Apple’s Intel ad gets a new ending

April 7, 2006 eiriksoLeave a comment

Because I just told you about the BSOD. Because I just tol you about BootCamp. Because I need to appologize to the important readers that follow this blog through RSS. Last thing first. The funny commercials from YouTube that I linked to in my last post did not show up in my RSS feed. Here are the plain links:

Volkswagen I
Volkswagen II
Volkswagen III
Berlitz

So that was the excuses to post another video. You have to be above average interested in computers, but I find this very funny:

(Via TUAW)

Friday funny commercial roundup

April 7, 2006 eirikso6 Comments

Germans. They’re funny. Yes they are. Really.

A lot of you have already seen these, but it’s time for a little friday rerun. Peter Stormare as a freaked out German engeneer. Three spots. Then a little dramatic fun while sinking.

Usability and error messages

March 30, 2006 eirikso3 Comments

I’m using Bloglines as my RSS reader. I like the fact that it is independent of the computer I use and that it lets me keep a list of clips and a blog of links that I can follow up later.

Today when I tried to access it the site was down for maintenance. Bloglines seem to have systems that let them maintain and keep the service running without having to take it down often, but today they apparently had to take it down for a short while.

What kind of message they give to their users while the system is down is an important part of their communication with their users. And I admit it. I am used to such horrible messages of “Error-whatever-please-come-back-later” that I actually get charmed by messages like this one:

Hi,

I’m the Bloglines Plumber. Bloglines is down for a little fixer upper. We will be back shortly. Bloglines will be all better when I’m done with it.

Thanks,
The Bloglines Plumber

The result of such a communication? Well, the downtime doesn’t bother me at all. Simple as that.

Sesam.no just got some cheap ad-space

March 22, 2006 eirikso9 Comments

My friend Mykle just sold his MSN Display Picture for $122,50. The lucky winner of the auction on eBay was Norwegian search engine Sesam.no

Now, every time Mykle logs on MSN messenger the logo of Sesam.no shows up above all windows on about 50 computers automatically.

Every time Mykle chats with someone the logo of Sesam.no will be there loud and clear stating that “Mykle supports Sesam.no – better search”.

At $122 that’s a bargain if you ask me.

Identity for sale!

March 7, 2006 eirikso6 Comments

A friend of mine has just put the space for his MSN Display Picture up for sale on eBay.

He is selling the space for the rest of 2006 and the highest bidder will be able to place an ad in the space. You will reach his 50 MSN friends on a daily basis. As he puts it in the auction:

This is a new and great opportunity for one-to-one marketing !

I have over 50 active friends in my msn and I actively talk to many of them each day ! My friends are in the typical generation X segment and might be hard to reach with traditional channels. Another thing with my friends is that thay are highly educated and have a high income.

Okay, he is selling a private piece of ad space. But, is he selling his friends? Should I be angry as one of those 50 persons that will be the target for this ad?

…I don’t think so, but the idea and the auction is interesting and I will for sure see how this turns out.

Link to the auction: “My Display Picture” in MSN is for sale!

Update:
And this is how it looks like on my computer when Mykle logs on right now. If you buy this ad space you will have your logo exposed on 50 computers each time Mykle logs on…

Time stopped at 10:09

February 19, 2006 eirikso15 Comments

The rich and sunny planet Ursa Minor Beta has the quite peculiar property that most of its surface consists of subtropic coastline. Even more peculiar, on this world it’s always Saturday afternoon.

From Wikipedia – Places in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
(Thanks, Oyvind)

And of course you would want to live on a planet where time stopped Saturday afternoon!

I have just visited Switzerland. The home of high quality watches. And the home of huge amounts of commercials for the high quality watches. I decided to check a little fact that most people involved in marketing know of. The world of watch commercials is a world where time stopped at about 10:09.

Click the pictures for larger versions:

Yes. It’s a fact. Time stopped at about 10:09!

All rules have exceptions. One German watch was 2:50. But we’re still talking about the same graphical appearance of the watch.

And, yes I know. Commercials from a world where the watch can show something completely different exist. I even discovered some of them in Geneva. You can find several explanations for the 10:09 rule. Here is one of them: Continue reading “Time stopped at 10:09” →

You would never ever steal anything here

December 1, 2005 eirikso1 Comment

A coworker just joined a friend that bought himself a new set of tires for his car. He used a legendary and low priced dealer in Oslo. It is run by some extremely efficient and clever people looking like they divide their time 50% doing work for the shop and 50% lifting weights at the gym. Not the kind of people you would mess with.

At the entrance of the shop they have put up a sign that is kind of interesting here in heavily regulated and streamlined Norway. It says:

“Theft will not be reported. It will be punished.”

Fantastic. This is what I call efficient communication!

Via HappyGoLucky.no (Norwegian)

How to avoid making boring presentations

November 8, 2005 eirikso20 Comments

I have been doing a lot of presentations lately. So, inspired by the classic Steve Jobs and Bill Gates comparison, and after reading these comments over at Presentation Zen:

If someone emailed you both presentations, you’d probably be more likely to make out Bill Gates’ message.

How would you scape from bullet points and charts if you are presenting a technical subject?

I’ll have to throw in my little presentation guide as well. Hell, I’ll even give you an example. I am going to show you the presentation I use to tell students about pixels, colour schemes, dynamic range and a complete explanation of run length encoding of pictures.

Without one single bullet point.

The typical bullet point hell version of one of the slides would be like this:

Nicely done with a horrible default gradient background and an ugly font.

The first quote from the comments is answered by my presentation rule number one:

If someone that did not attend to my presentation can understand anything if I mail them my slides I have made a really bad set of slides. Really bad.

Why the heck would I bother spending money on a ticket to London and do a presentation if I could just mail the people my presentation and they would get the same? Ladies and gentlemen: slides are an illustration to what you are saying.

…but what about the people that did not attend? If they are important you’ll have to do another presentation or you’ll have to produce a document that people are supposed to read. A set of slides is not a document that people are supposed to read.

I’ll show this with my example.
Continue reading “How to avoid making boring presentations” →

BMW don’t get it

October 28, 2005 eirikso1 Comment

BMW should know better. I mean, they made BMWfilms.com. What a fantastic project! Now, they’re out with a commercial for the new 1-series. A commercial starring Kermit the Frog.

A while ago I posted an article about the commercial because a friend of mine was the cinematographer. He posted an unofficial “making of”-movie on his web site. And, because Kermit the Frog has very expensive lawyers and because these expensive lawyers contacted the cinematographer and asked him to remove the “making of” it is now gone. The clip was filled with action and was alone a very good commercial for the new 1-series.

Right now I can see from my logs that I have huge amounts of traffic from the search engines from people searching for “bmw kermit” etc… People want the commercial. They want the “making of”. And BMW has not made it available for them.

Now, what’s the point of a commercial? A commercial that is successful to the point where people want to look at it is amazing. Not making it available is plain stupid.

When searching for “kermit” on the official BMW web site this is what I get:

Come on BMW. Wake up. With BMWFilms you have proven that you understand the game. When you discovered the “making of” you should have responded with joy and immediately made it available on the official BMW site.

BMW is sleeping, but other people are not. You can get the commercial here. Until some expensive lawyers stop that site as well…

Edit:
And yes, I can understand the the people with the rights to Kermit (Disney) will stop anything that BMW has not paid for. The problem is BMW not buying the rights in advance.

And by the way. If you don’t use any expensive frogs in your commercial you can publish it anyway and make huge success on the net:
Toxic Design Studio makes success with too controversial ad

Edit2:
Well, who cares. The “Making of” is up on YouTube anyway: The Making of BMW 1’er

Whatever happens in the future it will fit into this space

October 6, 2005 eirikso5 Comments

Today I want to share a couple of very nice vintage computer ads that I found in an old issue of Personal Computer News. Unfortunately the magazine has no year of issue printed on it, but the magazine is from the early 80’s. I have used this in several of my presentations and especially the technology focused crowds find it amusing.

This ad is for an Aquarius computer. The specs alone can yield laughter among techies:

These are the specs of an average packet of biscuits today.

However, the most optimistic part of the ad clearly shows the problem of marketing computers:

My god, I want one of those. According to the marketing I would be able to connect my iPod, my mobile and my PDA into this one! That’s what I call future proof.

The slogan “With Aquarius you won’t get left behind” down to the left in the ad puts it all into place. The people that are lucky enough to own an Aquarius today won’t need this: “Help for the left behind”.

Continue reading “Whatever happens in the future it will fit into this space” →