I found this clever little video by way of Christian Buckley's Life is Work. The lesson goes beyond "What Microsoft would do" to what many think is a great design. This doesn't only happen at Microsoft, rather it is a generic problem, and I see it happening all over the place. The emphasis on adding information in order to convince someone to buy your product often overwhelms any design attractiveness, which may ultimately be much more compelling.
For example, if you can show a picture on an food ad, do you really need to say "great tasting"? Is that clutter you just created enhancing or dimishing the desire for your product? Maybe it's better just to take a great photo of what you're offering and make it big enough that everyone can see it.
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