IBM's goofy advert
IBM's doing a series of corny adverts on the telly at the moment. One of them struck me as being particularly goofy. All the adverts run along the central theme of people calling IBM's helpdesk for some assistance or the other. I hope for their own sakes that the concept is symbolic rather than literal, otherwise the vestiges of respect I have for IBM will just get flushed down the toilet (which by the way, is precisely what they should do with this ad campaign and their ad agency).
So on to the advert - there's a big giant white room with a man sitting behind a desk (presumably the helpdesk, you surmise, until a little girl get's it clarified for you - whew... you were right after all!!). So the scene is - little Chinese girl approaching man, asking "Is this the help desk?", the man replying "Yes". The girl proceeds to tell the man how he can help her find out more about dinosaurs, why the sky is blue, etc... you know, all the usual questions a precocious kid would ask.
The man asks "But don't you learn that at school?". Little girl apparently lives in a small village smack bang in the bustling centre of nowhere, where the only thing bustling are the flies. She then looks around at a bunch of kids sitting off in the corner of the white room behind her (on desks, the type you'd find in a school), and asks the man whether she can join them. Man says - of course - they're virtual, available 24/7. Now the message - IBM helps millions of kids learn lots of cool and essential stuff through their e-learning centres.
Right... what's wrong with this pretty little rustic fantasy of a story?
For one thing - little girl lives so far up the arse of nowhere that she can't even go to school. Of course, she'll naturally have easy and inexpensive access to the internet, correct?
Jesus! Do these guys even think about what they show in adverts? Sad days, IBM - I'd fire your ad agency first, then the clowns who approved this whole campaign. Then I'd stop making and airing adverts for 3-4 years (but that's just cuz I'm totally pissed off with IBM adverts).
So on to the advert - there's a big giant white room with a man sitting behind a desk (presumably the helpdesk, you surmise, until a little girl get's it clarified for you - whew... you were right after all!!). So the scene is - little Chinese girl approaching man, asking "Is this the help desk?", the man replying "Yes". The girl proceeds to tell the man how he can help her find out more about dinosaurs, why the sky is blue, etc... you know, all the usual questions a precocious kid would ask.
The man asks "But don't you learn that at school?". Little girl apparently lives in a small village smack bang in the bustling centre of nowhere, where the only thing bustling are the flies. She then looks around at a bunch of kids sitting off in the corner of the white room behind her (on desks, the type you'd find in a school), and asks the man whether she can join them. Man says - of course - they're virtual, available 24/7. Now the message - IBM helps millions of kids learn lots of cool and essential stuff through their e-learning centres.
Right... what's wrong with this pretty little rustic fantasy of a story?
For one thing - little girl lives so far up the arse of nowhere that she can't even go to school. Of course, she'll naturally have easy and inexpensive access to the internet, correct?
Jesus! Do these guys even think about what they show in adverts? Sad days, IBM - I'd fire your ad agency first, then the clowns who approved this whole campaign. Then I'd stop making and airing adverts for 3-4 years (but that's just cuz I'm totally pissed off with IBM adverts).
posted by the grim sleeper at 8:11 PM
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