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Voluntary Sponsorship of Linux?

Posted by Cliff on from the pushing-penguins dept.

shift8key asks: "Last year, a friend asked me whether I would sponsor his NASCAR race car. The sponsorship came cheap and I decided to do it. Since I did not have a commercial message for my business, I had him put 'Linux.org' and a penguin on the hood. He had more inquiries about it than any other message on his car. My community phonebook called me to ask if I would repeat the message there, and I think I will do it. Have any Slashdot readers ever done any voluntary sponsorship of Linux? If so, what experiences did you have?"

59 comments

  1. Steps to succesful Linux Sponsorship by MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM · · Score: -1

    1. Microsoft advertisment on Slashdot front page.
    2. ???
    3. Profit!

  2. Targeted advertising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I love the fact that you are advertising Linux in a NASCAR race. What are you expecting an dumb redneck with missing teeth to do with Linux? Next you will introduce Linux to the elders?

    1. Re:Targeted advertising by angelo · · Score: 1

      Perhaps someone can counter with the BSD Daemon giving it to Tux. At least rednecks understand cornholing.

      --
      Lowmag.net
    2. Re:Targeted advertising by shift8key · · Score: 1

      Yes, I understand NASCAR's redneck reputation, but rednecks also buy computers, and if this message converts just one person away from using Microsoft, it will have served its purpose.

    3. Re:Targeted advertising by mjpaci · · Score: 2

      NASCAR isn't successful because of the Rednecks, it's successful despite the Rednecks. Granted, Wal-Mart and Target do target the Redneck contingent, however, there's a lot of sponsorship to go around. Bayer AG sponsers a car in the Busch league. Why would a German Pharma company sponsor a car? BECAUSE A SHITLOAD OF PEOPLE WATCH NASCAR, NOT JUST REDNECKS.

      Granted, Bayer AG has given a lot to the world: Asprin and Heroin.

    4. Re:Targeted advertising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      You are a sad, sad man. There are more important things in life than computer operating systems, you know.

      If you really want to make a difference, why not sponsor a child in some 3rd world country?

      You linux dudes need to get some perspective on the world!

    5. Re:Targeted advertising by shift8key · · Score: 1

      I also sponsor two children in Nigeria.

    6. Re:Targeted advertising by mjpaci · · Score: 2

      Meye speling sux.

    7. Re:Targeted advertising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Ok fair enough, that is very commendable. But you could have sponsored a third one if you didn't waste your time on Linux.

    8. Re:Targeted advertising by shift8key · · Score: 1

      Sure I could have, but I like to spread the little wealth I have around a bit. This PRIMARILY helps my friend who owns the car. I see your point, though: Advertising often seems so utterly wasteful. How about millions go into ads for, say, cosmetics?

    9. Re:Targeted advertising by adamjaskie · · Score: 2
      Bayer AG has given a lot to the world: Asprin and Heroin.


      Didn't they also participate in many of the experiments performed at concentration camps during the holocaust? I seem to remember hearing something of that...

      --
      /usr/games/fortune
    10. Re:Targeted advertising by cpuffer_hammer · · Score: 2

      He is helping the children by helping to build a stronger information commons. It is from that Info Commons that the real developments that will make life better come from.

    11. Re:Targeted advertising by Strog · · Score: 1

      And you could sponsor several if you weren't wasting your time. Never good enough for you is it?

    12. Re:Targeted advertising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's a little too subtle for most of the slashdot crowd, but I'd give you a +5 funny.

    13. Re:Targeted advertising by SN74S181 · · Score: 1

      And the Kinsey Institute performed sexual-response experiments on young boys that basically involved forced masturbation. In several instances of published 'experiment' reports, it's clear that crying young boys were 'manipulated' for hours.

      And it gets published as 'science' every day. Liberals defend the Kinsey Institute virulently.

      I'm not excusing what Bayer did during the Holocaust. I'm just saying 'look further, at what organizations closer to home have done.'

    14. Re:Targeted advertising by clearcache · · Score: 1

      Yep - I didn't pay much attention to NASCAR until my younger brother started running a car in a regional division. (Since they are much more affordable, sponsoring those cars is a LOT cheaper.) But, once I started attending each race and spending time in the pits, I realized 2 things:

      1) it's NOT just rednecks...it's also a hobby for doctors, lawyers, etc who happen to enjoy going fast

      2) there's a lot of science that goes into setting up a car correctly...sure, at some of the lower levels, it's not really paid attention to all that much...but at the Winston Cup and Busch levels, it is.

      To hear my not-so-technically inclined younger brother talk about diminishing his rotational mass in his transmission by taking out gears that he didn't use...and for him to grasp the concept of cross-weights and the various modifications that can be made to help a car better grip the track...that's when I really developed an appreciation for it. There's more to it than just rednecks going around in circles.

    15. Re:Targeted advertising by vrt3 · · Score: 2

      Bayer also supplied a lot of the toxic gasses the Germans used in WW I.

      --
      This sig under construction. Please check back later.
    16. Re:Targeted advertising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This comming from someone who does not know when to use "a" and "an."

    17. Re:Targeted advertising by vidnet · · Score: 1

      If You linux dudes imply that you're using Windows, then how come you didn't sponsor a few kids in some third world country instead of feeding the money to Microsoft?

    18. Re:Targeted advertising by dohcvtec · · Score: 1
      NASCAR isn't successful because of the Rednecks

      So, what are you saying? That NASCAR is successful, not because of the rednecks, but because of the country club set? And despite the rednecks? What are you saying, that the rednecks have tried to stop NASCAR? Nothing could be further from the truth. NASCAR has a predominantly blue-collar fanbase. NASCAR is successful due to the huge quantities of loud, brightly-colored, cheaply-made, but high-priced T-shirts sold. However, you are correct in your assertion that Bayer is a sponsor simply for the mass exposure.
      --
      -- Never hit a man with glasses. Hit him with a baseball bat.
    19. Re:Targeted advertising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      more people watch nascar than ANY other sport

      it has the largest draw than any other spectator sport. that includes football, soccer, etc

    20. Re:Targeted advertising by tubabeat · · Score: 1

      If you really want to make a difference, why not sponsor a child in some 3rd world country?

      Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favour of helping the third world, but sponsoring children is not the best way to go about it. There are a number of problems...

      1) Many groups (for example, hunter gatherer groups) exist on a communal basis, sharing the food they gather (or hunt...) and working together for the common good. Sponsoring a child in one of these communities can make one family materially better off than the others and this can cause a breakdown of their community.
      2) The groups promoting this child sponsorship are often missionary organisations (although they are not always keen on presenting this in their publicity). There is therefore an incentive for familys to 'embrace' Christianity in order to gain sponsorship. This destroys traditional religion & community identity. You may feel that promoting Christianity is a good thing, but ask yourself whether bribary is a 'Christian way' to go about it.
      3) We (as a western society) are vulnerable to images of suffering children. But it is the communities that need our help, so they can provide for their own children. We also should be careful not to send the message to these desperate people that it is necessary to have a child to get help.

      This information is not based on journalism or conjecture but based on a report (I think by a UN body or something similar) about the activities of such charities, notably World Vision, in the Amazon area.

      I would encourage you to make whatever contributions you can to help people in desperate circumstances (in your own country or abroad) but please target your donations carefully.

      This is not a troll.

      --
      "Linux is a serious competitor"
      - Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Microsoft Corp.
    21. Re:Targeted advertising by mjpaci · · Score: 2

      Not all blue-collar folks are Rednecks. Despite the fact that a lot of Rednecks watch NASCAR and a lot of people make fun of Rednecks, NASCAR is still the most watched sport in the USA. NASCAR wouldn't be as successful if ONLY Rednecks watched it.

      The one race I did go to (Busch series in NH), I was a guest of Bayer and had a grand old time. I would wager that only about 70% of the people there were blue-collar and only half of them could be considered REDNECKS. So, if only the REDNECKS showed up, then the place would've been 35% filled.

      --Mike

  3. Wow! by Wuukie · · Score: 3, Funny

    A real-life TuxRacer! Nice!

  4. ..... and no Tux Racer??? by Gruturo · · Score: 2

    subject says it all

    --

    Vacuum cleaners suck. Kings rule.
  5. awesome! by Hadlock · · Score: 3, Interesting

    i guess the important question everyone wants to know is...

    how much is "fairly cheap" sponsorship?

    --
    moox. for a new generation.
    1. Re:awesome! by shift8key · · Score: 1

      $300.00

    2. Re:awesome! by Hadlock · · Score: 1

      where do i sign up? what size logo exactly do you get? 4"x12" is what i'm thinking. i don't watch a whole lot of NASCAR, but that seems like the smallest logical size, situated somewhere around the exhaust tip near the front of the rear wheel.

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
    3. Re:awesome! by shift8key · · Score: 1

      Hard to say where to sign up -- I do not know that much about NASCAR. My friend's car runs in a small regional division, not on major televised races. If you really want to do this, just visit your nearest track -- car owners will fall all over you when they find out that you want to sponsor a car. As to the size, we used an enlarged penguin on the entire hood. Looks very nice.

    4. Re:awesome! by Arminius · · Score: 1

      My best friend's dad fields a Bush series race car. A couple of years ago he told me he needs at least 50k a race from a sponsor (teams in Bush and Winston Cup spend at least 10k a race on tires). I wonder if any teams have approached Red Hat or simular large Linux companies for sponsorship for even one big race?

      --

      ------
      Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
    5. Re:awesome! by oyenstikker · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't think NASCAR fans are really RedHat's target audience. Formula 1 or CART would probably be a better bet.

      --
      The masses are the crack whores of religion.
    6. Re:awesome! by dohcvtec · · Score: 1

      This is essentially unrelated to Linux, but Sun, HP, IBM/Catia, SAP, AMD, and many other big players sponsor F1 and CART.

      --
      -- Never hit a man with glasses. Hit him with a baseball bat.
  6. photo of car by stevef · · Score: 1

    Any chance you could make a photo of the car available?

    Steve

    1. Re:photo of car by shift8key · · Score: 1

      Working on it. Perhaps I should have spent the money on a better digital camera???

    2. Re:photo of car by Webmoth · · Score: 2

      Just don't post the link here... unless you want to get slashdotted!

      --
      Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
  7. Now that's what I call a FAST penguin by Tux2000 · · Score: 1

    Anyone with a faster penguin ? Perhaps a Tux sticker on the NASA space shuttle ?

    Tux2000

    --
    Denken hilft.
    1. Re:Now that's what I call a FAST penguin by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 2

      Now that there is to be a commercial moon mission, you might be able to get a sticker there...

      While NASA would appreciate more funding, I don't think they want to scrape charred sticker remains off the shuttle after each mission. :)

      --
      That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
  8. How pointless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Linux is dead in the water, guys. Get over it and move on.

  9. just by Assanka · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Just because people drive cars does not limit there ability to use a decent os I refere to linuyx and decent by talking about slack or debian anything else I consider to be puiny and not worth while , People do not percieve your inteelegence based on your job you should not do the same , Unfortunatly no I have never done any voluntary promotoing with the use of linux but would like to in the future ,

    1. Re:just by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      However, you perceive people's intelligence/worth as based on the operating system they use. Which is an even worse measure of it than their job.

      Like I said above, you linux dudes need to get some perspective on the world.

  10. Linux Fish by mshiltonj · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have a Linux Fish on my car. Does that count?

    --
    Software Wars
    1. Re:Linux Fish by shift8key · · Score: 1

      Yes, it definitely does. It also helped thinkgeek.com, because I just ordered one for my car. What experience did you have with the fish? Has anyone asked you about it?

    2. Re:Linux Fish by Universal+Nerd · · Score: 1

      I've got a GNU sticker on my car, it looks like one of the european national stickers.

      Everywhere I go people ask me about it. Once in a while a Linux user comes up to me and asks about it and I point them to Thinkgeek (where I bought it). Now there are at least 3 cars around town with GNU stickers - it's kinda nice to be part of such a silly thing.

      --
      Ash nazg durbatuluk, ash nazg gimbatul Ash nazg thrakatuluk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul
    3. Re:Linux Fish by Brandon+T. · · Score: 2, Funny

      I've had one on my car for about 3 months now, and I haven't received a single inquiry yet. I do like to get in front of people with various jesus fish on the back of their cars in hopes that I either confuse them or piss them off :)

    4. Re:Linux Fish by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I have had a Linux Fish (from TG) on my VW Scirocco for some time now.

      That and my slashdot.org sticker.

      Few people have asked about it. But I do enjoy pulling in
      front of the Jesus and Darwin fish people too. :>

      Most people assume it is a Jesus fish and ask about it.

  11. And the Car Number/Driver? by Timinithis · · Score: 2

    Its really hard to see all the logos on cars going 180+ MPH. What is the car and who is the driver? I'll also ask you to define "Fairly Cheap", someone already has, but if you see it here first...

    --
    Sig? What's a Sig?
    1. Re:And the Car Number/Driver? by shift8key · · Score: 1

      First, this car races at a small regional track. $300 bought me the hood for one year. Whenever a car has a problem or spins out or whatever can happen, these cars go very slowly around the track and one can see the penguin extremely well.

    2. Re:And the Car Number/Driver? by HughsOnFirst · · Score: 2

      This reminds me of the welding shop ( think roll cages ) that used to paint their sign on the bottom of the cars they sponsored at a local oval track when I was a kid. Made a great impression every time there was picture in the paper showing the bottom of a car crashing end over end.

  12. I have! by Hell+O'World · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Have any Slashdot readers ever done any voluntary sponsorship of Linux?"
    I like to go around town with spraypaint and write EAT MORE LINUX on peoples cars. Then I lie in the gutter and twitch, and yell at people about how stupid they are for supporting the Evil M$ Empire.

  13. Sales calls by kawika · · Score: 1

    My community phonebook called me to ask if I would repeat the message there...

    I would suspect it's not because they love Linux though. Anyone who considers sponsoring a NASCAR race car as "cheap" is a great person for salescritters to contact for other advertising opportunities. BTW, if you want to place banner ads on my site I'll give you a great $25 CPM for 10 million of them.

    1. Re:Sales calls by shift8key · · Score: 1

      Correct, clearly not becuase they love Linux, in fact, I do not believe that the woman who does it even knows. Still, sponsorship of Linux gives me the opportunity to support my local phonebook, which did not publish last year because of lack of ads. This all works on a VERY SMALL scale, and $400 gets me the backpage (the best page) on the book.

  14. Pictures by cyber_rigger · · Score: 1

    We want race car pictures, please.

  15. NASCAR? Fantastic! by vasah20 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Every driver should do this, since we all know that Linux never crashes. ;)

  16. NASCAR is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    It is official; the FIA confirms: NASCAR is dying
    One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered NASCAR community when the FIA confirmed that NASCAR market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all viewers. Coming on the heels of a recent survey which plainly states that NASCAR has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. NASCAR is collapsing in complete disarray.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict NASCAR's future. The hand writing is on the wall: NASCAR faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for NASCAR because NASCAR is dying. Things are looking very bad for NASCAR. As many of us are already aware, NASCAR continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

    All major surveys show that NASCAR has steadily declined in market share. NASCAR is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If NASCAR is to survive at all it will be among racing dilettante dabblers. NASCAR continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, NASCAR is dead.

    Fact: NASCAR is dying

  17. Really help the children. by kawika · · Score: 2

    We could stop sending our toxic computer waste to their countries. We could stop quietly condoning their use of child labor in sweatshop conditions. They could use food, water, shelter.

    Even this guy had something sane to say about it, can you guess his name before you follow the link?

    Do people have any concept of what it means to live on less than a dollar a day? There's no electricity. Do they have PCs that don't use electricity?"

  18. heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good one. (Here's what it's based on, btw.)

  19. Tagging by chizzad · · Score: 1

    I tag sidewalks with Peace Love Linux.
    hehe

    --

    Don't write in this space.
    OK
    1. Re:Tagging by smoondog · · Score: 2

      IBM did this here in San Francisco. And got in trouble
      The fact that they were essentially permanent didn't help either.

      -Sean

  20. Comming? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    This comming from someone who does not know when to use "a" and "an."

    This coming from someone who doesn't know how to spell "coming"?