Top 10 Most Memorable Tech Super Bowl Ads

theodp writes "From 1977's lovable Xeroxing Monk to 2007's smug-and-rich SalesGenie pitch man, Valleywag has rounded up videos for its Top 10 most memorable tech-oriented Super Bowl commercials. The commercials are: Apple (1984), Monster (1999), CareerBuilder (2005), GoDaddy (2005), Xerox (1977), E*Trade (1999), Pets.com (2000), Computer.com (2000), SalesGenie.com (2007) and OurBeginning (2000). This year's ads are coming soon." I've always been a fan of the Outpost.com gerbil cannon spot.

Comments

digg?

[loconet]

/me checks the URL. Yes, it says slashdot.org . wtf is going on? I'm scared.

Re:digg?

[sqrt(2)]

Hey, I'm a nerd AND I like football. Go figure.

But anyway, this is scaring me. Why is slashdot trying to copy and compete with the likes of Digg? I come here because this place is DIFFERENT, the discourse is often intelligent and insightful. If I wanted mindless links to ads, Ron Paul you tube videos, and funny pictures I wouldn't be on a site that purports to cover "News for Nerds".

Re:digg?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a former jock and I don't give a damn about professional sports. What the hell do I care about some massive corporation pitting its employees against each other in arenas that were subsidized by tax payers? You might as well be rooting for coke versus pepsi. Incredibly retarded, but I guess sports suits the goal of placating and soothing the masses so they don't have time or energy to care about important things that are affecting them.

Re:digg?

[astrosmash]

Well, using the dark "Slashdot" green background for the entire story description is a little much.

But I really like the updated layout. They're no longer wasting valuable real estate on the pointless left-hand column.

Re:digg?

[rossz]

I'd moderate you up, but I don't have any points at the moment.

The millionaires who demand subsidies to build stadiums or they'll move their team elsewhere insisted that their sporting events helped the local economy by bringing in tax revenues. The first baseball strike proved what a lie that was. What actually happened was people did other things in their cities. They went to dinner and a movie or the theater, etc. They spent roughly the same amount of money except they spread it across multiple businesses instead of only at the stadium. This was actually BETTER for the local economy. More businesses benefited and the tax revenues were often bigger because the professional sports team often received a tax break to stay in town.

Screw professional sports. The next time one demands the taxpayer's cough up money or they'll walk, show them the door.

Re:digg?

[sqrt(2)]

Of course there are trolls. You're going to deal with people like that everywhere you go, on and offline (They're just more prevalent and egregious when they have anonymity). I've read genuinely interesting and informative posts too, and they usually out number the people that are just making noise.

Re:digg?

[AmaDaden]

Why is slashdot trying to copy and compete with the likes of Digg?

Why shouldn't it? The core of Slashdot is and always will be the same. Adding more on the edges (the Idle section) is unlikely to effect that. As for the layout if the site that is known to be 'news for nerds' fell behind tech wise it would be a laughing stock. They need to try new things every so often. If no one likes it they will go back to the old design.

Side note: Scrolling in this new comment system does suck. Go in to Prefs and turn off "Enable Dynamic Discussions" for a speed boost.

This new look...

[Anonymous Coward]

Is just horrible: Don't go the same way as Digg, or you'll also start attracting the same crowd. I don't need pictures of the movie: If I'm interested enough, I'll click the freaking link...

Re:This new look...

[jmv]

If I'm interested enough, I'll click the freaking link...

I'm sorry, this is against the Slashdot terms of conduct.

You would think...

[computerman413]

That Slashdot would bother to announce a major change to its layout. I don't like it any more than I like the new discussion system.

Re:You would think...

[VultureMN]

If only they had some way to post articles about the changes...

errr.....

[Anonymous Coward]

I preferred the ponies.

Idle

[icegreentea]

Apparently Slashdot now has a section specifically for nonsensible and pointless articles. And they even made it look like digg!

Re:Idle

[Planky]

It's just an idle dig at Digg...

oh my god

[hav0x]

the goggles! they do nothing!

wait a second...

[hjf]

I thought I read "tech-oriented"? Then why the hell is Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, SalesGenie.com and *gasp* OurBeginnings.com in that list? Everything with ".com" in the name is "tech-oriented" now? Sheesh.

Grumpy old men...

[adam]

Damn kids, get off my lawn!

Jeeeeez people, calm down. As of composing this, about 75% of the comments are complaining of digg similarities, the new discussion system, blah blah. Calm down, people.. it's still slashdot. As best I can tell, they've just debuted a new section (idle.slashdot). You can still post your retarded memes (In soviet Russia our new CSS web 2.0 overlords welcome I, for one), and otherwise go about your typical slashdot business.

Back to the actual article.. I'd never heard of computer.com.. I guess it would help if I watched the superbowl.. but, yea, I don't. After viewing all the ads in TFA, some are decent (and I've seen re-run later), and some aren't terribly memorable (the salesgenie ad looks like something a 12 year old kid could storyboard in about an hour). Most of the dotcom ads are from companies I'm aware of (monster, pets.com, etc), although I never heard of computer.com or ourbeginning.com.

I tried to do some research on computer.com to see what its story was (currently a doorway page for a linkfarm).. and as best I can tell, it burned out right away (Seattle PI story from 2yrs later). (They raised $6M+ in venture funding, and blew $3M on the superbowl ads). There's even a 3yr old /. story that has computer.com in the comments, but TFA doesn't seem to mention computer.com directly (and the linked "video dot-bombs" from TFA doesn't seem to work for me). I'm curious if anyone here knows the full story?

I can't filter idle?

[Night Goat]

So when is Slashdot going to let me start filtering out all idle.slashdot.org articles? This is not good, Digg is not something to emulate.