RE: My fantasy Super Bowl commercial ...

[Sannan Solberg <SSolberg@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To stick with the football theme... how about something along the lines of
the recent batch of XFL commercials!
Dim lights slowly come up on a big honkin' model 820 sitting on a torn up
football field (not a nick on it, just purring).  In the background you hear
someone counting out a hike (with a few males grunts thrown in the
background).  
Now a big closeup with huge guys coming at "you".  Then just the sound of
helmets and guys hitting the turf.  
Back to the iseries (still clean and purring) and a pile of guys around in.
"IBM iSeries... You just can't knock a good thing down"

-----Original Message-----
From: David Gibbs [mailto:david@midrange.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2001 4:47 PM
To: midrange-l@midrange.com
Subject: My fantasy Super Bowl commercial ...


Folks:

As I was driving home from work today, I heard a story on NPR's All Things 
Considered show about how the last years Super Bowl was chock full of 
dotCOM advertising.

That got me to thinking about THIS years Super Bowl ... and how I'd like to 
see a iSeries 400 commercial.

So, I put somethings together in my mind ... granted, I'm not a marketing 
guru or a advertising wiz... but, I submit the following two potential 
spots for your consideration...

Advert #1
------------------------------------------
Fade in
Scene: A bustling IS department in a mid-size manufacturing company

ITS Manager dressed in a suit & tie walks up to a calmly working programmer 
or operator (casually dressed)

ITS Mgr: I hear that XYZ Corp down the road got hacked last night

Programmer: Yep, their lan guy called me ... the hacker was hitting every 
site on the local sub-net.  Quite a customer service nightmare ... their 
entire customer database was copied, credit cards included.

ITS Mgr: Wow, did we get hit?

Programmer: I checked when I got in ... the hackers tried, but gave up 
after 20 minutes.  They couldn't get anywhere.

Fade out

Fade in: white background with a black eServer 400 in the middle
The words "IBM iSeries eServer 400 ... for when you can't afford to be out 
of business".
------------------------------------------

Advert #2
------------------------------------------
Scene: Conference room in a mid-sized distribution company.  President of 
the company is presiding over a department heads meeting.

President: Ok folks, this new marketing campaign is going to make customer 
orders shoot through the roof.  We want to make sure that we can be 
ready.  The question is: Are we ready?  Customer service?

Cust service mgr: We've hired and trained 20 more customer service 
agents.  We'll be ready for the extra work.

President: Shipping?

Shipping manager: We've arranged for extra trucks to be ready and the dock 
guys are aware of the plan

President: Purchasing?

Purchasing manager: Our vendors are aware of our plans and can provide us 
with the materials.

President: ITS?

ITS Manager: No problem, the system can handle the extra load.  Business as 
usual for us.

President: Ok folks, this is the big one ... lets take care of business.

Fade out

Fade in: white background with a black eServer 400 in the middle
The words "IBM iSeries eServer 400 ... for when you can't afford to be out 
of business".
------------------------------------------

I admit: I like #1 better than #2, but I think they are both pretty good.

I also admit: I adapted the slogan from Chris Rehm's sig line (back in '97).

I was reading the ad ideas to my wife just now and she asked me: "Why are 
you writing advertisements".  My response: Because IBM won't.

btw: If anyone at IBM cares to float these ideas up the chain of command, I 
gladly give permission for my ideas to be used in real commercials.

david


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