I have seen this ad for Toshiba laptops for what feels like the last two years. It’s in every publication I read. Like a creepy girl in middle school who won’t take a hint, it keeps showing up everywhere I go.
And it never changes.
The same woman floating in the midst of orbiting stuff on a red background.
I get the impression Toshiba spent millions on a media buy then, as an afterthought, realized they need to create an actual ad.
Reminds me of that line in Jurassic Park. “Your [account executives] were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should!”
Thank you Jeff Goldblum. Truer words about advertising have never been spoken.
And now this thing is running around in the wild like a less cuddly velociraptor, jumping out at unsuspecting people, breeding and creating more little versions of the same ad which grow up to be full spreads in other publications like Good Housekeeping and Bass Fisherman Quarterly.
You have more money than you know what to do with – literally billions sitting around. (As of the end of 2009 Microsoft has $9.4 billion and Google has $10 billion.) So how about you put a little more effort into making your products a more visually pleasing?
And by “more visually appealing” what I mean is “less ugly.”
I’ll even tell you how to do it: buy away designers from Apple and UX gurus from Adaptive Path.
Offer them $250,000 per year and the final word on how your products should look. Give them the ability to do what they do best and get out of their way.
Then take the committee of engineers, middle managers and their spouses who have been making those decisions, and put them to work doing something useful like cleaning staplers or minding their own business.
Readeo is a new startup which is, in it’s simplest form, something every grandparent wants – but just doesn’t know it yet.
Basically, it’s reading children’s books over video chat. Here’s how it works:
My parents in Oregon would log into Readeo and pick a book they’d want to read my son. There’s a video chat at the bottom of the screen so they can see and hear each other, and at the top of the screen is a digital copy of the book they picked. As Grandma reads the book and turns the pages, my son can follow along and sees the pages turn.
Take a look-see here:
They’ve partnered with publishers like Simon & Schuster and Chronicle Books so they have some legit titles. It’s ideal for grandparents who aren’t close to their kids/grandkids or parents who travel a lot.
Why do I mention all this? Well, first of all I think it’s a great product. Second, it was created (at least in part) by a friend of mine, Brett Crockett. And Mr. Crockett was good enough to hook me up with a special coupon code just for loyal readers of this fine site.
The normal free trial period is 14 days. But if you go here and enter theotherdrummer into the promo code box when you check out you can get a month free.
A free month. Go for it. Tell your friends. And let me know what you think of the idea in the comments.
Instead of blasting out the results of sporting events to those who receive your breaking news text alerts (like me) and ruining the game for those who haven’t seen it (like me), you instead send a mass text to everyone informing them that the game has ended and then give them the opportunity to reply with a “Y” if they want to know the result/score.
I think TiVo may be dead. Or at least have one leg in the ground.
We recently switched to a trial run with a Comcast DVR. We got it for $8/month for a year (after that it goes up to $16) and we don’t have to pay anything for the box itself.
We looked into getting an comparable HD TiVo. List price for such a device is $249 (although you can find refurbished ones cheaper). Plus $13/month.
The problem? TiVo is charging for both the hardware and the service. Nowadays, it’s gotta be one or the other:
Give me the hardware for “free” and lock me into a monthly service contract, or
Charge full price (and then some) for the hardware and the service is “free”
TiVo can’t have it both ways with Comcast and other TV providers handing out free hardware to everyone and charging (essentially) the same price for (essentially) the same service. Sure, TiVo’s UX (user experience) is far superior – Comcast’s not only looks horrid but isn’t all that intuitive.
But is it worth $249 and having to add an extra box to my TV?
