Commentary
IBM's Server Piñata: Where's My Stick?
IBM's marketing campaigns have come a long way since the '80s. Anyone here get a teary-eyed nostalgic feeling thinking about the old Charlie Chaplin series? No? Me neither.IBM's marketing campaigns have come a long way since the '80s. Anyone here get a teary-eyed nostalgic feeling thinking about the old Charlie Chaplin series? No? Me neither.Fast forward to the frustrations of 2007. Big Blue's latest stunt is a series of homemade videos featuring a small cluster of IT guys seeking revenge on back-end servers that failed them in some way.
Middle of the desert. A hog-tied white box. Witty dialogue ensues.
More Hardware Insights
White Papers
- Mobile BI: Actionable Intelligence for the Agile Enterprise
- New Visual and Wizard-Driven Paradigms for Exploring Data and Developing Analytic Workflows
Reports
More >>Webcasts
- Server Virtualization Gets Relief From Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments
- Maximize ROI with Database Consolidation onto Private Clouds
"Hey, man. Remember that server crash that happened over Christmas?" "Yea..." "That's the one where you had to come in..." "Oh, is that the ONE?"
Cut to a shot where the server is slung over a tree branch and mercilessly smacked till it breaks open, revealing... candy.
Gee, Einstein, if your server had candy inside of it, no wonder it died on you.
IBM created four snippets for the series. And if you haven't guessed, IBM is trying to sell its System i servers. Other clips include rigging up a server with skateboard wheels and riding it like a luge down a hill. A third involves Diet Coke and Mentos with pretty lame results. Also, don't worry if you miss the guy dressed up like King Kong and tipping over servers made to look like downtown. It's passable.
Gratuitous violence and servers, though -- I like that. That's something I think everyone can relate to even if they have IBM hardware and software.
At least it is a bit more realistic than that eerie Linux commercial with the towheaded kid and Mohammed Ali.
Of course, my favorite IBM marketing stunt was its Peace, Love, Linux campaign. The company hired kids and street taggers to spray paint Tux and the two other icons on some city sidewalks. A feat, I might add, that cost them more money to clean up than to launch.
Related Reading
| To upload an avatar photo, first complete your Disqus profile. | View the list of supported HTML tags you can use to style comments. | Please read our commenting policy. | |
|
|
T-Shirt Giveaway: Each week we're selecting one great comment from our readers. The author of the comment will receive an InformaitonWeek Community t-shirt. So get posting! |
Subscribe to RSSResource Links
This Week's Issue
Technology Whitepapers
- Creating the Enterprise-Class Tablet Environment - by Yankee Group
- How To Regain IT Control In An Increasingly Mobile World - by BlackBerry
- The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet's Good Bones - by BlackBerry
- Red Alert: Why Tablet Security Matters - by BlackBerry
- New Visual and Wizard-Driven Paradigms for Exploring Data and Developing Analytic Workflows
Featured Broadcast
IDC research shows that the average deployment cost is $615 per PC, and costs exceeding $700 are not uncommon. Find out how to reduce IT costs by up to 55%.
Learn More












