Microsoft alarm video: viral marketing? Prank?

The video below has been making the rounds (we picked it up off Consumerist), depicting a bunch of people cruelly lured into picking up an unattended copy of Microsoft Office only to be scared frickless when the unassuming box starts emitting a shrill, alarm-like noise.

No one can seem to discern if the video is a lame attempt at viral marketing by Microsoft or just a prank. Some say the reactions look staged, and a few people have suggested that it is some kind of anti-piracy message. (Which is kind of funny because the people who are punished by the box are just random passersby who find the object places like directly in the middle of the fricking sidewalk.) Of course, if it is viral marketing, it’s pretty counterintuitive since it kind of implies if you even touch the software, it will cause you great distress and possibly giantly poofy hair. (Coincidentally, the sum of my experience with Microsoft Office products.)

Either way, if you like watching people getting scared, falling down and being inconvenienced, you might enjoy the clip below. Like the guy who finds it perched mid-way up the stairs and almost falls down them. It’s funny, because he almost dies!