Much Ado About Nothing

[Charles Martin]

> From: William Hofius <wjh at mac.com>
>
> When I first read the complaints about the G5 advertisement, I thought
> a "kid" aka baby or small child under the age of 10, was blown through
> the wall. I finally saw the G5 ad on VH1 last night. The "kid" is some
> high school or college aged person.
>
Okay, you guys have GOT to stop trying to watch video over a dialup 
connection!

Take a look at the ad again. The person in the chair is a full-grown 
man, with a wife or girlfriend. He looks to be in his late 20s/early 
30s. If you have broadband, by far the clearest version of the ad is to 
be found on apple's site:
http://www.apple.com/hardware/ads/g5

> If a complaint should be raised, it should be that this ad, like all
> Apple ads, doesn't say much about the hardware or show it in use. Jeff
> Goldbloom's voiceover doesn't mention any of the special features of
> the G5 (world's first 64-bit processor in a desktop computer, up to 8
> GB of RAM, up to 1 GHz front-side bus, etc.).
>
Sir, how long do you think this ad is?? First it has to grab people's 
attention, then intrigue them, and THEN you want to launch into a 
lecture on features/specs? Um, isn't that what the URL at the end of 
the ad is for??

Besides, as I've pointed out before, 99% or better of the audience 
wouldn't have a CLUE what you meant when you said it was a 64-bit 
desktop. They don't know what 64-bit is. They don't know that their PC 
is 32-bit. They have no idea how much RAM they have, and are not sure 
what RAM is. 8 Gigs doesn't sound like much compared to 128 or 256 -- 
see what I mean?

So now you have to take time to explain -- in the ad -- what all that 
stuff MEANS, as *well* as why it's better than what a PC has. Then you 
have to explain why 64-bit is not twice as fast as 32-bit. Then you 
have to convince them to pay at least $1999 for it.

Or you could just put a URL at the end of the ad so that the people who 
ARE intrigued can learn more ...

_Chas_

"Working on a PC feels like going to work in a starched shirt and tie. 
Walking up to a PC makes me anxious, almost like getting ready to take 
the stage to deliver a speech on a topic I don't quite fully grasp. You 
know what it is you need to do, but success in doing it is not certain. 
Working on a Mac feels like throwing on your favorite jeans, a pair of 
sandals, and a soft, well-worn t-shirt. Instead of sitting down at a 
PC, you climb into the Mac environment like a huge beanbag chair, 
squish around a few moments until you get your butt in that perfect 
position, and then let it all fill up around you." -- John Manzione, 
MacNetv2, 13-June-03