[comp.sys.amiga] CBM ads

AAW151%URIACC.BITNET@brownvm.brown.edu (Andy Patrizio) (09/28/90)

Some people have brought up the subject of CBM ads, in response to questions ab
out Amiga competitiveness. I guess I'll throw my 2 cents in...

The Amiga 500 ads on TV got the name out all over the place. Fellow computer ow
ners who had Macs, IBM clones (no one buys a Big Blue any more, since it costs
Big Bux) and Apples even said so.

But the ads, like raising the house, the bogus music award, and all the celebri
ties showing up at the kid's house, served to create (or reenforce) the notion
that this is a game machine. A toy. How cute, he can lift a house. What else ca
n it do? Wash his father's car?

It lacked seriousness. Remember those lame Apple ads, where a guy designs a fly
ing car? It looked like it was drawn with crayons. The animation was lame, and
the chopper blades sounded like overdubs to me.

Meanwhile, the opening sequence of "Blood Money" make a friend of mine who owns
 a NeXT drool. Here we have a machine that can give SPARCstations a run for the
ir overpriced money, and instead we see levitating houses.

What should have been done is show how Epcot and NASA and the people behind "Ro
bocop II" used the Amiga. All three organizations do, and their endorsement wou
ld pack a much greater punch than "Stevie."

(just a side note. One of the Mac magazines had an article on Robocop II, sayin
g that the robot used a "Mac-like" interface that was clearly an Amiga screen.
It looked like the menu bar for Ultra Cad or something like that, in interlace
mode. What a joke)

When I worked at Amazing Computing this summer, I found out that everyone invol
ved in the ad campaign was pink-slipped. In retrospect, I can understand why.


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* Andy Patrizio                          Box 705 Ellery Hall                  *
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