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IBM's Upcoming Linux Ad Campaign
Chris Soghoian writes: "According to a Wired News story,
IBM is going to feature Tux as part of it's 'Peace, Love & Linux' ad campaign. Apparently, the campaign is going to kick off with a 6-story Tux billboard in Times Square next week." I'm looking forward
to seeing the CG Tux TV ads.
Did anyone else notice the bit about "and e-mail" as part of the campaign? I hope that does NOT mean spam!
www.eFax.com are spammers
I guess it's all water under the bridge. To this day Novell has superior products like NDS and ZENworks but still does not know how to sell them or market them.
War is necrophilia.
> I wonder: the analogy to the 1960s may work,
> but should ex-hippies really be the target
> audience? Are they the ones running all the
> servers nowadays?
No. They're running the mainframe. But those old salts aren't hippies, even if they're from from the same generation. Would you call Steve Wozniak a "punk"? (Save it for Steve Jobs...)
The ex-hippies are busy pestering the recalcitrant, 20-something Solaris/NT/VMS admin to install Napster, RealPlayer, CometCursor, WebShots, WinAmp, and/or DirectDraw on their so-called "workstation." The easiest method to get them to go away is to try to persuade them to install a "free UNIX" on their dilipidated Apple or Wintel junker they have at home. They seem to suspect you're trying to trick them. Linux and BSD sound to them like something British cattle get infected with. Something that doesn't come with any good games.
Mainframe guys, who probably have a history with IBM gear at some point, are their target. At our company, the AS/400s are marked for death about once a year, and they get an annual reprieve when the MSSQL on NT replacement system just can't pick up the job. Linux for IBM is a subtle way of saying to all of us in-the-know: "Upgrade your crufty old datacenter. Windows NT not required". Sounds groovy to me.
Democracy. Whiskey. Sexy. Pick any two.
I don't think many people will get the message behind a giant drawing of a penguin and "Peace, Love, and Linux." They should have Tux shoot Debian CD's out onto 42nd Street. OK, just have an IBM rep in a Tux suit do it.
Maybe they should have used a stronger message -- like a Zero Wing quote. Because seriously, it's not like IBM has a well-known commitment to peace and love, right? I would have gone with "Linux Opens Your World" if they wanted something warm and fuzzy.
Anyone else think this hippie thing is a really bad idea? When I'm choosing a platform for a bunch of enterprise servers, I'm looking for "Speed, Power, Stability", not "Peace, Love & a VW bus full of stoned penguins"!
Don't be such a square, man.
--
One of the marketing guys here at work (we resell for IBM) got some of the promo materials for the campaign, and I have to say the bumper stickers at least rock. I don't have a scanner, so I'll describe them: There are three different bumper stickers. They're completely black and white, with the funny e in the "IBM e Server" logo red. The background is black, and there are three white circles with the peace sign, a heart and Tux's head on them, respectively. On one of the stickers, Tux is huge, no logo. One the other two, the white circles are all the same size, and they say either LINUX LIVES or LINUX POWER in huge letters.
:-).
Still, they're very plain and non-detailed. There's no flower power feeling. In fact, the impression I get is more making fun of the sterotype of Linux hippies, especially on the one with Tux dwarfing the peace and love signs, kind of a manic celebration of the fact that yes, Linux was founded on the principles of sharing and goodwill, but it makes a damn good solid OS right now for your business.
Perhaps I'm reading too much into it
Still, the one with the big Tux is going on the car.
Most "ex-hippie baby boomers" I know are technophobes anyway. This will appeal to them about as much as a draft notice...
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War is necrophilia.
should ex-hippies really be the target audience? Are they the ones running all the servers nowadays?
Sure. Ever worked a gig in the Bay Area? Freaks, Deadheads, long-hairs, and flower children everywhere, and many working for high-tech firms, pardon the pun
At least that's how was. That's how it looks. Word has it that several of the coolest stoner spots have closed (White Rabbit, Steamboat, Electric Lounge, Liberty Lunch,
The moral of the story is that it may be hip to *look* like a hippy, but just don't *act* like a hippy...
Or is that too commercial for an opensource OS?
Novell blew a bunch of opportunities. Most of this was because I think they were not evil enough. It never occured to them to make sure you could only connect to a novell server via dr-dos or simply bundle DR-DOS with every novell client install. If they had done this it would have been a huge boost to the market share of dr-dos and would have slowed down MS some.
Also I think they blew an opportunity when they did not make perfect office into a server app (which they had hinted at). If they made perfect office a NLM and ran it from the server it would have been a major player in the corporate market.
MS understood bundling and cramming unwanted software down their customers throats but Novell never went down that road. Maybe they were stupid maybe they were just too nice.
They really should have hyped the fact the novell was significantly faster then NT at file server but you never heard a peep about that.
War is necrophilia.
The PHB IT mantra:
"No one has ever been fired for buying IBM, Intel, or Microsoft"
IBM's reputation standing behind Linux will have a profound effect on decisions made in the board room, especially combined with other factors:
It will effectively neutralize Microsoft's eternal strategy of ignoring the IT staff and concentrating on the managers to sell their products. Here IBM will offer, in the eyes of management, a serious comptetitor to Microsoft offerings, particularly in servers.
IBM will build upon support from administrators. Should decisionmakers have to choose between to viable solutions, the preference of the IT staff may actually be taken into account
Cost, cost, cost, and cost. Given two solutions, both backed by solid and reputable companies, management will tend to gravitate towards the cost effective one.
Overall, this ad campaign will do for Linux what IBM's adoption of MS-DOS did for Microsoft.
I understand that IBM is still making a lot of money from OS/2. Last I checked their OS/2 profit was larger then RedHat Revenue!
War is necrophilia.
nuff said
Plus, I heard that GE is about to start an ad campaign for their new refrigerator line featuring those rascally hip-hop superstars Kid-n-Play. I tell ya, these megacorps are just sooooooo cool!
Is your company running tools written by ma
Think about it: GNU is about free software. Now the people who worked HARD to make it the way it is today and free are in fact working for a big bad money hungry company. Without any reward.
--
Never underestimate the relief of true separation of Religion and State.
Try telling that to someone who bought linux shares.
Linux doesn't have stock. Business who try a weak business model around selling a "free" OS and fail do not affect Linux in any way.
Finkployd
"Embrace and advance."?
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
A few observations and guesses:
Opening the source for OS/2 was discussed in the OS/2 community, and the fact is that parts of OS/2 are copyrighted by... Microsoft. IBM doesn't want to spend the money to redevelop those functions, one might surmise. Open source projects exist to do this, however, and maybe someone involved in them will speak up.
IBM is also in a corner with OS/2. Some basic structural elements like the single queue of the Workplace Shell and the fragile implementation of the INI files were arguably poor design choices, but any redesign would likely break many custom business applications built by some very large IBM customers. Faced with a partly broken system design it can't change without causing major customer grief, and having suffered a decisive humiliating defeat through Microsoft's predatory monopolistic practices, IBM is apparently cutting its losses and sunsetting further development of OS/2. (At least, one can guess this is their thinking, but I don't know.)
Stardock tried to talk IBM into releasing OS/2 to them, but that proved not to be feasible, partly due to the Microsoft owned code mentioned above.
Serenity Systems is bundling IBM's subscription based Convenience Pack upgrades with additional functions as eComStation.
Software also exists to enable running Linux software under OS/2: XFree86-OS/2, Gimp, etc.
IBM Linux commercial. It has got Captain Cisco in it but I haven't seen it on TV with that line of commercials with him in it. I guess they've been saving it.
I figure some MS folks are on this site reading this as I smile because I'm happy to see IBMs move. The people at Microsoft do not understand that to win people over(like IBM is doing) is not by fighting and buying companies out. It's giving back to the people so they will love you for it.
Things are diffirent from the way it use to be. When you got a computer back in the old days it came with DOS of all forms. Now people that pay for a PC at Bestbuy and take it home don't know that MS is doing it not for them but only for themselfs. These people don't know that... they are blind and they don't see that there are hurting other companies. That's why I think it's good that IBM is making Linux ads.
A long time a go I didn't know of Linux, I was thinking MS as the way and the only way. There are people who never heard of Linux and from it being more a *nix makes it even better. People are able to do things that they wouldn't ever be able to do with Windows and at the same time don't have to pay for half of there server and develment tools that they will get for free. When there is a day where Microsoft plays fair that's when I'll be happy to boot up there goods. Into then Linux is the place to be...Why some may ask? It's the people that's making it better, MS don't know what we want... IBM do and there are about to start flashing the light in other people eyes. Thank you IBM and all there staff for supporting the backers of Linux right along with the Linux movement.
From Zero to Hero... Starbuck Zero
It's nice that IBM supports Linux in general, but I've said it before here, and I'll stick by it... IBM should do a Linux distro. They should probably buy RedHat, which already seems to have close ties to IBM at RTP, and the stock is cheap now anyway (and no, I'm *not* a RHAT stockholder).
:) This already happened with IBM's name on small PC's which were still seen as curiosities by management types when they first appeared years ago. Once you get this kind of acceptance, the momentum builds, more folks get involved, and things get even better.
First of all, an IBM Linux distro would become sorta like the "IBM PC" in that it would be a quasi-defacto standard that everyone rallies around, but IBM doesn't really control. This already happened with the PC. The GPL would ensure it further, and IBM's emphasis on being a *hardware* company would also help ensure it's impartiality even further. I believe IBM would be a good citizen with it's own Linux distro.
Secondly, IBM's good name would help it's acceptance with the PHB's
Finally, let's face it.... there's really only one company big enough to stand up to M$'s bullying and that's Big Blue. I'm sure some of the older OS/2 engineers at IBM don't need to be reminded about M$. Without any *major* competition, M$ will just do whatever they please. A very successful IBM Linux would keep them in line. M$ also has the advantage in that it has one standard API for developers to shoot for whereas there's still a bit of fragmentation with Linux with a variety of packages and little discrepancies. I really wouldn't mind a "defacto standard" Linux distro that an IBM could provide as long as it's GPL and open standards compliant. There would still always be specialized distros like Debian and Slackware.
They don't really seem to be promoting the "Hippie" culture beyond trying to get a sense of community. I think they are actually a decent set of ads, targeted of course mainly at IBMs customers.
--
Vidi, Vici, Veni
I wonder: the analogy to the 1960s may work, but should ex-hippies really be the target audience? Are they the ones running all the servers nowadays?
They aren't running the servers but they are the ones telling the server jockeys what to run. They are the CTOs, CIOs and CEOs. They are the ones who need to be convinced that "Linux is ready for the Enterprise" and who better to do that the the behemoth from their earlier years, IBM, the Microsoft of their generation
--
Vidi, Vici, Veni
Sounds like IBM is still sore that MS destroyed their pet operating system.
Captain Sisko was the captain on Star Trek, Deep Space 9. That thong song was done by some guy names sisqo or something.
The left hemisphere supports CPRM.
They need help.
I couldn't figure out why you said that until I saw your name :) Funny :)
Finkployd
Hey, linux is doing decently in the server market. If we want to take over the desktop market we're going to need a *LOT* of buses full of stoned penguins.
-antipop
Will televisions in the UK, France, Australia, etc. be showing the same message?
--Cycon
Your Brain + EEG + LEGO Robots = Brainstorms
IBM decided not to make their own distro because they were concerned that the community might suspect them of "stealing Linux" as the Gartner Group suggests is already happening. IBM could do this by becoming the de facto standard and then extending the standard with proprietary componants. The GPL doesn't allow such modifications to source code, but it does allow the addition of non-GPL componants as in tools and such. That's all it would take.
Besides, supporting multiple distros helps IBM market the product to fans of all the various distros, to join those companies in the IBM Partner Program, and to allow software for any of those distros to be easily ported from laptops to PC Servers, to Risc Boxes, to the AS/400 to the S/390. This helps them sell expensive hardware and keep old customers by having massive amounts of software for those systems.
Licensing schemes of IBM mainframes are annual payments for each software application or tool based on the CPU size of your mainframe. Therefore, UNIX competitors have been pulling away market share by writing applications to take over sub-tasks of the large mainframe applications, hence reducing the mainframe software licensing fees significantly. For example, a PKZIP utility for our OS/390 Mainframe costs $10,000 a year to use.
--Matthew
With ads that feature
strong 1960s-style psychedelic graphics -- a heart and a peace symbol along with Tux -- to appeal to ex-hippie baby boomers, whom IBM hopes will find the idea of a free, community-developed operating system appealing,
I wonder: the analogy to the 1960s may work, but should ex-hippies really be the target audience? Are they the ones running all the servers nowadays?
--------------------------------
"Worst Ad Campaign Ever!"
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
"Peace, Love, and Linux"?
That will go a long way to getting rid of the "hippy" stereotype that comes with GNU/Linux.
-- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
Anyone have this ad in a non-sorensen version? Preferably mpeg, but anything playable by aviplay would work...
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
I am sorry, but this is too good to be true.
What better way to promote the latest rehash of a 30-year old operating system than an ad campaign rehashing culture from 30 years ago? :)
Cheers,
Said another way...
The media/world doesn't give a shit about the goals and overall objectives that lead a man to labor year after year to ultimately bring a great system with tremendous benefit to the masses. He looks funny and speaks with a passion about deep issues, which doesn't appeal to common shallow interests, so it's ok to ignore him and ungratefully reap the fruits of his incredible efforts.
It's so much easier to (inaccrately) report what and ignore why .
PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
Great....now half of America will stop and think...Linux? Is that some kind of new Microsoft software? I am still surprised that some people don't know that you can have a PC with a non-M$ OS on it. But then again, I forgot that I was overestimating the American public's intelligence/attention span/interest in this stuff.
Personally, I doubt I'll ever see a Linux tv commercial, but we can always hope. Either that, or they should make some kind of "Tux: The Movie". Just as long as they make him as bad ass as "Feathers McGraw" (from Wallace and Gromit fame).
http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/linux/passpor t.swf
The media just isn't interested in facts. Secondhand heresay is good enough for them.
--
Soma: because a gramme is better than a damn.
This sounds exactly like Apple.
Long haired hippy freaks >>> The Linux Pimp
--It's Pimptastic!--
The CNET article said that they'd be using culturally appropriate iconography in the world-wide campaign. I.e., we'll get the four-sticks-in-a-circle peace symbol (no idea what else to call that) but other places might get doves or things like that. Marketing guys get paid the big bucks to thing of that type of thing... IBM wouldn't pull a Chevy and advertise the Nova in Latin America :)
IAAL,BIANLY
"Pull a nova" sounds like a good catch phrase to sneak into the language.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.