs for an ad campaign in which sidewalks were spray-painted with ads. Chicago also fined the computer maker for similar corporate graffiti.