YSK: People are switching their profile pictures to Microsoft’s Clippy in protest of the unethical, immoral, anti-consumer practices by various companies. The movement was started by Louis Rossmann (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Dtmpe9qaQ) on August 7th, 2025.

@6:46 “Clippy’s a symbol that what used to be considered one of the worst annoyances in our life would now not only be welcomed, but for all of his flaws, celebrated as an idol. Because for all of these things that occur right now where there is negative malice of intent, […] Clippy just wanted to help. And if you were to turn him on today, unlike most cloud bullshit, he’d still work.”

Louis hopes for this to be a show of solidarity.

@5:44 “When a company CEO logs into their Slack and sees 10,000 Clippy’s looking back at them, what I hope occurs is that they intuitively understand that they no longer live in a world where they can get away with fucking over the consumer.”

@5:58 “[…] that [people] are alert and they are aware of what is going on, and they are going to politely but firmly push back against it. Every single one of those 10,000 people will be an obstacle to the anti-consumer practices and the anti-ownership practices, and they will no longer be another cog in the assembly line sending us all into a dystopia.”

Why YSK: I was curious about the number of Clippy avatars, and thought other people might be curious too.

@4:28 “Clippy never tried to normalize sex trafficking. He just wanted to help.”

  • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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    5 days ago

    Oh yeah, let’s show them! We’ll show them that even as a symbol of protest we have to use something corporation made.

    Microsoft thanks you for the free advertisement.

      • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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        5 days ago

        I did read the transcript. How the fuck does it change the fact that you’re giving Microsoft free advertisement?

        Like, no matter how much you spin the story, the fact remains that this is a Microsoft’s mascot you’re now spreading around.

        I’ll keep my corporate boycott without advertising company’s mascots to everyone.

      • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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        5 days ago

        Definitely not spending 8 minutes of my time on a “protest” video that somehow ends up advertising a corporation.

        I did read the transcript in the post and the reasoning is idiotic.

        • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          It’s not advertising a corporation lmao, he spends half the video ranting about how much he hates Microsoft

          • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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            5 days ago

            Cool, cool and as a revenge he chooses a cute looking symbol made by said corporation. Yeah, that’ll show them!

            That’s free advertisement, all common people need to see is a funny ad featuring Clippy and suddenly all the profile pictures will have a different meaning.

            • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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              5 days ago

              I have no idea why you’re so proudly ignorant.

              Just watch the video or move along and accept that you aren’t informed.

              • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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                4 days ago

                That’s kinda rich coming from you. The video is not needed at all. I don’t care about the intent, the fact remains that people are spreading Microsoft’s mascot online.

                Simplified enough for you to understand:

                • is what I said true? Just a yes/no question, no reasoning, no explanations, no reality twisting
                • if you came to the conclusion that yes, it indeed does spread Microsoft’s mascot online, here’s another yes/no question: will most people read or know the reasoning behind?
                • if you chose no, they won’t know the reasoning, here’s the last question (this one is not a yes/no question, might be a little harder for people like you): given the two above facts, will this be perceived as a protest by most people, or simply as using clippy for fun/nostalgia/whatever reason?