But I Love My Laptop

Matilda: Don't people need good cars? Can't you sell good cars, Dad?

When I got my laptop (HP tx1000z) I had it customized just the way I wanted it. I decided that I wasn’t going to be one of those silly people who replaces their laptop every couple of years. And so I ordered exactly what I wanted, including some fun but expensive options, spending lots of $.

After about 5 months it was really screwing up. I don’t remember exactly what was wrong but I blamed myself (I still think it was me) and reformatted my computer. That fixed it and I’ve not had any problems until...

Now it’s been nearly 2 years and suddenly I can’t use wireless internet anymore. Hot Cup and I (mostly Hot Cup because he speaks computer) have been trying to figure it out and there are a lot of complaints in online forums about it, and even a website dedicated to this specific defect. Apparently it’s the hardware and eventually my laptop won’t be working at all. I can connect with a cable or use a USB WiFi card for now, but it looks like other stuff will start to go bad too and my computer will die :(

This and my camera. I am not having very good luck here. Big difference between this and my camera though. The next camera I buy will probably be another Canon. But I'm not very happy with HP about my laptop. They really screwed me.

Funny ad placement again. Haha.

30 Years Later

Aside from telling us that Coke Zero tastes like regular Coke, I think that this commercial was intended to have us look back at the old Coke commercial. So that's what we shall do. And happily. The original one is excellent.

Mean Troy
Coke Zero
2009 Super Bowl


Mean Joe Green
Coca-Cola Classic
1979 Super Bowl


Correction: Make that 29 years. Mean Joe Green was in 1980 according to Adland.

Ask 2nd

Sometimes I hesitate to write about marketing stuff because I like to think I know something about marketing and I’m afraid of being exposed as an idiot.

But recently Hot Cup posed a question which I was happy to answer, and so I’ll share it with you too. (I admit, I went a little overboard with it, which is why it can now make for its own post.) It was about the new Microsoft ads.


They are pretty bad ads. Although the 2nd one (New Family) is considered to be a little better than the 1st (Shoe Circus). There are a few companies that can get away with doing a no real message ad (ie. Budweiser) but Microsoft isn't one of them. Viral marketing is a huge thing. So that’s obviously their goal. And successfully working branding into viral marketing has proved challenging for more than just Microsoft.

The TV spots aren't as bad as the full versions, in my opinion. Maybe I just like that they're shorter. (I’ve seen versions on TV that’ve got to be only 30 seconds, but I can’t find them online.)

I think they want to show you Bill Gates doing something funner than you normally get to see. The message of 'New Family' is suppose to be about connecting with people. Bill and Jerry are connecting with people ... Microsoft connects people. I think that's the message anyway. And both ads hint toward innovation at the end, although there is no real tangible message there.

But they have led to some buzz at least. This article is the most favorable one I've come across.

Good Microsoft Commercial:

Placement

Ad placement, like product placement, is very important. But advertising online can sometimes make for some pretty funny placement. DCist caught one this morning. (I admit I hit the refresh button a few times, wasting a few impressions of other advertisers, to get this screen shot.)

And not long ago at work we spotted our own ad in the middle of an article about Canadian beef.

It's a little off topic but this reminds me of the "shameless" Papa Johns commercial for meatball pizza during the 2005 Domino's episode of The Apprentice.

Still bored at work.

Super Bowl XLII

The commercials didn't quite measure up to some years. There were definitely a few I enjoyed, but I've decided not to rehash them all here.

I just want to bring up one thing: The Cola Wars. I'd thought we'd reached a happy medium with Pepsi taking the Super Bowl and Coke taking the Olympics. But last year Coke was back, and I don't see that they're going anywhere. They both gave us exactly what we've come to expect from them, which is good I suppose. Pepsi featured popular singers and Coke showed us "The Coke Side of Life." Although I appreciated the SNL-styled celeb-filled commercial, if you know me you'd easily correctly bet that Charlie Brown and Washington DC would win in my book.

Just for fun.


It's Derek Jeter; what's not to love?


The Clydesdale series continues.

After the game I discovered the best way to end a Super Bowl evening. And that's with a live performance by the one and only Melissa Branin.

After the evening I discovered the worst way to spend 3:30am. And that is spewing out all the junk I ate during the game.

Ad Habit

I don't know if it is only because I studied marketing, but at least some of my ad-critiquing habits came from my college days. I'll usually critique them and am just as likely to hate them as I am to love them.

It was probably 5 years ago that Tabasco ran this campaign, but it is one of my favorites.