Creatives pay tribute to MS Paint, the death of which was greatly exaggerated

by Simon Gwynn July 27, 2017

After reports suggested that Microsoft was preparing to kill off its beloved low-tech art application Paint, Campaign asked advertising creatives to pay tribute to the program using nothing but the tools it contained.

The reports broke the hearts of a generation of easily impressed PC users – but the pain turned out to be premature. Microsoft later clarified that, while Paint would be removed from Windows 10 as a default feature, fans would continue to be able to download it for free from the Windows Store.

Not so much a death sentence, then, as being forced into semi-retirement – a traumatic enough fate for a program found on the vast majority of the world's desktop and laptop computers for the last 32 years.

Without further ado, here is how the UK's advertising creatives marked the news.