Steve Ballmer is known for being an extremely animated, bouncy ball of energy, but what makes him so hyperactive?
"Iced tea! Iced tea! Iced tea!"
That's what the current owner of the L.A. Clippers and former Microsoft CEO told Conan O'Brien on his late-night talk show Wednesday night. No, he wasn't talking about Ice-T the rapper-turned-actor, although it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine the businessman sitting in his office blasting "Don't Hate The Playa" to get himself hyped up. No, instead he was talking about the sugary drink.
Ballmer's energy even helped him convince Bill Gates to dress up as Austin Powers, which we also witnessed on Conan along with a whole video reel portraying Ballmer being, well, Ballmer.
This just goes to show that if you drink enough iced tea, you should end up being the CEO of a major tech company. Or you could save a large sports team from its controversial owner and relaunch it with a brand new logo.
In fact, that's exactly what Ballmer did on Conan. While it certainly would have been enough to go on Conan to discuss what makes someone so energetic, the real reason behind the visit was to unveil the new L.A. Clippers logo.
Ballmer's energy also now fuels the Clippers' marketing, although it's a good thing he has a whole division behind him to catch how a marketing campaign could go wrong. As he explained on Conan, Ballmer's philosophy has always revolved around being "hardcore." While he says that he wanted to include "hardcore" in the Clippers' marketing materials, he says that he didn't consider what might happen if someone searches the phrase on the Internet. Or, as Ballmer said, "Bing it."
"We actually looked at using 'hardcore' as part of our slogan for this year. Turns out that when you search for it on the Internet, I might say 'Bing it' for example, others would say something else, but when you look it up on the Internet, you really don't like what you get back," Ballmer told O'Brien.
"Or you really like what you get back," O'Brien was quick to point out.
Ballmer, however, has his own meaning for "hardcore," saying that for him it represented things like passion, commitment and "sticking with things."
Check out Ballmer's appearance on Conan below.
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