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Microsoft Paid NFL $400 Million To Use Surface, But Announcers Call Them iPads
mpicpp sends this news from Business Insider:
Prior to the season, Microsoft and the NFL struck a 5-year, $400 million deal with one of the major components being that the Microsoft Surface would become "the official tablet of the NFL," with coaches and players using the Surface on the sidelines during games. But Microsoft and the league ran into a problem during week one of the season when at least two television announcers mistakenly referred to the tablets as iPads, giving a huge rival some unexpected exposure. The biggest blunder for the league came during the nationally televised Monday Night Football game when ESPN's Trent Dilfer joked about how long it took Cardinals assistant head coach Tom Moore to "learn how to use the iPad to scroll through the pictures." In a separate incident, Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints was spotted by Fox commentator John Lynch using a Surface on the sideline. Lynch remarked that Brees was "not watching movies on his iPad.
That's rich.
...Steve
and a lot of the Announcers are former players
That's nothing, I keep posting about the iPhone 6 on Facebook and people continually refer to it as the Nexus 5! Joke's on them.
To be fair, have you listened to some of what NFL announcers say these days? Most of it is pretty damn stupid, even when they're keeping their remarks to football. I consider it lucky if they can tell the difference between a run play and a pass play...telling the difference between 2 gadgets? Nope.
Am I the only person here who thinks MS are nuts for having paid so much for a product placement. Surely $400,000,000 could have been better spent through other advertising methods. $400m seems like at least 10x too much.
They expected that product placement would lead to millions of extra sales of an expensive item!!!
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
Do they wipe the screens of their ipads with kleenexes and q-tips, which they keep with the band-aids and aspirin next to a refrigerator full of cokes, in the room where they make xeroxes, next to the escalator?
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
The last thing Apple wants is for any tablet to be identified as and referred to as an iPad. For their laptops, you get the huge light up apple logo to make sure everyone looking at you knows just what you're using.
The last thing Apple's marketing office will want is for anyone who sees a tablet to refer to it as an iPad. I don't see the name become generic at any point soon, but it's a big fear of many companies. With Apple so reliant on branding and recognition I'd expect them to be more concerned than most.
Hate them or love them, apple has done an incredible job of making themselves the de facto device in several categories. Certainly most slashdotters know the broad categories of tech, but for most people they just know the most discussed one or two. Apple fanboys are still making themselves heard.
So if Apple do not challenge this or complain to the NFL, does that mean they risk losing their trademark protection for the term iPad under genericised trademark rules because, as demonstrated by these people using the term, it can be shown that it has come to mean "a tablet computing device"?
$400 million.
Just to have the NFL officially use your brand of tablet.
No advertising seconds, no "official phone", "official supplier" or anything, just "official tablet".
Tens of thousands of times more money than the vast majority of us will ever have at one point.
For just one sports league.
Take a moment to think about that.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
living in Atlanta I've watched some of hbo's behind the scenes training camp series since it's about the Falcons this year & Mike Smith (head coach) told the players to review the material on their iPads in his post game locker room speech. they didn't really have a good angle/shot of them so it never donned on me that they might not actually be iPads...
funny anecdote: I got the kids Touches for making straight As all yr & after fighting through the crown & waiting at the Apple store we were walking back through mall & passed the Microsoft store which was completely empty save for six uniformed employees so I took/posted a picture & commented: "I feel sorry for the Apple geniuses - they actually have to deal w/customers..."
What is the NFL?
When you point out the mistakes of others but make them yourself, is that hypocrisy?
Not really. If you add that only an idiot would make those mistakes it's only hypocrisy if you also claim that you yourself isn't an idiot.
If you point out your own mistakes as often as you point out those of others that only makes you a critic, not a hypocrite.
Think about the super bowl. If MS is already in place they don't have to spend 200 mil for a prime advertisement their product is all over the place already and all season.It's actually cheap from this perspective.
I'm waiting to read the article about Apple sueing Microsoft now because the users can't distinguish their products apart (having round corners, a touch screen, and all that).
They factored all the shitty articles like this into the price. Well worth it for brand recognition.
iPad has reached that point that Kleenex (facial tissue) or Scotch tape (clear adhesive tape). People can say "I want an iPad but not one of those expensive Apple ones" and mean they want a tablet type device. I've never used "clear adhesive tape" in conversation even when I knew the brand wasn't Scotch. I'll still grab a box of Puff's brand Kleenex. Apple is so dominant in tablets that's the way this plays out.
OTOH I suspect the announcers will just correct themselves on air and give Microsoft a good 20 second free commercial to make up for the mistake next week.
Brees was not watching movies on his iPad as he watching them on his Surface.
I saw him struggling with it...I suspect he will go back to a clipboard and paper soon and to heck with the NFL and the MS contract...
A bunch of millionaires that run with an oblong brown ball from one end of the field to the other.
Also known for running dog fights and beating their wives on their off time, but if they are good enough at running with the ball that part is ignored.
Same thing with small action cameras; Everyone refers to them as "GoPro", regardless of what brand it is. I think people just like to simplify their world
I'm already hearing people refer to these things as "Pads". The most important thing is that people understand what a Pad is. The individual device qualities and pricing will differentate themselves.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
Most commenters here and elsewhere assume these references to a competing product were accidental. I believe they were likely intentional. The $400m paid to the NFL did not include any money paid to the broadcast corporations. They're sitting there wondering why they should help the NFL promote something while at the same time having to pay the NFL similarly-sized piles of cash.
I think these carefully-executed comments were an intentional message to Microsoft that their promotional budget is better spent with them on commercials rather than trying to embed them in the content without paying the broadcasters.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Stop hiring idiots to do smart people jobs like comment on things in front of 50 million people! These are the same idiots that call Firefox Foxfire, CCleaner CC Cleaner, and their router their modem, their tower their hard drive, and their iphone and ipod.
Someone called something that wasn't an iPad, an iPad! In other news, one announcer was overheard to say that the trainer was placing a Band-aid on an injured player, when in fact the bandage was a Curad! Shocking!
Proverbs 21:19
It is not just for "product placement", though.
From Microsofts press release on the deal:
The agreement provides Microsoft with the rights to create exclusive interactive experiences through products such as Xbox One and Surface, transforming the way fans will experience the NFL in the years to come. The NFL on Xbox will provide fans with an all-new viewing experience through innovations around Skype and Xbox SmartGlass; an all-new, innovative fantasy football solution allowing fans to view players and live competition side by side on a single TV screen; and a personalized NFL destination featuring information about the players, teams and games fans care about most. Xbox also retains the exclusive rights to extend these interactive experiences to tablets, enabling fans to use Xbox SmartGlass technology to enhance game day.
So MS has also licensed the rights to use the NFL brand, clips etc. (could be 3D instant replay on the xbox, streaming over Skype?).
And exclusive rights for tablets. Could be a driver for Surface uptake.
And also this:
As part of the partnership, Surface by Microsoft branding will appear on NFL sidelines in unique ways, including on the hoods of the official on-field NFL instant replay stations. As part of the relationship, Microsoft will be granted the following designations:
The instant review stations are in view during some of the most tense situations of a game, with a lot of attention. Surely, that is worth money.
400.000.000 is a lot of money. I have no idea if it is too expensive or not. But it does cover more than the right to equip the sidelines with tablets.
Reading slashdot one-liner: (irm http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot).rdf.item | fl title,desc*
If they don't have some breach of contract or revenue clawback due to all this silliness, then Microsoft have only themselves to blame for the lack of positive marketing and publicity.
Wow, that sucks but it's very funny! It would have been funny had the tables been turned as well. If it had been Apple paying the NFL and the NFL commentators calling the devices a Surface, it would be just as funny if not more so.
Since when did Slashdot start reporting on frivolous advertising in sports stories?
I'd be wanting to work at 110% of my ability 24/7, if I was forced to learn/use a device foreign to me I'd be pissed. I don't care if it's a surface, iPad, or chalkboard, let me work in a way that's most productive for me.
Never heard anyone refer to one of those devices as a tablet.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
You see in the pics in the article how the headphones say BOSE in letters you could read literally from across a football field? Where does it say "Surface" on the tablet? That little foam handle? Slap "Surface" on every side of those protective frames. This is the NFL! They don't do subtle.
Even better, go algorithmic. Whenever a Surface tablet appears on the screen, slap a "Surface, The Official Tablet of the NFL" graphic in the corner.
And what, no one thinks to stick an "It's not an iPad, it's a Surface" Post-It somewhere in the damn booths?
.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Granted, my organization may look like a household, but that's just a clever marketing tactic.
We will need three tablets at first to equip our executive staff (myself and my girlfriend) and our lead associate (her daughter), though our affiliates (extended family) may require them in the future.
For this upcoming Super Bowl, the big halftime event is going to be a heavily choreographed number with all of the participating players dancing around, clicking their Surface keyboards onto and off of the devices.
#DeleteChrome
I had a kid in my son's daycare correct me when I referred to the owners device as a tablet.He screamed how it wasn't a tablet it was an iPad. So I screamed back that 'anyone who can't say their 'R's isn't allowed an opinion, so get your Barbera Wawa arse out of my sight!' Ok, so maybe I thought it instead of saying it... but that would have been sweet.
All the phone manufacturers with the exception of Apple spent millions on Super Bowl Ads and at the end of the game all the players took out their iPhone and took pictures of each other with the trophy.
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
If it crashes, it's Apple's fault.
NFL: One of the few industries where smooth talking idiots can rake in millions spewing bullshit.
You didn't forget about religion, politics, finance, auto sales, TV news, real estate, and insurance did you?
The NFL is small potatoes in the making money through BS industry.
..Apple sued NFL for having called "Ipad" a Microsoft Surface tablet.
I'd say this is nowhere near. The generic name is "tablet" and not "iPad".
Maybe to you but that's not the way the real world works. People absolutely do call all tablets "iPads" regardless of actual make. They refer to any MP3 player as an "iPod" whether it actually is or isn't. People don't search, they "Google".
No it isn't accurate but it is what happens. If you correct them they will ignore you. Most people really, seriously DO NOT CARE that it isn't actually accurate. All adhesive bandages are Band-Aids. All nasal tissue is Kleenex. All transparent tape is Scotch tape. All photocopies are Xeroxes. It happens. Get over it.
I covered that dumb glowing apple with duct tape and a piece of cardboard I tore off a box of cookies
This is not bad for Microsoft, it is bad for Apple. If people start calling all tablets "iPads" then Apple may lose their trademark on the term iPad. That article was from 2012, so clearly this isn't a new issue. It already happened to aspirin, elevator, and zipper.
you're not one of us. please don't use that term.
-- the rest of us
A true statement, apparently.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
These are SPORTS ANNOUNCERS! People who hold down the left-hand side of the bell-curve for any "dim" metaphor you can try to apply.
Some cautions here about "dim" metaphors:
It seems that 'iPad' is now a synonym for Tablet-PC, which makes it a common, non-trademarkable word.
So everyone may start to sell her own homemade iPad from now on! yeah!
So Microsoft now has to pay organizations to use the Surface?
Ha Ha!
Unterminated quotations are by-definition terminated at the end of the paragraph. At least they are regularly and consistently in all of the novels that I read.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
These are the same idiots that call [...] their router their modem
Not the best of examples. A lot of cable and DSL modems lately do include a built-in router.
and their iphone and ipod
The media player icon on iPhone is (or at least used to be) labeled "iPod".
> Is this something like a 1 year or 10 year contract?
The first words of the summary are:
Prior to the season, Microsoft and the NFL struck a 5-year, $400 million deal
Football causes brain damage whether you play it or watch it.
Thus, being an ex-player confers 90 plus percentile probability of damage. Adding becoming a TV announcer confers even higher probability of cogntiive flaws. Therefore, there is near certitanty they could care less what the actual OS undrelying the device might be.
Like how every home video game console was a Nintendo
trademark abuse like this makes me want to abuse heroin
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Remember this is over 5 years too. 80M a year to lock in product placement, it actually saves them millions come super bowl time. Microsoft is likely saving money through this deal.
These names have what I call the "first adopter" advantage. When someone wants a tissue they ask for a Kleenex. Just like people ask for a "Xerox copy" of something. To a lot of people, "iPad" is synonymous with tablet.
This is one of the reasons why it's going to be such an uphill battle for Microsoft when it comes to tablets and phones. They were late to the game. Even if the products are good (and I happen to think that the Surface is a really good tablet) it's a tough nut to crack.
I have to think that the MS marketing department really dropped the ball (no pun intended) here though. If you're going to spend $400 million on promoting the Surface you would think they would remind the announcers that it's not an iPad? They should be encouraging them to use the name Surface often. It's not a "tablet", it's not an "iPad", it's a Surface. There should have been a big splashy introduction where everyone gets to see the thing and what it can do. You know, generate a little excitement?
Then again, marketing has never been been Microsoft's strong point.
ESPN's Trent Dilfer joked about how long it took Cardinals assistant head coach Tom Moore to "learn how to use the iPad to scroll through the pictures."
apple should issue a statement that Dilfer misspoke, and how it was actually a surface tablet. and add, that were it an actual easy to use ipad, Tom Moore would likely have not had any problems figuring it out.
The Xerox machine broke and someone wrote "Out of Order" on a piece of paper with a Sharpie and Scotch-taped it to the machine.
I found a picture of a Walkman that had been modified to connect to an iPod, but it turned out to be Photoshopped.
I used my iPad to Google for a way to send a box of Kleenex to the Microsoft executives.
Writing this post has given me a headache, but I can't decide if I want to take Tylenol or Aspirin.
Sounds as though the NFL owes Microsoft a refund along with breach of contract penalties. This ought to be fun to watch how the NFL squirms on this faux pas in light of the Rice scandal. Bitches.
Well, that's what you get for always wanting to BUY everything and everyone...
Greed, makes ya do stupid shit like this....
it would have been called iFarve.
Feel the pain, microfaggots. Fuck you. Die.
Actually I have a Nexus 7.
Microsoft Surface has less than 2% market share. Give up, Android (linux) has the market and there is no point in fighting it.
How does feel when the linux people toss it in your face?
Perhaps this was all intentional... "Use the surface, just make sure they call it an iPad!"
Let me Google that
Hand me some Kleenex
Clorox will take that out
I need to make a Xerox copy
My show's are TiVoed
FedEx it
Velcro will hold that together
Stuck at my desk on my PC
Walking around with my iPad
Which CEO is responsible for this? If it's the new one, maybe more trouble for MS. This really has Ballmer written all over it, but maybe the new guy hasn't got a grip yet, or is too easily swayed by others on the board.
I can't believe they couldn't see that "surface" wasn't going to just roll off the tongue. Also, how much influence could the NFL possibly have on technology choices? It's not like every year's crop of retiring players go on to become CIOs.
... were it for the fact that they still are the foul beast they have always been.
I think that people finding out that MS had to pay $400 million for people to use that crap product just emphasizes how crappy they must be. But the people who should really be angry should be the share holders of MSFT. That is nearly half a billion dollars, and for what? What percentage of other football coaches dumped their laptop or iPad for a surface because of this? Even if it were all of them I doubt that it would end up making up for the $400,000,000.00 spent.
This also emphasizes that the NFL is willing to not let the best man win when someone is willing to pay them off.
All things considered, Blackberry missed out on the action - relaunching their tab with sponsorship of the NFL would have made a sensible tie-in. "The coach is referring to his playbook" (but possibly could have got "Things are getting tough out there, He's going to have to throw away the playbook" - win some, lose some in Marketing I suppose)
as an interesting aside, my mother refers to any tablet (ipad/android or other) as "that playbook"... shows it's all down to first contact.
Oh, wait, there's the Blue Screen of Death, my mistake.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
But it seems to me that if you have to pay someone to use your product, your product probably sucks.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I'm not sure that's true. In my experience, an unterminated quotation is meant to span paragraphs until its termination (although, confusingly, subsequent paragraphs must begin with the quote to remind you that it is still open. Like this:
http://english.stackexchange.c...
“That seems like an odd way to use punctuation,” Tom said. “What harm would there be in using quotation marks at the end of every paragraph?”
“Oh, that’s not all that complicated,” J.R. answered. “If you closed quotes at the end of every paragraph, then you would need to reidentify the speaker with every subsequent paragraph.
“Say a narrative was describing two or three people engaged in a lengthy conversation. If you closed the quotation marks in the previous paragraph, then a reader wouldn’t be able to easily tell if the previous speaker was extending his point, or if someone else in the room had picked up the conversation. By leaving the previous paragraph’s quote unclosed, the reader knows that the previous speaker is still the one talking.”
“Oh, that makes sense. Thanks!”
Koans and fables for the software engineer
A while back there was a big stir when Brian Urlacher was fined $100k for drinking Vitamin Water and wearing Vitamin Water apparel at an official event because Gatorade is the 'official' drink of the NFL. I wonder if this will happen to these announcers.
(Addendum) Apparently, this may be rooted in the archaic practise of:
“Using a
“quotation mark at the
“beginning of every line
“of the quoted text. This
“practise was actually
“pretty commonplace during
“the Georgian and Victo-
“ian Eras.”
Curiously, this is:
> Strongly reminiscent
> of what a quoted
> message looks like
> in emails and newsgroups.
> The cycle is now complete.
Or, you could say that:
are like block
comments */
whereas...
I think that's neat. :-)
Koans and fables for the software engineer
A local radio station always refers to its broadcast center as "The Carter Subaru studio"--because the eponymous sponsor paid them to do so. If the NFL was paid $400 million, all affiliated broadcasters carrying the games should have been trained to say things like "...and there he is using his 'Microsoft Surface' tablet, the official tablet of the NFL...". I hear stuff like this all the time in broadcasting. Yes, it would sound awkward, but it's a paid advertisement. Then again, I have no idea what the verbiage of the contract actually requires of the NFL. Maybe Microsoft has a case to get its money back. Or maybe Microsoft should write a better contract next time.
Preferably from the orbit.
It's the only way to be sure.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I bet they could've bought the announcers to say they are Surfaces for less money.
whe you have to pay people to plug your product over a superior one...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
I'd say their biggest blunder was signing the contract with Microsoft to use the Surface.
iPad, has become a generic term, similar to Xerox = copy machines Q-Tip = cotton swabs Charmin = toilet paper Coke = soda pop
If I were apple I would be more concerned about protecting brand name so I-pad doesn't become the new 'band-aid' or 'kleenex' you lose a lot when you lose your trademark to a brand when it becomes so common as to become public domain. I think public domain is the word for things like this. Xerox had a problem with it when people would 'xerox' a document independent of what brand of copy machine but seems to not be the case now. When you search for anything you 'google' it. lots of examples and its a fine line between market. generic word for petroleum jelly is just 'vasoline' dominance and losing your brand name rights. The issue is when a generic can start using your trademark as its product description. I'm not sure how many products had gone this far.
I recently ran into a brand contract deal at a ridiculously low level, at the concession stand for our junior high. Apparently, we can't sell Gatorade because the district has a contract with Coca-Cola. We have to sell Powerade. Honestly, I don't know how one is supposed to keep track of all of the products sold or owned by the Coca-Cola franchise so you can make sure you don't accidentally sell a competing product. It is not like they actually are supplying the Powerade either. We have to buy it at retail prices from stores in the area. I figure if they are not selling it to you wholesale, they shouldn't be able to dictate what you can sell. But I suppose a legal contract is a legal contract, even if there is no benefit for one side of that contract. Technically, I guess maybe there is a benefit in that somewhere there is an administrator driving a new car furnished by the Coca-Cola company.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Mind... Blown...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
This seems to be how americans name things. They take the first successful product and just use THAT name from there on.
Although nothing to do with the Surface, made I'd care if the NFL wasn't so pompous as to think the winner of a Super Bowl is a "world champion."
* Full disclosure: I'm from Seattle and thrilled they won, but World Champions, no.. just no.
Flag on the play.
Anonymous Coward 1 minute ago
Flag on the play.
Multiple mis-identification of a sponsors product.
Defense.
5 Yard Penalty.
Automatic FIRST down.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
funny
Jesus this is infuriating, both in terms of bad marketing and revolting business practices.
For that amount of money they could have actually accomplished some positive AND created a deep user base by distributing the tablets to school systems.
If "iPad" does indeed become a generic term for "tablet," Apple would lose rights to its trademark in the 'iPad" name, logo, and perhaps even lose some of the scope of its "i" prefix protection. Apple should be right in there urging broadcasters to be sure not to use its registered "iPad" mark to describe tablets generically. This is funny to me primarily because ignorance of the NFL members is unwittingly advancing the legal rights of a third party by violating what are likely terms of its contract with that third party.