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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."

9 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.

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    -- john
  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.

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      For more information, click here.
  4. 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"

  5. 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!
  6. 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.

  7. 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.