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Firefox Promo Videos
sebFlyte writes "Last week Mozilla Europe launched some extremely funny promotional videos for Firefox and ZDNet is reporting that they're spreading across the net like wildfire." From the article: "This is just the beginning -- I only posted it on my personal blog and it's already spreading nicely...We wanted to start small as we were concerned that servers wouldn't be able to handle the load."
"we were concerned that servers wouldn't be able to handle the load" -> Slashdotted already. :(
Wasn't porn the whole reason that people wanted a better web browser in the first place?
When I first glanced at this story I thought it said Firefox porno videos. Hot browser sex! IE and Foxy FF go on safari!
The days of the digital watch are numbered.
We wanted to start small as we were concerned that servers wouldn't be able to handle the load.
Welcome to slashdot. Now it's spreading like the fire inside the case of your webserver.
A lot of the older generation has no idea what ActiveX is, how harmful it can be... it would be swell to see Firefox maybe try to get the attention of more casual, not-so-savvy PC users.
...both interiorlly, and exteriorlly.
"We wanted to start small as we were concerned that servers wouldn't be able to handle the load."
I'm sure a post to Slashdot is going to help.
A treat to eat, in a puppet that's neat!
Mentioning "video" without the subsequent "torrent link" is asking for trouble.
404 - Funny not found
I couldn't get the videos to work in Firefox 1.0.4 (with Flashblock installed). I clicked on the Flashblock "play" button, but then got only audio, no video. I had to open the page in IE to see them. Oh the humanity.
-gary
The adverts are certainly cool, I enjoyed watching them.
BUT, although they mention FireFox, they don't give much clue as to what it does, other than "it's something to do with computers".
I can't see this converting anyone.
Sure, there is a link to download FF at the end, but users these days really should be discouraged from downloading something just because "the advertiser says so". Aren't we working against that culture?
I really think the adverts need to make more noise about what firefox is and does.
Yeah... ok. So I guess a few kiddies might get a kick out of it.
Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
This is screaming at the top of its lungs for a bittorrent
Want to see every step I took to start my company? http://www.rowdylabs.com/blogs/pitchtothegods
sorry - that sounded a bit harsh. I think it's great that people are trying to promote FF.
I just don't feel the "blank and mysterious" adverts of the dot-com-bubble era are the right way to do it.
See - this just goes to show: popularity is bad!
I always knew it was best to toil in obscurity!
air and light and time and space
http://funnyfox.org.nyud.net:8090/
Which loads fine for me, but the Flash animations just show "-21474..." or something in the middle of a black empty rectangle. I wonder if the .swf file is trying to request another resource on the funnyfox.org server? Instead of using a relative URL?
Dr Superlove 300ml. I use my powers for awesome
Yawn.
/Firefox user on PC; Safari on Mac
I watched these movies a few days back, and found them amusing, but I didn't understand their message. Are they suggesting that using e.g. IE is so devastating to the user that his head will pop off? Or is using Firefox so horrible that he scream in horror? Or are these good things, to show how remarkably different Firefox is from the competition?
Cute videos, but I have no idea what they're trying to communicate.
ShoutingMan.com
http://mozilla.mirrors.tds.net/mozilla-video//port able1.swf
n e1.swf
e au1.swf
http://mozilla.mirrors.tds.net/mozilla-video//jeu
http://mozilla.mirrors.tds.net/mozilla-video//bur
I don't see the hype. They were vaguely amusing at best, certainly not the hilarity people are talking about. I suspect it's just the novelty of seeing a fairly polished video advert for an open-source project that is impressing people. Really, if they were promoting any other product, would people even bother talking about it?
Interesting, I didn't even get them knowing what Firefox is. At best, they are lame. As this is only one person's opinion, take it with a grain of salt of course.
"Truth is not decided by majority vote" consensus gentium -- Norman Geisler
Is it just me or does firefox seem to get promoted/mentioned by Slashdot everyday?
So does MSFT, now that you mention it.
Why oh why do they insist on discussing web browsers when we're just trying to upgrade our web browsers?
Um, irony, this is earth, we have another post.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Overall, I was impressed. Technical slashdotters, please elaborate. Thanx.
FirefoXXX
The key to Firefox reaching the masses it to appeal to the lowest common denominators: sex and fear. You can sell it via fear, by touting better security (there's not a lot in the mainstream press to prove that to the average Joe, but...).
With sex, you could set Beyonce aka Foxy Cleopatra to do a commerical. Get it, "Foxy"? Maybe OG Pam "Foxy Brown" Grier?
Or maybe a sexy anthropomorphic cartoon lady fox? Eh? Maybe? A sexy cartoon lady fox would be better than the "non-anthropomorphic fox soul-kissing the earth" which is what the logo looks like now. (That comment just bough me a Score of -1)
they don't give much clue as to what it does
That's not neccesarily a bad thing. It's an old advertising trick to deliberately miss out some information in order to stimulate curiosity.
Admittedly, this could be leaving out too much.
I think what this might do it hurry those who do know what firefox is into getting round to trying it. I know I would if it made me eat telephones.
-- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz
They're trying to keep the Google:Firefox ratio ar 1:1.
Ahh yes...the things porn leads us to learn about computers....
- Mastering file/directory filesystems.
- Encryption
- Clearing recently used documents
- Splitting partitions (What's this K: drive, Jimmy?)
- Writing filename obfusactors (using a password as an encryption seed no-less!)
- Wiping all trails of browsing for a day, cookies, cache, history, etc..
- Keyboard shortcuts like Alt+Tab, Alt+Space, N, Win+D, Alt+F4.
- Tabbed browsing, sweet sweet tabbed browsing.
- Popup blockers, minimizing your pr0n is useless when HOT YOUNG TEEN VIRGINS banners popup afterwards!
- Back when those XXX password sites actually WORKED! (AdultChecks/AdultBouncers were easy to come by!)
- Going on IRC to find those FTP servers and/or DCC bots with 5 to 1 ratios ! 4300 cps baby!
This is just off the top of my head too...seriously.
Looks like you don't know much about marketing. You don't want to give the viewer much clue as to what something does. If you say up front "It's a web browser", people will think "oh ok i already have one, goodbye". If you make them think "what the hell is firefox?", they will click on the link and read the sales pitch on firefox.org (and quite likely download and try it). Much more effective.
Stupid modern marketing and going for shock value instead of features. The notebook and office ones do not even show Firefox, aside from the link at the end. Oh ya, some rediculously stupid ad for it is going to intrigue me into downloading something.
Feel/Taste/See the difference? TASTE? These are some of the worst "ads" I have ever seen.
Ive setup a mirror here, with the actual .swf files.
http://www.kore-net.com/funnyfox/
Personally, I just made a switch from IE to Firefox. I like FF a lot, it reminds me of Safari. I use to have a G4 and I fell in love with the Safari browser. I later sold my G4 and went a long time without a computer. I'm a PC tech, and I need to hate having PC's at home b/c all I do is work on them. Now I have a 75% built windows machine to surf the web and run Doom3. Other than that I don't use my PC.
My thoughts are though, since Billy has up'd the release of IE 7, I am sure he is going to make it a FF killer. I'm positive things like tabbed browsing and some other goodies are going to be in the new version. In addition, I wonder if Microsoft may use some of the same marketing ideas that FF is now using? MS is already showing the new Xbox 360 on MTV, could we see similar things with the new flavor of IE? Maybe they will reinvent their paradigm and try to reach users who have switched to FF and bring them back to the dark side?
Every great journey begins with the first step.
"Extremely funny". Who checks this crap?
Extremely lame. It's like they thought, "Hey, let's get CRAZY!!" then they forgot where they were going with it.
Let's get CRAZY!! WHOO! now we're all CRAZY!! Now what? Oh I know! Let's end here!
Hey! Know what'll *really* slay 'em? She takes a BITE out of her CELL PHONE, and DOESN'T EVEN REALIZE!! How CRAZY is that?! Whoo!
You mean like this one?
Only a pr0n surfer would say that the letter N is a left-handed keystroke.
I agree with you totally. In fact, I know what firefox does - use it every day - but I am mystified by these ads. For example, are the people in the ads screaming and having their heads blown off because they just tried firefox and think it is the coolest thing since sliced bread? Or are they using IE and so totally annoyed at it they loose all semblance of sanity? Personally, I haven't a clue.
Download my free songs!
Pornzilla ;o)
...Rob
The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
I'm sorry. You don't deserve proper grammar. Now go chew on a log, fuckface.
click me
These were deemed too unsavory
Bedroom
Late night, guy surfing, withthe only illumination coming from the screen. Moaning noises coming from the computer (pr0n implied). Closes with 'touch the difference'
Bathroom
Woman, seated, gets this bug-eye expression while scribbling with her stylus. Ends with 'smell the difference'
You know, I totally agree. The promised "funny"-ness of the videos also left to be desired. For example, I watched the videos while at work and I didn't laugh once. However, listening to a sound bite from Cadyshack (specifically when the groundskeeper tells Bill Murray to kill all the golfers) made me blow chunks of candy shell and chocolate along with water on my laptop screen in the middle of a serious database discussion.
Now, more to your point sir, I think these would be more informative:
Show a split screen: Internet Explorer on the Right and Firefox on the left. pan back to show the users: A grandma on the left and a geeky bill gates look-alike on the right. Put a big word on the screen (like volcano) and a countdown 3... 2... 1... GO! Then the grandma and the geek start browsing the web for volcanos using their respective browsers. Show how easily Control Click and tab navigation coupled with the smooth popup blocker and the search engine at the top right lead to results. Also show how the internet explorer user is stuck in a sea of popups and gets malware installed on his computer so it runs slower and has to go to the task bar to navigate through all the pages he's opened and keeps having to install search bar helpers or go to different websites to search for everything. Grandma wins, and a firefox pounces in between them and puts her hand up boxing style. Now that's entertainment.
These ads are just NOT funny.. frankly, they suck!
where is the connection to Firefox in any of these ads?
Perhaps I just have no sense of humor. I came away scratching my head and saying "huh?"
These guys clearly either haven't really done much work in advertising... or else they have, and failed miserably.
What must be the number one problem with a lot of advertisements over the past couple of years, especially for new products, is that the advertisers spend too much time being weird, funky, shocking, and funny, and COMPLETELY FORGET ABOUT THE FRICKIN' PRODUCT.
At any given moment I can rattle off a commercial I've seen whose content really stuck with me, but I couldn't for the life of me tell you what the hell they were advertising.
Like that Dodge Ram commercial where the middle aged guy is making the two salespeople turn the truck back and forth.
Wait a minute, that's not a Dodge Ram commercial at all, it's a Vehix commercial. Well, at least we were close with this one, it's car related somehow.
Or what about those commercials about the company with the tech support department that is so good it can tell you if something is funny? Wait, that's for TBS. Who doesn't actually provide that service at all.
And these ones are for that website thats so crazy and shocking that it makes your head explode. Right?
These ads don't say anything - I mean, nothing at all - about what's good about Firefox. All they say is that it'll make you scream, or decapitate you. A little balance with some message of benefit might help.
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
Show the guy in the office again but this time show him surfing using IE. Then show him hitting a malware page that replicates a virus to his computer , the virus while running also plays an audio clip "You have been infected by GayPornLover.exe, Internet Explorer victims are so easy!" Now have him screaming over that while in the background you see all of the other networked computers in his entire building catch the same virus from him as the building begins to crack and crumble to the ground. Have him still screaming while the entire building breaks up and falls to the ground, him included. Flash forward to the guy in a full body cast in the hospital, 1 leg up, where he says: "My company would still exist today if I had only used Firefox." The existing ads are crap BTW, not funny, not even interesting. They are just dumb.
LeoPolus Web Design: http://www.leopolus.com
You might be interested in this spot. Made by a student no less.. htm
http://studentpages.scad.edu/~eedwar21/firefoxweb
Nope, you have a sense of humor (I remember).. These ads just sucked.
..Jeff Keegan
seven syllables explain TiVo: kee gan dot org slash ti vo