he New York City Transportation Department has done in a day what the United States Justice Department could not do for years: made Microsoft say it's sorry.
The corporation accepted the blame yesterday for hundreds of plastic butterfly decals that were affixed across the face of Midtown Manhattan as part of a $300 million promotional campaign for its new MSN 8 Internet service.
"We apologize to the City of New York and the people of New York City," said Yusuf Mehdi, the corporate vice president for MSN personal services and business, in a statement released by the Waggener Edstrom public relations firm.
"We made a mistake with the decals, and we take full responsibility for what happened," Mr. Mehdi said. "We are working with city officials to clean up the decals immediately."
Fresh from two days spent pulling adhesive butterflies with 12- to 20-inch wingspans off sidewalks, curbs, paving stones, subway entrances, lampposts, stop signs and stanchions, city officials accepted the apology gratefully.
"We're delighted," said Tom Cocola, the assistant transportation commissioner for public affairs. "We're glad that Microsoft is going to stop and obey the law. And we're also pleased that they're very willing to make restitution." He said Microsoft had offered to pay the clean-up bill and that he expected to have an estimate early next week of how many butterflies were freed.
Within hours of the decal blitz on Thursday, the city notified the Microsoft Corporation that it intended to hold the company "directly responsible for this illegal, irresponsible and dangerous defacing of public property." Spokeswomen for Microsoft said at first that permits had been issued but declined to identify what agency had done so.
The butterflies swarmed in greatest numbers around Grand Central Terminal and Times Square, where crews were still pulling them up yesterday. "When it gets to the point where it's annoying even to us in the heart of the most rampantly naked commercial district," said Tim Tompkins, the president of the Times Square Business Improvement District, "one has to say that Microsoft has probably gone too far."
