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.”
Ahh yes. The CEO sees the slactivists’ avatars sand sighs loudly before turning their thoughts back to their yacht and upcoming golf vacation.
It takes a special kind of wishful thinking to think that any CEO is UNAWARE that their customers hate them.
Not a single one thinks any of these decisions are well-received.
They do it because people keep turning RIGHT AROUND and spending their money and attention anyway.
It’s a special kind of Stockholm Syndrome digital slavery because people can LITERALLY just walk away and choose not to.
I’ll highjack this comment to add my opinion - I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate for the main post.
I see the profile picture as performative, and I usually avoid things like this out of caution; I don’t want to fall into a habit of doing something performative and feeling like that was enough action. I also recognize Clippy is a flawed choice, as one of Microsoft’s mascots and it’s existence as a proto-AI assistant.
All of that said, I found the solidarity in the comment section of the original video comforting. So today, I will perform (and maybe spread just a little more awareness).
The CEO sees the clippys, starts crying and gives everyone a raise
Then everyone claps
Yea this is some bonkers wishful thinking. This is basically the Jeremey Clarkson “oh no! Anyway…” meme