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Firefox New York Times Ad Hits the Presses

Posted by michael on from the extra-extra dept.

Dave writes "The long awaited New York Times ad for Firefox has finally hit the presses. Because of the vast number of donations the ad covered two pages of the newspaper. It's being timed to coincide with 11 million downloads."

14 of 721 comments (clear)

  1. Higher resolution image? by gimpboy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Does anyone have a higher resolution image so I can actually read the names.

    --
    -- john
    1. Re:Higher resolution image? by sfraggle · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I notice the names in the ad are listed in alphabetical order, despite the fact that the FAQ for the Ad said they would be listed in random order. Some people even paid extra to be listed in their own area - but in the end it looks like the designers of the Ad ignored this. Am I wrong about this? Can anyone explain?

      --
      were you expecting to see a sig here? perhaps you'd rather see the inside of an ambulance!
    2. Re:Higher resolution image? by otisaardvark · · Score: 3, Interesting

      On a more interesting note, I couldn't find many of the big 'known names' in the FLOSS world. OK, my search was rather quick and dirty, but I couldn't find RMS/Perens/ESR/Moglen/Lessig etc...

      Maybe they realised that trying to outcompete Microsoft when it comes to traditional advertising is hard? That evangelism has a far higher return?

      Of course, it might just be that the reason they all like FLOSS is because they are stingy ;-)

  2. Cheers! by orevo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It'll be interesting to see exactly how much this (wonderfully designed) ad will affect the number of downloads over the next few days. Here's to hoping this makes a difference with all the Joe User's out there.

    1. Re:Cheers! by tgd · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The question is, whats the penetration of awareness of Firefox already among the particular demographic that actually reads the NY Times outside of the NY area.

      I'd bet a large percentage of people likely to see the ad already are familiar with Firefox, considering how much media attention its gotten in magazines, NPR, etc over the last few months.

      This strikes me as more of a vanity move than a real marketing move. If the intent was to increase browser awareness, the NYT isn't the place to advertise it. People Magazine is, or the Enquirer, or other demographically focused rags like that which target demographics less likely to already be aware of Firefox.

  3. I wonder if M$ will reply... by Mondongo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One has to wonder, will 'Monkey' Ballmer and his gang of miscreants reply to this? Will we see a big 'IE. Get with the program.' on the next days? They cannot let this stand...

    j.

    1. Re:I wonder if M$ will reply... by generic-man · · Score: 5, Interesting

      In 1995, IBM took out a four-page ad in the New York Times the day Windows 95 came out. It read, to start, "Pay No Attention to the OS Behind the Curtain." In four pages of graphics and text, IBM pointed out how OS/2 was so much better than Windows 95 would ever be.

      Being a big OS/2 advocate at the time (really) I was overjoyed by the ad. Microsoft never formally refuted the ad, and we all know how successful OS/2 would go on to be in the marketplace.

      --
      For more information, click here.
  4. What happened to a little heads up? by datbox · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I can't get to the spreadfirefox.com site (damn /.) but from the summary, it sounds like the ad went out today. I thought we (donaters) were supposed to get a little pre-warning before it went out so we could actually head out and buy the paper.

    Argh.

    1. Re:What happened to a little heads up? by jimwelch · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They found out they could save a lot of money, by giving the paper permission to print during a range of days (space available basis). They paper would give them only a short notice (12 hrs?) that they placed it.
      Sorry for lack of details, I going from memory due to /. effect.

      --
      Never trust a man wearing a coat and tie!
  5. Security Question by kunsan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What effect will Firefox's growing poularity have on its future vis-a-vis security? Does it become a more inviting target for malicious coders? Do any of you out there know if Firefox is written well enough to withstand such attention? I've been using Firefox since V.08. and I have watched with growing concern as its popularity has increased. Wether justified or not, I felt a little safer with this browser when less people were using it.

    Regards,
    JP

    --
    The facts expressed here belong to all, the opinions to me. The distinction between fact and opinion is yours to decide.
  6. The ad should highlight security concerns by cparisi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Most of the readers will be unaware that Firefox does not suffer from the security problems that IE does. They may simply answer the question: "Are you fed up with your web browser?" with: "Nope. works fine"

  7. Patching system by Grrreat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Mozilla needs a better way to get updates to Administrators. I love the product and use it all the time at home and work. I also mention it every chance I get. But it needs a way to get patches installed, instead of reloading the whole product or figuring out what files need replaced with a folder compare. What say ye!

  8. What's the marketing campaign by Lord+Brandon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While this ad is ok, I have ask what do the second, third and fourth advertisement look like? When will they run? How long will they run?

    In order to market this product, perhaps a long term campaign that stresses all the ways Firefox will make interent browsing easier would be good.

    One ad can simply state: "No pop up ads. EVER" with the firefox logo and link to download it. Another ad could highlight the best, most useful extensions. I think the weather update/forecast extension would be perfect for this.

    Also: Are there ANY ads appearing on the NYT website, or any other high traffice website? This would make it easy to download the program.

  9. Much wider exposure by TransmissionX · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why not create a webpage with black and white ads for firefox in various sizes in PDF format. Then start a grassroots campaign where people inclined to donate could use those PDF files to take out small ads in local newspapers across the country. Prices of course vary but small black and white ads can be quite affordable for small newspapers which reach only a few thousand readers. I think such a campaign could dramatically increase exposure. ...just an idea.